The International House of Mojo

GameTrailers must have some sort of shady dealing going on with Crackpot, 'cause another Insecticide trailer is now up there.

This one shows a mix of DS gameplay and PC cutscenes, and is actually looking pretty good. It includes Chrys (forgotten her name have you?) infiltrating an ocean liner, fighting giant spiders, and talking to a bug in a seedy diner - which was the interesting part for me, as this is the first indication of adventure-like gameplay we've seen.

We'll be reviewing the game when it turns up in January. I'm sure GameTrailers will have several more tantalizing videos up before that happens though.

After yesterday's Gametap release, Ice Station Santa can now be purchased from Telltale's website.

Like last time, you can buy each episode individually or get the entire season and save a bit of money.

Why are you still reading this? Go get it now.

For Monkey Island web sites that aren't The SCUMM Bar, existing is a common thing. World of MI, in a display of incontrovertible activity, even posted an interview with the man himself yesterday two days ago. Highlights of the interview include Ron's veiled assertions that he invented episodic gaming:

With Hulabee you had the concept of selling games online and then download each chapter. Something Telltale is currently doing successfully with the new Sam & Max and the Jeff Smith Bone games. Would it be something you are still interested in doing? Or are you already way ahead and thinking of new ways.

I love episodic. When I left Lucasfilm back in '92 my original idea was to do episodic adventure games (mailed out on floppies!). That idea morphed into going the smaller adventure games for kids.

Read it all, and be glad.

Bad news people. Zack & Wiki: Quest For Barbaros' Treasure has been delayed in Europe. I know, you're all devastated.

The first question that came to your mind was probably "Why, God? Why?!" The second was probably "Wait a minute... what the hell does this game have to do with Mojo?"

Basically this game is an adventure game for the Wii featuring pirates, monkeys, humour, cel-shading and fiendish puzzles. It is best described as Monkey Island meets Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. It's been getting some excellent reviews too. Oh, and there's an evil talking skull. What more do you want?

Anyway, it's now coming out in Europe in January 2008. Well, I'm interested...

For those of you determined to scrounge every little bit of information you can about it, IGN have posted a small preview of Sam & Max Season Two.

I don't think it spoils anything, but then again I haven't read it. I want to remain pure and unsullied thank you. No spoilers for me. Oh, there's a trailer? Well watching that can't hurt, can it? ... There's a robot? Aargh!

Piping hot and smelling of yeast, fresh from the Mojo bread ovens - that is to say, out from the forums ? comes news of The Exchange Student Episode 2.

I'd heard of this adventure game before, due to the good reception of Episode 1 ? but Mojo readers will take particular interest in The Exchange Student when they hear that Bill Eaken, LucasArts artist from the days of yore, created the backgrounds for the game using a magical device known as a "computer."

Episodes one and two are available for eight haypny and a silver sickle (or two pieces o' eight, in pirate money) from the web-source.

People looking for cheap adventure games made by very small independent teams should also see Wadjet Eye Games, headed by one Dave Gilbert, the festive congregation of Dave Grossman and Ron Gilbert.

How did we miss this? This is like missing International Talk Like A Pirate Day! Last Saturday, October 13th, was International Monkey Island Music Day. Kotaku remembered, as did the founder of the feast Ron Gilbert, but Mojo forgot.

We promise we will never ever let you down ever again. Well, for at least a year anyway.

The Escapist online magazine has just posted a new interview with Tim Schafer. Unfortunately there isn't any mention of Br?tal Legend or indeed any game beyond Psychonauts, but Psychonauts is still an Excellent Game too remember? Here's a clip:

"During the pitching (and re-pitching) of Psychonauts, the word "creative" was oftentimes said as a slur. "People would just kinda be like, 'Oh, it's very creative.' And it really seemed like the more you could make your game seem more like something else or more derivative of something else, the more comfortable they would be with it."

It's only a short interview, but quite interesting. There's definitely info in there I didn't know about before. Check it out.

And if you enjoyed that, why not check The Escapist's resident pessimist Yahtzee's entertaining review of the Excellent Game, if you haven't already.

