The International House of Mojo

"MI2:SE will feature voice acting both in the high-resolution updated-graphics mode and in the low-res, original-graphics mode."

Ok, I like it now.

Wait, where anywhere (besides Kotaku) does it say the game is coming to the Mac? LucasArts' press release says this:

"Coming this summer for Xbox LIVE® Arcade for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system on the PlayStation®Network, iPhone, iPod Touch and Windows PC"

It seems Kotaku has been misinformed here or LucasArts isn't telling us something.

Unless I completely misunderstand Twitter, they announced it on their Twitter feed.

Ah, you're right. Strange that it doesn't say that in the press release...

Only the first SE is coming to Mac... MI2 not (yet?).

Never had a Mac, never will, don't care.

Irreverent, negative comment that's too pointless to display.

Similarly crass agreement.

By the way, Mad Marty looks like Robin Williams.

Classic "Mrs. Doubtfire" Robin Williams or new crappy "RV" Robin Williams?

More like Jack at his graduation.

Duh, on the site, in the "Friends" tab, they're referencing Ron's blog and Tim Schafer's DoubleFine company... That's unusually (and welcome) "friendly" <:)

Tim and Ron were on hand for the SE announcemnet today, and it would appear they both recorded a 'director's commentary' track for the game.

I know, right!

Why not Grossman as well?

Wow.

I confess the commentary is the feature that tickle me most of all this thing! If I decide to buy, it would be chiefly for that reason :)

Yeah, this is looking like they've learned some lessons after SOMI:SE - I'm more excited than I thought I would be. I bought the first SE, and now I will buy this one on PSN, because perhaps I am a fool.

Will be nice when some videos appear on the site :-)

This looks like it actually might be okay. As long as I can disable voice acting in classic mode, everything will be just swimming. A bit puzzled about how they're going to do the Beer on the Wall, bit, but go figure.

But if they change the ending, there will be hell to pay. >: ( You have been warned.

Also, audio commentary by Tim and Ron? YESSS.

I hadn't considered the possibility that they might change the ending. :<

I wonder if they'd actually consider that a "treat" for the "fans"...

Ok I'm gonna try a different angle here, I know everyone is excited and I am too because the art looks far, far better than in MI1:SE and the fact that you can have the voice acting on top of the old graphics ROCKS! But I was also excited about the first SE and that ended up in the bin. We'll see. I can say right now though, I can't believe you guys like this cover art! I hate it, the original cover perfectly describes my idea of Monkey Island 2. This new one is a cartoon joke. The original is absolutely stunningly beautiful, perhaps my favourite box art of all time. Why don't they just keep it the same? It's not the like original graphics look anything like the original cover, so just leave it alone right? There's no way around it, the old cover is a million times classier, scarier and prettier.

They just managed to remove everything awesome about it. Weird.

Yeah, you really can't improve on the Purcell original... but I think for branding reasons they want to make this look a completely new thing (which it is).

I have the MI2 cover framed on the wall. It looks great, people ask about it. My girlfriend just said, "If you replace that old cover on the wall with the new one, people will think you're a grown man obsessed with children's cartoons".

This pretty much exactly sums up my issues with the modern treatment of these games, as well as Telltale's take on monkey island to a certain degree, as good as the games are.

I agree, though I'd say Telltale did the best they could considering the aesthetic and narrative damage done by CMI and EMI.

At least they gave Guybrush his beard and jacket, something Bill Tiller was too daft to do two games ago. I suppose he was too busy making a dark voodoo piratescape into a silly Disney cartoon to care about making the protagonist look right...

Oh for the love of -- listen. It's a stylistic choice. Quite frankly, I love the CMI Guybrush. And I'm pretty sure Tiller isn't "daft", that Larry Ahern (who designed him) isn't "daft", and it's nice to change Guybrush up a little. Also I don't get all this "Disney shit" moaning. People take the second game too seriously. LeChuck isn't that serious, and most people don't realize the whole scene with Chucky is a parody of Return of the Jedi. Just...gah. I get so frustrated with the hardcore LCR fans sometimes.

I'm not a very big Bill Tiller fan myself, but I agree that it's silly to act like CMI made light of an extremely dark and scary environment. There are spooky elements in MI2, surely, but it seems like those people are disregarding the fact that the game is basically a goofy comedy at its heart.

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm listening to the updated Woodtick music and it sounds AMAZING! Also, fuck me, the art looks drop dead gorgeous.

BTW, you can download the music from the website right here:

http://www.lucasarts.com/games/monkeyisland2/audio/website_woodtick.mp3

It's short, it's full of ambient sound, but I love it.

