Tales of Monkey Island

Tales of Monkey Island continues the adventures of Guybrush Threepwood from the previous four LucasArts entries and again builds on classic point-and-click controls: the player moves through locations, collects items into an inventory, combines them, and resolves situations through dialogue full of the witty verbal sparring the series is known for. The story picks up after the end of Escape from Monkey Island and deals with a new curse that afflicts Guybrush after his duel with LeChuck, as well as its impact on his relationship with Elaine Marley, which the story resolves across all five episodes. Guybrush was once again voiced by Dominic Armato, the character's voice since the very first entry in the series.

Tales of Monkey Island from 2009 was the first new game in the series in nine years and the first not developed by LucasArts but by Telltale Games - at the time known mainly for its own Sam & Max sequel. Telltale also moved the series into an episodic format: instead of a single self-contained game, five episodes were released one after another over several months, each a standalone chapter with its own opening and resolution, but sharing a single story arc running through the whole season, which could be bought either episode by episode or as a full prepaid bundle. The graphics abandoned the older entries' drawn 2D style in favor of 3D characters and environments, though the controls stayed true to the series' classic style. It was also one of the first attempts to bring an old adventure game brand into the form in which episodic series from other studios still work today, and a test of whether the episodic model even suits adventure games at all - Telltale went on to use it for a number of other licenses after the success of Tales of Monkey Island.

Why play it: Tales of Monkey Island is for series fans who want to see how Guybrush's story fared in episodic format, and for adventure game players curious how Telltale approached a classic acquired brand shortly after its founding.