Interestingly, Tïm Schäfër still has not made an official announcement about Brütal Legend, hinting on his web-site that he isn't allowed to yet. This no doubt refers to some shady clause in the small-print of his publishing contract, and is therefore all part of

But no matter: we fans are allowed to talk about the game, even if Tim isn't ? and if you want to wax lyrical about the screenshots and design concept, please do so in tonight's #monkey-island chat on irc.gamesurge.net at 8pm GMT (connect using miRC)

Fellow LucasArts Fan Network site Adventure Developers have a new feature up called "Just like Monkey Island," where freetime designer Deirdra Kiai describes how the Monkey Island games inspired her to write, animate, draw, design and dance. I think we can all testify to how those games inspired us to become the animators, artists and dancers that we are today. If you haven?t played Monkey Island, then download it today!

Also on the news is Haggis? excellent Vampyre Story blog, where he scooped an interview with Bill Von Tiller:

"One Sunday when I was working, it was all quiet upstairs when I heard this huge bang that scared the? stuffing out of me! I jumped right out my seat and yelled, "That?s too loud!" I thought some guys were moving furniture around upstairs because that is what is sounded like. Anyway, it turned out that Leo was doing his show and was sitting on a big exercise ball and it popped, sending him crashing to floor while he was broadcasting on the air! And all his listeners heard me shout. I felt very embarrassed for being so scared..."

Read the whole story here, with a brand new screenshot to boot.

To fill the void in your life before the second season of Sam & Max becomes available, how about listening to music from the first series? Or better yet, read The Tingler's review of the Sam & Max Season One Soundtrack instead!

I know what you're thinking. "Since when has Mojo ever done a music review?" Well, if we can do a poetry review I don't see why we can't have CD reviews too!

Update: Like what you read? Good, then help support your local musician by buying the soundtrack here today! Remember, if there isn't a Season Two soundtrack, I'm blaming you guys for not buying the first one!

Think Lego Indiana Jones won't be playable until sometime next year?

Think again. Looks like we'll be whippin' Lego-style come 6th (US) & 9th (Europe) November as Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga has Lego Indy as an unlockable character! Check out GameTrailers' two movies for proof, here and here.

And we thought a whip would be no match for Droidekas...

As a follow-up to their timeless preview of Mata Hari, Adventure Gamers had a little one-on-one time with Mr. Big Sky Trooper himself, Hal Barwood.

I haven't made a pure adventure game in fifteen years because, as you know very well, the market kind of fell out in the United States for this sort of thing and everybody stopped building them. And now they are making a comeback. We're fond of them, I think they have a very... (ponders for a while)... I like two things about them very much. The first one is that they are story-driven. That means actual character counts and the details of a story really mean something in an adventure game. I'm a storyteller at heart, so I like that very much. I also like the fact that there's something clean and whole and entire about an adventure game. It doesn't feel messy to me. It feels like a wonderful capsule of experience, like you would experience a book. It has a certain dimension that gets me involved [as a player] and when I go away it feels like I still know all about it and I feel attached to it. Whereas a lot of games are just very frustrating and I eventually give up. So I like that feeling too. I hope to do more of it.

Topics covered include a more detailed explanation of the game's unique inventory system, Hal's approach to puzzles, how the concept of the game came about, and so much more.

Marek Bronstring, the Scandinavian Batman, recently returned from the Games Convention in Leipzeg where he took many photos.

Amongst the ones that might interest Mojo readers are: Bill Tiller without sideburns, Hal Barwood played by Alec Guiness (and poster signing), Sam & Max, Sam & Max, Sam & Max, Sam & Max, Sam & Max, Sam & Max and A Vampyre Story.

Enjoy it all for free: here.

You might also be interested in Adventure Gamer's mega review of Sam & Max Season One.

The great Marek Bronstring has taken an illuminating first look at the upcoming adventure game Mata Hari, which as you should know by now has the very capable hands of former LucasArts adventure veterans Noah Falstein and Hal Barwood all over its design.

Just when you thought the standard point-and-click interface "ain't broke", a game comes along that shows it might just be a little bit broken after all, while elegantly fixing it. Mata Hari's interface is remarkably balanced between simplicity and representational richness, making me very curious to see how it will be carried through in the full game.

The preview is awesome, and contains several new screenshots. (The first?) The game is aiming to come out in the first quarter of 2008, so get excited.

