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European Nintendo downloads: Alex Kidd in Shinobi World, Monkey Island
The sole Virtual Console release this week is a reminder of a very odd time: when Sega thought Alex Kidd was a viable character. The company took an in-progress Shinobi parody game called Shinobi Kid, and then added the Alex Kidd character. Someone at Sega was under the impression that a game would sell better with Alex Kidd in it. Also available: more Monkey Island, an expansion of one of Rubik's World's games, and Pallurikio, a cute platformer with a slingshot mechanic. And on DSiWare, it's ... a stripped-down version of Hell's Kitchen! Pallurikio (WiiWare, 1 player, 1,000 Wii Points) Rubik's Puzzle Galaxy: RUSH (WiiWare, 1-2 players, 600 Wii Points) Tales of Monkey Island: Chapter 4 (WiiWare, 1 player, 1,000 Wii Points) Alex Kidd in Shinobi World (Sega Master System, 1 player, 500 Wii Points) PictureBook Games: The Royal Bluff (DSiWare, 1-4 players, 500 DSi Points) Hell's Kitchen Vs. (DSiWare, 1-2 players, 800 DSi Points)
NintendoWare Weekly: Tales of Monkey Island, Bookworm, The Combatribes
If you thought last week's NintendoWare Weekly update was huge, well ... you'll probably think the same thing about this week's update! That's mostly because Nintendo provides quite the overweight offering this time, with a total of ten new titles available for your post-Thanksgiving download. Loosen that belt and make some room for more by heading past the break for the full list of this week's releases.
Tales of Monkey Island's Pirate God ascends December 8
Tales of Monkey Island wraps up on December 8 with the PC release of its fifth episode, Rise of the Pirate God. Well, this season wraps up then, anyway. Something tells us that there might be more Monkey Island on the way. If you purchased the full season of Tales, then you will, of course, already be getting this. But for those of you not interested in buying the whole season at once, Telltale is now selling individual episodes on its website -- a service previously limited to Amazon. This "just buy each game" content delivery system is really taking off! %Gallery-64680%
Attend Tales of Monkey Island's Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood on Oct. 30
Tales of Monkey Island's fourth chapter will be available for download on this Friday, October 30. The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood features Guybrush stuck on Flotsam Island with a bunch of poxed pirates (including a greenish, poxed Elaine). Will he be tried and executed? Our guess is yes. The middle of this episodic game series seems like the right time to kill off the beloved protagonist of a long-running franchise. Why not? In addition to a probably-dead Guybrush, Trial marks the return of Stan, the fast-talking salesman from the original games! Ever the classy businessman, Stan appears to be selling souvenirs at Guybrush's trial. %Gallery-76680%
Telltale discusses XBLA wait times, possibility of XBLA Monkey Island
In an interview with Shacknews, Telltale Games CEO Dan Connors said long wait times between episodic content releases on XBLA are "over." When asked why the XBLA follow-up to the first Wallace & Gromit episode has taken over five months, Connors said Microsoft's second-annual Summer of Arcade promotion had kept the second episode off the virtual store shelves, allowing Telltale to develop new episodes of the series to keep release dates between episodes close. "I think our goal, going forward, is to launch on as many platforms as we can simultaneously," Connors said. With two episodic franchises under its belt on Microsoft's downloadable service, Connors said he "would love" to see Tales of Monkey Island -- its best selling episodic franchise based on the classic adventure series -- on Microsoft's downloadable platform. "I know they had great success with Monkey Island: Special Edition. We think there's definitely an audience there and we definitely want to get the game to them." Thankfully we're able to hold our breath just as long as Guybrush Threepwood, so the wait for a possible release shouldn't be too painful.
NintendoWare Weekly: Zombies Axed My PictureBook
Of course Nintendo of America didn't release Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth today. That would have been far too obvious. However, rather than disappointing us with this week's selections, Nintendo actually surprised us with a very welcome, seasonally appropriate Virtual Console classic! Knock on the post break and see what kind of downloadable candy Nintendo is shoving into our pillowcases. [Image credit]
Oh, the huge manatee! Monkey Island Episode 3 on WiiWare this Monday
Telltale just announced that the third chapter of Tales of Monkey Island, called Lair of the Leviathan, will arrive on WiiWare this Monday, October 26. Given the success that the series has seen so far, it's sure to attract interest despite taking place in "the guts of a giant sea manatee". And not, we suppose, inside the rare land manatee.Leviathan's PC version was released on September 29, giving it roughly a month of lead time over the WiiWare release. That means if you know any avid PC adventure gamers, you should stay away from them or risk being totally spoiled. They'll understand.
