The International House of Mojo

As picked up on by talesofmi.net, the German retail release of Tales of Monkey Island (which, as you'll recall, is optionally offered in a big ol' deluxe version of comparable size to the old school boxes) has apparently sold very well in the country where copies of Zak McKracken are worshiped like monoliths and Ron Gilbert comes to you.

Lace Mamba, which we've already reported will be doing TMI's retail release in the UK on April 8th (as they did around the same time last year for Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island), believes that the performance in Germany bodes well for their own launch:

You'll recall that the UK version's packaging will boast unique covert art. While the German release bears the Steve Purcell painting that Telltale pre-order customers got in the form of an insert for their Collector's DVD, the UK box uses an unused Purcell design fully painted by Telltale concept artist Ryan Jones. It's rather cool-looking, though the reaction to this multitude of cool covers must surely be bittersweet for the Monkey Island completest with a mortgage to pay off.

Source: MCV

Telltale Games have now opened their insider forums for anyone who pre-orders Jurassic Park: The Game which has a tentative release date of...sometimes next month. The blog post also gives us the first glimpse of the DVD cover.

Source: Telltale blog

Still unsure whether or not you should buy Telltale Games' Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent or CSI: Fatal Conspiracy? Why not check out SurplusGamer's review of Puzzle Agent or Jason's review of Fatal Conspiracy. Fresh from Mojo's archives!

The always engrossing Dave Grossman recently chatted with Adventure Gamers, mostly about the King's Quest reboot as well as Hector: Badge of Carnage. Producer of the latter, Dave Felton, also lent a few words to the interview:

Telltale, of course, has had a bang-up success releasing episode one games for iOS devices. Episode 2+... Not so much, so I suppose we'll see.

Jason's review for Back to the Future's second episode, Get Tannen!, is now available for your perusal over here. As you can see, we've also included our review of the first episode by Tingler.

In related news, Marty Mulrooney, the guy who interviewed Dominic Armato for Alternative Magazine Online, has been publishing a series of interviews with AJ LoCascio, who is the voice of Marty McFly in Back to the Future: The Game. So far, three parts are available and you can read them here, here, and here.

The always-interesting Sean Howard - who you may know as a dialogue writer on the two Deathspank games - yesterday Tweeted about his feelings towards Telltale potentially making a sequel to classic LucasArts game Maniac Mansion. Asked to clarify his feelings, he posted this on his blog. It's an interesting, perhaps even important, read, and may reflect the feelings of some of you in this community:

What do you guys think? Is Telltale not fully living up to its potential? And if so, what do you, as outsiders to this development process, think is to blame? Post 'em in the comments section.

As a quick note, Mojo interviewed Sean Howard yesterday before he posted these remarks. The interview should be up soonish!

Source: Squidi

Telltale isn't exactly hurting for licenses to work on right now, but it's pretty likely that they're always pursuing properties of interest to them. At one point, one such property was apparently Scott Pilgrim, a popular comic adapted last year into a movie directed by Edgar Wright. In a recent tweet by the comic's creator Bryan Lee O'Malley, he reveals that he was approached by the game industry's most active story-based studio:

Hopefully we don't find any similar comments on LEC's twitter feed. Giving it a peek so you don't have to, it would appear you'd be lucky to find anything that so much as acknowledges the existence of anything not Star Wars, so I think we're okay.

Source: Bryan Lee O'Malley's Twitter

Wanna see, like, a full fifteen minutes of gameplay footage of Jurassic Park with commentary by Joe Pinney? Giant Bomb is able to provide just that.

Source: GiantBomb

So Telltale's announced five new games in the past two days, bringing their current pipeline to seven projects. What's to know about them?

Jurassic Park got a hands-on preview from 1UP, which details how the game has character-switching, QTEs and dying. Which IGN are totally on board with: "Dinosaur-caused deaths are a wonder to behold," they say. They go on to decribe it as "refreshing". Death in video games is refreshing now, don't you know. Anyways, there is a gameplay video in the second link. And GiantBomb posted a "Quick Look" video of the game. Thanks to AlfredJ for that link!

Onto The Walking Dead: Jake Rodkin and Sean Vanaman (head writer) were interviewed asked about this particular adaptation by Comic Book Resources. And CEO Dan Connors was asked all about Fables. We should totally interview that guy. Then, Graham Annable was asked about Puzzle Agent 2. All in the same link! How do they make it all fit in the same link? Like some voodoo magic or some such.

Busy year for Telltale. Here's hoping these games arrive more fully de-bugged.

Well, here's a nice tip-off from BillieJoe86 (cheers): Telltale has announced, via our corporate rivals, IGN, all five games they have in development (apart from Jurassic Park and Back to the Future). You may want to sit down for this one:

Apart from Fables and The Walking Dead we first have King's Quest - yeah, that one. The classic [sic] series from 1980s and 1990s Sierra returns as a "reboot", though it's unknown if the benevolent hand of series creator Roberta Williams will be involved. Expect more details at E3.

Then we have Nelson Tethers, Puzzle Agent, returning in Puzzle Agent 2. No idea if it's a full series, but Dan Connors has mentioned, in the past, that the formula of the gameplay will change. Thanks to all you people in the comments. This will be a single episode that continues the story of the first. Here's a trailer!

Finally, Hector: Badge of Carnage - an independent episodic game with an episode (not by Telltale) already out - will see two more episodes added to its rooster.

Source: IGN

With all the Jurassic Park excitement, a few tidbits are also out there about The Walking Dead games, courtesy of IGN. And yes, that's games plural: Apparently we're talking a "multi-year, multi-platform, multi-title" deal here. Exactly what that means seems to be up in the air, but it sort of sounds like platform specific titles might be a possibility. A pluralized URL is also active, though it currently points to TTG: thewalkingdeadgames.com.

