Why yes, that is a really long title for a game.  But, you wouldn’t expect anything different from a Monkey Island game would you? No, I didn’t think so.

Launch of the Screaming Narwhal is the first of five new episodic adventures in the Monkey Island series released by TellTale Games. With the first one, Launch of the Screaming Narwhal we once again meet up with Guybrush Threepwood and figure out exactly what sort of trouble he’s gotten himself into this time.  There’s some familiar faces, Elaine Marley, Guybrush’s wife of some years now, Voodoo Lady, and of course, LeChuck, voodoo undead evil pirate.  One of the nice things about this installment is that many of the same names that’ve been attatched to Monkey Island games over the years at Lucas Arts are the same ones now involved at TellTale.  So the music, the voices, and the story all have the same sound and feel as the previous games.

If you’re a fan of the Monkey Island game, you may already know what I’m going to say.  It’s a point-and-click adventure game, where you play Guybrush Threepwood, Mighty Pirate.  The game is funny, make that punny, as it’s been since it’s inception.  Due to the episodic nature, you won’t get much story in Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, but it’s a great set-up that falls inline with Guybrush’s other stories.  If you aren’t a fan, or haven’t played many Monkey Island games before, this is definitely a good one to get started with.  There isn’t going to be a long introduction period to Guybrush’s life, but you’ll pick some history and information as you go to make the story entertaining.  And point-and-click styled games, make for good brain teaser games, but a pretty relaxed and easy play style.  If you get stuck, you can wander around and explore, listening to Guybrush’s commentary, until you’re ready to continue and figure out the next part of the puzzle.

The goal in this episode, once the game gets going is for Guybrush to find his way off Flotsam Island, where he’s washed up on shore after losing Elaine, and his ship.  There’s a small cast of goofy characters on Flotsam that are helpful at times and anchors for different story pieces for Guybrush to puzzle out.  One of the nice additions to this game over the other TellTale games is addition of mouse-controlled movement for Guybrush.  Instead of the traditional W, S, A, D movement (which you can still use), holding both mouse buttons (for us PC people) will give you a movement whereby you can control Guybrush’s direction.

This game is short, maybe that’s because I’m used to the point-and-click adventure game now after spending time with Wallace & Gromit and Sam & Max, so the puzzles were easy, or maybe that’s because it only took me about three hours to finish the game.  Or maybe, I just got so wrapped up in the tale, that it seemed that short.  Whatever the reason, the episode is going to go quickly.  Many times, I kept thinking that I wasn’t sure how long it was going to be until the next part of the story kicked in, and then I remembered that due to the games episodic release, I wasn’t actually going to get anywhere like I thought I was in this game.  Put I can’t fault them for that, when that’s the whole point.

Launch of the Screaming Narwhal was released on PC last week (July, 7th).  But you can also find it this week on Xbox Live Arcade, and whatever way you find it, it’ll be worth checking out.