At one of yesterday's PAX panels, "Once Upon a Time...Storytelling in Games Today," people discussed...well, you know, storytelling in games today. People named Dave Grossman, Ron Gilbert, and Nate Fox (Sly Cooper). If you weren't there to hear their thoughts in person, experience the next best thing by reading the write-ups by Gamespot and Gamasutra (the latter seeming to have mistaken Grossman for Steve Purcell).

The same and other Mojo Messiahs were present at other panels at PAX, so keep an eye out for more such summaries in the near future.

No, not Telltale. TT Games, formerly Traveller's Tales, purveyors of all things Lego (that being Star Wars, Indy, Batman and, um, Bionicle Heroes) sit down with Mojo for a quick interview about games past, present and future. Pull up a Lego Set and then click here to read the interview.

Although I forgot to ask them about whether Lego Hitler is going make an appearance. Oh well. Enjoy!

(Additional note from Gabez: you may also notice that we've restored a lot of our old articles. I did this ages ago and forgot to mention it).

This past January Gamasutra held a huge and wonderful interview with former LucasArts artist Mike Ebert that you should really check out. Ebert did art work on such graphic adventures as the NES version of Maniac Mansion, The Secret of Monkey Island, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. But he is best known as the project leader of Zombies Ate My Neighbors, the extremely fun top-down co-op game for SNES and Genesis.

Among the article's wealth of previously unknown tidbits and general goodness is that Ebert and fellow LucasArts employee Kalani Streicher were on the team of the Loom sequel before its cancellation. Who knew?! Also, apparently one of Zombies' bonus levels features Steve Purcell dressed up as Indy. I really need to look for that.

?I don?t think we were actually supposed to put George Lucas in the game,? muses Ebert, ?but we did, and just didn?t tell anyone. It was so easy to make levels for Z.A.M.N. that one day for fun, I just made the floor plan of our offices. The credit level then grew out of that. Originally it was a little more gory, but Nintendo didn?t like severed heads in the game.?

?In the end the design worked very pretty well,? Ebert says. ?We managed to get just about everything into that game that we could squeeze onto the cartridge. Looking back I wish we hadn?t hidden the flamethrower so well. Most people don?t even know there is one in the game. I wish we had more focus testing on the product too. Most of all I wish Lucasfilm had published the game themselves. The publishing deal Lucas had with Konami earned us very little royalties.?

The game was released on SNES and Genesis in 1993 to rave reviews. ?I think it?s the best reviewed game I?ve ever worked on,? Ebert notes. ?The project went so smoothly we were green lighted for Metal Warriors almost immediately. I?d like to see a DS or Wii downloadable version of Z.A.M.N, but last time someone talked to LucasArts about it, they were like ?We made that game???

It's funny Ebert should mention the game for a Virtual Console release, since that was supposedly going to happen at some point in the future. Anyway, the interview contains tons of great info about Ebert's time at LucasArts and what he's up to now, and there's really no help for you if you don't decide to read it.

Source: Gamasutra

Nothing shocking here, but Sam & Max Season Two was just officially announced by Telltale for release this fall. Not much information yet, other than GameTap will again be utilized and more information will be given at Comic-Con tomorrow. Also, the episodes will be available from Telltale a day after GameTap now too. Which is sweet. More here.

Oh, and here's an early pre-render! Looks like the diner will be a location.

Semi-recently it was announced that veteran LucasArts adventure designers Noah Falstein and Hal Barwood (the former best known for Last Crusade and Fate of Atlantis, the latter best known for Fate of Atlantis and Infernal Machine), were collaborating with German developer 4Head Studios on an upcoming adventure game, Mata Hari.

Well, fan site Adventure-Treff recently tracked down Hal to talk about what his role will be on the project as well as his past work. Some interesting details on the new game are revealed, some fun LucasArts stories are recounted, and even some rare concept art for one of the canceled sequels to Atlantis is shared. There really is tons of great stuff here. But mostly, the living legend just spreads his awesome. The following quote says it all, really:

During the development of The Infernal Machine you said in several interviews that you don't find the classic adventure genre very interesting anymore. How do you think about this statement now that you are working on one of those?

Hal Barwood: I take it all back.

Read all of Hal's thoughts, and be happy.

Source: Adventure-Treff