Telltale hoping to push content to new consoles, handhelds & Macs
With more avenues now open between consumers and game creators than ever before, third-party companies like Telltale Games can sell their wares on every platform -- as long as their software runs on it. That's the tricky part, but Telltale CEO and co-founder Dan Connors has told Gamesindustry.biz that his team is already looking to take advantage of the "huge potential" out there."I definitely think there's huge potential there, and right now we're working on getting our content over to some more channels, over to new consoles and the Mac," Connors said. With any luck, PlayStation 3 will be caught in Telltale's wider net -- it's the only current home console that has yet to be visited by a talking dog, a hyper-kinetic rabbity thing ... or even a dog that doesn't talk but is still weirdly expressive.Telltale's ambitions go further still, added Connors. "And after that's done, we're going to be looking at handhelds. I think we have to consider the PSP Go for sure."
European Nintendo Downloads: You, Guybrush, and The Darklord
This week's content for European Nintendo fans is quite the bevy of scrumptious content. There's a new chapter in the Tales of Monkey Island franchise to laugh through, as well as some new stuff for your little ne'er-do-well in My Life as a Darklord. If WiiWare isn't your thing, you could always shoot everything in sight in some R-Type on the Virtual Console. See? Totally a bevy. You, Me, and the Cubes (WiiWare, 1 -2 players, 1,000 Wii Points) Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 2: The Siege of Spinner Cay (WiiWare, 1 player, 1,000 Wii Points) Sexy Poker (WiiWare, 1 player, 500 Wii Points) Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord - Palom ally add-on (WiiWare, 1 player, 200 Wii Points) Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord - Living Room Set add-on (WiiWare, 1 player, 400 Wii Points) R-Type (Sega Master System, 1 - 2 players, 500 Wii Points) Yummy Yummy Cooking Jam (DSiWare, 500 DSi Points)
Celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day with free and cheap Monkey Island games
Telltale Games and LucasArts are observing the September 19 not-quite-holiday Talk Like a Pirate Day in fine form. What do pirates talk about? All the games they got without paying, of course! On that great day, you'll be able to unlock the demo of the first episode of Tales of Monkey Island by gathering a code from the company's website. You'll also be able to get the full season for five bucks off. You can grab that demo now straight from Big Download so you're good and ready. LucasArts is also dropping the price of the Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition on Steam and Direct2Drive to $5, as well as cutting down the iPhone version's price to $4. That offer is available right now through September 21. With savings like that, you'll be able to afford your own parrot! [Via Big Download]
Tales of Monkey Island's third chapter sets sail Sept. 29
If you've been breathlessly waiting for the return of Guybrush Threepwood and crew, you'll finally be able to inhale again on Sept. 29, when the third chapter of Tales of Monkey Island, "Lair of the Leviathan," will appear on PC. However, that's still 12 days away, so you should probably just just go ahead and start breathing, for safety's sake. We can't tell you what happens in it, but If you'd like some crudely animated speculation on what might happen, we've got you covered. Unnervingly, that clip comes from Telltale who we'd hope actually knows what happens. It's all so meta!
CrossOver Games 8.0 released
Codeweavers tells us that they've released version 8 of their Crossover Games software -- I tried it out a while ago, and found that while it was a pretty good way to play their recommended games, once you went off the reservation, things got a little hairy. Then again, that was a long time ago, and since then, they've updated the recommended games list quite a bit -- they're now saying that version 8 will allow you to play most of the Steam games, including the excellent Left 4 Dead, and the new Tales of Monkey Island episodic games. Additionally (and perhaps we're burying the lead a little bit here), this version is completely compatible with Snow Leopard. So while you still may be banging your head against compatibility for some apps (I'm actually sort of glad now that SL was sold out at Best Buy when I went by to pick it up -- think I might just wait until the compatibility issues get ironed out), Crossover Games should work just fine. And it of course works on both Mac and Linux, so if you have a spare 'nix box sitting around and want some Windows games running on it, there you go. Existing customers with a support entitlement can upgrade right away, the app can be bought for $40, or there's a free trial to try out as well if you'd rather do that.