Read more at IGN where they talk to Robert Kirkman, the comic book writer responsible for the franchise.

To editorialize: Hopefully TTG can keep the art style of the comics intact as well as the nerve of the TV series. And then write brand new dialogue. Because lord knows that's needed.

Jesus Telltale, we've already got the second Back To The Future episode and news of your next five projects to get excited about in the last 24 hours, now you have to add the first trailer for Jurassic Park as well?! It's like you're trying to kill us with excitement here!

The story starts apparently right in the middle of the first film, with the guy who was supposed to be meeting Nedry at the dock (doesn't that dock look a lot like the one in Grim Fandango's Rubacava?).

Furthermore, the trailer announces that the season will start April 2011 for PC and Mac and is available to preorder here for $29.99 ($5 cheaper than usual). Please don't announce Monkey Island right now Telltale, or I'll seriously hyperventilate.

Source: GameTrailers

So if you're waiting for five game announcements from TTG today, well, you will have to wait a bit longer.

And as all Peep Show aficionados know, there's no reason not to trust Alan Johnson.

If Internets rumors are anything to go by -- and Wikipedia has told me they are -- today's announcement could likely be The Walking Dead game(s) based on the hit AMC TV show which again was based on the graphic novels.

In other words, Monkey Island 6 and Maniac Mansion 3: Day of the Tentacle 2 might still be a few days away. Telltale's embargos make Apple seem downright friendly.

Update: Two titles are confirmed by All Things Digital: Walking Dead and Fables, based on the DC comics.

Back To The Future: The Game: Episode 2: Get Tannen! (that's a lot of colons) is now available from both Telltale and Steam.

There's also a trailer, which I haven't watched because I own the game and I'm not a freakin' moron.

While I'm immensely excited as I loved the first episode, I'm a little perplexed about the sudden surprise release. There wasn't a press release and Telltale don't even have a blog up about it yet.

Source: Telltale

Put this one firmly in the "Beyond Speculation" column:

A reader who shall remain anonymous points out that Dom's usually timely Top Chef postings were recently delayed because of "work." The last time this happened? Apparently a while before the Tales of Monkey Island announcement. Dam dam dam!

I suppose we'll find out next week if this is true or not.

Or maybe it's just part of...

With PC owners presumably getting both the second episode of Back To The Future (Get Tannen!) this month, console owners are presumably anxious (or DESPERATE) to know when they were getting the love. According to a report on Eurogamer, Telltale have revealed that Episode 1 will be available on the US Playstation Network on 15th February, with the European release due soon after. They will also release the iPad version sometime this month too. Well, it's about time!

Source: Eurogamer

Yes, things are happening, we're just slow.

First all of Telltale's [iPad damn it] games are now $2.99 until February 10th. Of course, no new episodes have been released yet, and chances are slim they will be if history is anything to go buy. (The Penal Zone has been out for closing in on a year now.)

Also, if you haven't subscribed to their newsletter, you probably should, as the newest edition has some new Back to the Future images. Which is awesome. They're also offering the full season of Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space for $4.99 to newsletter subscribers.

So yes. Do it. And stuff.

In North America, the retail release for Wallace and Gromit's Grand Adventures was almost identical to the collector's DVD Telltale offered to season subscribers, minus the "almost." In the characters' home country, however, things are a little bit different. Mastertronic, the publisher responsible for bringing Telltale's adventure game to UK stores, has seen fit to bifurcate the four episode season into a pair of boxed releases. Recently released is the second pack, finally fulfilling that waking dream you had of getting the series for two easy payments of £10.20!

Not sure what you Brits did to cheese off Mastertronic so much, but they clearly hold you in pretty low esteem. I don't even think Monty Muzzle has the nerve to attempt to pull a stunt of such transparent greed. Fortunately, you're likely to find the games for well under the sticker price but really. Two releases? Almost never have I seen such silliness.

Source: GamePress

Telltale Games is supposedly going to announce five multi-platform projects this upcoming February the 17th. They even sent out invites and everything! 1UP thinks The Walking Dead, a popular series of comic books about anorexics zombies that was recently adapted into a TV series could be one of them, as one invitation says, "one [game is] based on a just-launched property from the TV and comic book world whose popularity is changing life as some know it."

Are these announcements episodes or new games? Has 1UP misunderstood something, or has Telltale actually gone bonkers? Are they even games at all? Wait with bated breath until February the 17th. Unless you can't hold your breath that long. Then don't.

UPDATE BY TINGLER: Alan Johnson on the Telltale Forums has confirmed that it's not "just five new episodes". Eek.

Source: Eurogamer

Telltale have written on their facebook wall "Heads up! The February issue of Game Informer magazine has some exclusive new content from an upcoming project!"

First thoughts go to Jurassic Park. However somebody in the post's comments claim Game Informer say the title in question is a sequel, though no source has been provided. On Telltale's forums user StLouisRibs says that subscribers are allegedly due to receive their copies of the magazine today, so keep your eye out for the news / scans popping up soon.

Update: Alan at Telltale writes "So I know you guys have been waiting with baited breath to find out just what it is that's going to be in the February issue of Game Informer magazine so I'll spill the beans right now - it's the first look at Jurassic Park.

The two page preview features some exciting in-game screenshots and some insight on what to expect on our upcoming title! It should be hitting subscribers' mailboxes soon!"

Update by Zaarin: You can check out a scan over here by reader Jannar85.

Update by JP: Game Informer has the story online now, so you can get a better look at those images (including some not included in the print article).

Source: Facebook