Sorry for acting stupid but how can you download the music? Without a hyperlink, it just opens automatically in a media player...

Yeah, it's awkward when it does that. I'll create a link for it here for you to right click and save as:

http://www.lucasarts.com/games/monkeyisland2/audio/website_woodtick.mp3

You're a star! :D

As a side, do the comment threads support and all that jazz?

It appears so!

Sorted :o)

Awesome. Aha, it doesn't have the snoring! Awesome awesome awesome.

Mi2 is probably my favourite game soundtrack of all time, so... I really hope there is a proper soundtrack CD release this time. I will definitely buy it even if I also end up ripping the music.

They probably meant new puzzles, enemies and new hair compared to the first Monkey Island special edition game. Not new puzzles that weren't originaly in Mi2.

That makes sense!

This looks so much better than the first SE!

Wow, this is excellent! It's extremely hard for people to claim that the guys doing the special editions aren't putting their heart into it. I'm going to have endless amounts of fun with this. That developer commentary sounds heavenly, and I'll try to keep an open mind about those new puzzles.

I wonder if I should rebuy Secret on Telltale's site. It's stupid, but I like to have all my adventure goodness in one place.

The "New Puzzles", like "the New Enemies and New Hair" was almost certainly a joke.

I'm not sure... the original was pretty incomplete towards the end of the game.

If there was additional / restored / finished content in the SE that was cut from the original due to time / budget constraints, it would definitely have been mentioned in the press release.

"Normal" difficulty?

No, I'm the same way. I'm like a magpie sometimes. I think I'll also re-buy SMI:SE on PS3, just because I'd like to see how it controls on console. I'm one weird puppy sometimes.

Same here... already got it for the PC, but I think I'll re-buy it for the PS3 as well.

glad they fixed the issues the fans had with the first SE! This looks so excellent! :) Can't wait!

OH MY GOD!

I just got up, and the last thing I posted last night was that I'd like to read some SE-news in the morning... I do... I don't believe it... and it looks... so... perfect... a dream come true... and the music... and the LeChuck walking along on the website... scary... fluid... the backgrounds...

Once this is out... I can die happily.

I'd never thought I'd tear up over a game... I just did... while watching the screens...

You and me both. You and me both.

Even I, nitpicker, can ignore the somewhat feminine Guybrush and angry Elaine and still look forward to this game - very, very much.

I don't think he's feminine. Just a little more... I dunno... boy-ish.

And...bright. haha he looks a bit like Craig Derrick, actually.

He looks DAMN SEXY and you know it.

He looks a little too much like an anime character for my tastes, but I said that about Tales Guybrush, you said he was sexy and that ended-up being my favorite one. I can only hope.

To clarify: I said Tales Guybrush looked a little too non-Guybrush for me, but I was proven wrong.

Extra features!!! I'm so happy I might die. But I should probably wait until the game comes out first.

I just told a dude yesterday that I wouldn't be buying this, but some of these details make the package pretty tantalizing. Full voice in the classic graphics mode, "Developer Commentary" (hopefully with Ron, Tim, and Dave?), and never-before-seen art sound totally awesome.

And, the production quality of the art seems to have gone up, which is agreeable.

I feel I should revise: the "quality" appears to have gone up in that the new art doesn't look as if it has been shat out like it did in the first one. Most of the new images still lack any of the beautiful contrasting and complimentary colors that made the Purcell and Chan originals so deft and wonderful, and the new backgrounds are generally formless, dull, and even compositionally damaged, but at least it's clear the artists put more time and effort into them.

People say SE art naysayers are guilty of being overly nostalgic, but it's funny to me: the smudgy and gray graphics from the new games look to me like ill-considered fanart compared to the vibrant palette and practiced skill, talent, and consideration of the originals. I think it must take a lot of nostalgia to be so smitten by recreations of environments one grew up interacting with in spite of the fact that their newfound resolutions belie their original clarity.

I don't meant to bitch too much, I just need to get these thoughts out of my head somehow. It's WONDERFUL that these products are coming out and bringing the brilliant design of these games to new fans. I for one can't wait to hear the new voices and fucking DEVELOPER COMMENTARY. Sounds awesome! I'll definitely be buying this, it looks like an even better package than the original SE.

More screenshots and high-res cover here: http://www.lucasarts.com/company/vip/monkeyisland2.html

Finally they will put the voice acting also on the original graphics mode.

Same should be with the first one as the special edition graphics are useless in my opinion. At least for "old school" gamers.

Or anyone with taste.

Wow, those screenshots really do look amazing, just like the original art. Can't wait!

