The first episode of Tales of Monkey Island is Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, a series of point-and-click adventure games based on the Monkey Island franchise that began with The Secret of Monkey Island (1990) and ended with Escape from Monkey Island (2000). The intellectual property was licensed after nine years by adventure creator Telltale, Inc., where many of the original LucasArts adventure developers had now migrated.
After the events of Escape from Monkey Island, protagonist Guybrush Threepwood attempts to rescue his fiancée Elaine Marley from the hands of zombie pirate LeChuck. Guybrush, as clumsily as ever, manages to muck up the voodoo potion that was supposed to defeat LeChuck, losing Elaine and his ship. The main goal is to find Elaine and deal with the terrible pirate again, which will be accomplished through a series of difficulties and problems preventing him from leaving the island. The first chapter is set on a new island named Flotsam Island, and it has an entirely new cast of characters and some old ones. Many of the key characters’ voice actors have already appeared in previous titles in the series.
Unlike Escape from Monkey Island, the game is entirely in 3D and uses the Telltale engine. Guybrush can be manipulated using the keyboard or the mouse (by choosing the character and dragging the pointer to the desired location). All actions are performed with a single mouse pointer, and important things are kept in an inventory to be studied. Integrating the classic adventure mechanism, in which items in the list can be combined to produce new objects or interact with one other, is entirely novel for a Telltale game.
The game contains many non-essential references to previous games, as well as classic Monkey Island elements such as slapstick-based humorous conversations and events, play on words, witty retorts and contemporary cultural references, conversation trees, an unconventional approach to puzzle solutions, and the anti-heroic main character. The game’s puzzles include conversation-based triggers, item combination puzzles, and more complex activities that require maps and the use of the surroundings. It is impossible to die in the game, and the player can control the number of suggestions Guybrush casually mentions as the game progresses. However, complete solutions are never supplied.
Unlike previous Telltale episodic adventure series, individual episodes could not be purchased separately at first. Users were compelled to pay for the five episodes because they are released monthly, presumably due to the bigger story arc. Later, the decision was reversed, and attacks were made available individually.