NintendoWare Weekly: Tales of Monkey Island, Phantasy Star
Welcome to Monday, a dreadful day for most, but a means for celebration for Nintendo loyalists. This week, we've got the second episode of Tales of Monkey Island and Phantasy Star on the Sega Master System, among other additions to the Wii's downloadable lineup.%Gallery-64680%
WiiWare Monkey Island Ep. 2 on sail Monday, Aug. 31
Our last post about a Tales of Monkey Island episode launching on WiiWare was written entirely in pirate speak. This one won't be. Nope, we'll just tell you that the second episode in Telltale's ongoing series, "The Siege of Spinner Cay," will be available on WiiWare this coming Monday, August 31, for 1000 Wii Points ($10). See, that wasn't so harrrrrrd. (Darnit!)
Tales of Monkey Island available at Amazon in one-tale increments
Telltale Games is selling the entire season of Tales of Monkey Island -- buy it now and get each chapter as it's released. But what if you're interested in only one Tale of Monkey Island? And you don't want to play it on Wii? The company announced today that individual episodes of the adventure game revival are available for purchase from Amazon.com's Game Downloads shop, for $8.95 each. The availability of the games on Amazon will help expose them to a wider audience, and will also serve to offer a low-risk trial to potential adventure game fans who will almost immediately wish they'd just purchased the whole season. %Gallery-64680%
Video: Telltale teases Tales of Monkey Island's second episode
One of the best things about being a pirate must be seeing all of the awesome cave structures littering the Caribbean. There are caves shaped like skulls, caves hiding trunks of gold doubloons and, in the case of Tales of Monkey Island's second episode Siege of Spinner Cal, caves for chatting with your special someone. It's a heck of a lot more romantic than those seedy motels you often frequent. Oh yes, we're watching you.
Tales of Monkey Island continues on August 20
Telltale has announced that the next chapter of Tales of Monkey Island, Siege of Spinner Cay, will be out on PC on August 20. The developer wasn't as precise with the details of the WiiWare release, but, according to the announcement, it will be "timed close to the PC release." This is, perhaps, what we like best about Telltale's episodic approach -- it gives us the satisfaction of buying a new adventure game every month or so, even though we're actually only buying another part of the same adventure game. After an eight-year wait for a new Monkey Island, we're enjoying the novelty of purchasing new games in the series almost as much as we're enjoying playing them. Should you be stuck in the first game, and in need of some help to get you ready for the second, Telltale posted a walkthrough for Launch of the Screaming Narwhal. %Gallery-64680%
VC/WiiWare Friday: At least there's Monkey Island
Today's Wii Shop releases in Europe worry us a bit. After two weeks of nothing on the Virtual Console in North America, the first week in Europe post-Hanabi Festival offers ... also nothing. No Virtual Console games. This is a bit troubling, on account of the fact that we like Virtual Console games.We can only distract ourselves from our increasing panic with a decent-looking WiiWare selection -- three games, one of which is the first Tales of Monkey Island. And on DSiWare, Guitar Rock Tour, from the shockingly wealthy Gameloft. Driift Mania (WiiWare, 1-8 players, 800 Wii Points) Tales of Monkey Island: Chapter 1: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal (WiiWare, 1 player, 1,000 Wii Points) The Three Musketeers: One for All! (WiiWare, 1-3 players, 700 Wii Points) Guitar Rock Tour (DSiWare, 1-4 players, 500 DSi Points) %Gallery-64680%
Tales of Monkey Island is Telltale's 'strongest performing' title
Steam sales charts suggested that Telltale Games' relaunch of the Monkey Island franchise, Tales of Monkey Island, was doing well. Telltale's Dan Connors gave Videogamer an idea of just how well: "It was a great launch for us," he said. "We're really happy with it. I think it even exceeded our expectations." Connors didn't offer specific numbers, but he said that Tales of Monkey Island outperformed Telltale's other launches. "I would definitely say it's our strongest performing franchise to date," he said. "We're pretty excited. It was number one on Steam for a few days. It did really well. It's been our best performing title from our side as well." With the WiiWare version having launched just this Monday (and not having been mentioned by Connors), it's unlikely that it factors into Telltale's rejoicing. We're eager to find out how the console version's launch compares. %Gallery-64680%
NintendoWare Weekly: Monkeys, Musketeers and more Sudoku
Just as expected, today marks the release of the first episode of Tales of Monkey Island on WiiWare. If comical puzzles aren't your thing, there're also puzzles of the humorless variety in a bit of Sudoku for the DSi. Or, if you're looking for some swordplay -- without the insults -- there's a new WiiWare game featuring The Three Musketeers. Oh, and it would appear Nintendo has run out of steam on the Virtual Console, as this week marks the second in a row where there has been no new Virtual Console game. Hey, Nintendo, looking for an idea of what to release next? How about that game starring the boy from Onett?%Gallery-64680%