I super dig it, but if I had to nitpick I'd say Guybrush is a bit too feminine. Still, I'm very happy with this!

I need to know who the lead artist is
If its still Dela, Bravo man!!!!!!!!!!!!

ELaine looks... different?

Haha, yeah! I like it. It's not the best Elaine ever, but she still looks good!

Man, I'm crazily psyched.

One of the fans invited by LucasArts claimed the first game is coming to the Telltale store too. Any confirmation on that yet?

Never mind. Missed the previous post.

The amount of effort LucasArts has put into this release is brilliant! Also out on the PS3.. Yes!!

I think I just wet myself...

Me too, its...its... its just so beautiful man.
Everything is so spot on and yet very unique in its own style
And the guybrush sprite is frickin sweet!!
Nice!!!!!!!!!!!

Glo_kidd! Long time no talk!

Yeah, the haircut is good this time!

Screenshots are up at the website in the gallery section.

For those interested, we've got the hi-res versions available in our database entry. Still waiting on large versions of the concept art to be made available, though.

Also good lord this look fantastic.

The new environmental graphics look very faithful to the originals, much moreso than SoMI's reimagined visuals.

Yay.

Id almost go so far as to say they're the upscaled originals we all wanted. In particular look at the first aid room screenshot and the phatt city docks. sooo cool. They even kept the signs unblemished :D

looking through the screenshots it clear that many of the background are new not upscaled (eg: guybrush and elaine in the pit) -but- some scenes do seem to be extremely faithful, particularly the ones ive mentioned. way too cool

I agree, the background art seems much improved over the SoMI remake. (Mad Marty's shop looks marvelous) I still think they're maybe smoothing things over a bit too much...I miss a little of the grit, grime and detail (however pixel-implied) from the original. One of my favorite qualities of Steve Purcell's art is all of the stains and pebbles, shadowy corners and earthy detail.

Also, I don't think that was a natural cavern in the opening shot...for example, the new rendering depicts earthen walls and tree roots supporting Guybrush, rather than reinforced concrete and rebar. :/

I don't have time tonight, but I might try and do some crossfading in flash tomorrow between the old and new screens (if someone doesn't get there first).

The glimpses on the official site look great, and an "Art viewer" is promised as a bonus feature. I think I just had a heart attack.

There's also a nice sample of the updated music. Honestly, it's all very well-done. Bravo New Guys At LucasArts, I knew you had potential.

!!!!!!!!!
SWEET
really liking the cover art and the style they are using

I dig the new style, but I'm still not too big on the cover art. Meh, though! The game itself looks great, and what does the cover matter on a downloadable game?

Yeah, when I first saw that polygon LeChuck's beard on the cover, I was like >:-| but then I saw the screenshots and I was like (8-O

I wonder how in the heck are they going to update or improve upon the dynamic MIDI/iMuse system?

It's not everyday one my all-time favorite games gets a remake. Color me cautiously intrigued.

Well, as Julian Kwasneski told in the recent Mojo interview, a dynamic soundtrack can be created with recorded sounds, the only reason it wasn't made back then was storage limitations.

Oh sure, but that would be a massive undertaking to recreate the original music with real samples to such a degree that the tracks are able to blend and segue on any note (or phrase), at any point in the song. I suspect it will be more along the lines of how CoMI was handled - which isn't a bad thing, my curiosity being piqued, is all.

This will be the greatest thing ever!

When linking to twitter it is best to link to the specific tweet:
http://twitter.com/lucasartsgames/statuses/10302747106

The cover looks quite good, unlike the crappy one from MI1.

I will update that once things calm down a little.

Done! Link fixed. I'm not very Twitter-literate, I'm afraid.

I REALLY hate that LeChuck sprite...

See him in motion on the official site. It'll change your mind.

Also, haha, they gave him the little raven in his hat! You can see its legs sticking out!

Awesome. Now I just hope they've managed to up the number of animation frames in the enhanced version so they're no longer 1:1 with the original game.

I think they at least brushed them up. If you notice, Mad Marty does a bunch of expressions. They can't totally up the animation themselves, obviously.

Of course they could up the number of animation frames, they'd just need some additional programming to achieve it and stay in synch with the original game underneath.

Shocking.

Bah, you're overwriting my updates, Jason. :p

Yeah well, I had to delete my detailed and sublimely written announcement post because your little 2-sentence one beat it by a half second, so no sympathy. :p

voice included in HD version AND classic version! Awsome.

And, the new art for and cover:

http://twitpic.com/17u0gt

I LOVE it!

woot!