The International House of Mojo

As a follow-up to the Monkey Island 2 Special Edition speculation in the previous news post, Laserschwert thought it would be pertinent to share the following quote from the published Monkey Island article in Retro Gamer:

As for the future, that will depend on how the current projects perform. But with The Secret of Monkey Island topping the Steam and XBLA charts, and Tales proving to be Telltale's most popular game in its history, we're confident that the story hasn't finished yet. Monkey Island 2 Special Edition is inevitable, and we're told by our friends at LucasArts that next March might be a special month for fans.

So then.

As observed in this Telltale forum thread, Monkey Island graces the cover of Issue 70 of UK magazine Retro Gamer. Included is an eight page retrospective of the series complete with new interviews with Ron Gilbert, Dave Grossman, and Steve Purcell. Awesome.

But that's not the end of the news. The same thread contains the following post of boundless intrigue by our own Laserschwert, whom Retro Gamer contacted for the use of his cleaned-up version of the MI2 cover:

Interesting side note: The Retro Gamer guys told me that when they went to get the okay from LucasArts to use the MI2-artwork, LucasArts was actually concerned about that, because - as the put it - "they haven't released Monkey Island 2 yet". Sounds like it's going to get a definite re-relase... question is: will it be an SE?

Hopefully (depending on your school of thought on this), that's the slip-up on LEC's part that it sounds like, and we can expect a special edition of LeChuck's Revenge on the horizon.

Not that we've been particularly diligent with keeping tabs on all the great TMI coverage, but you might also want to check out this informative interview with Mike Stemmle.

Run over to the LucasArts Workshop blog to witness some deleted dialogue from The Secret of Monkey Island, discovered by the Special Edition team. I mean really. Stop reading this. Go there. Now. Who would have thought Meathook was a misogynic?!

Conversationally: Should these extra lines have been included in the SE?

That excellent Guybrush vs. LeChuck statue by Symbiote Studios (creators of that excellent Sam & Max statue) that's been teased for the past few months is now finally shipping from the LucasArts company store. So if you hate $90 but love high-caliber and official Monkey Island collectibles, here's your chance to be one of the 1000 owners!

And get me one while you're at it.

Update: Symbiote is offering a deal when ordering from their web site: buy the Monkey Island statue and get the Sam & Max one 50% off. Tempting.

A double piece of good news for Wii owners, as both Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 3: Lair of the Leviathan and the eagerly awaited SNES classic Zombies Ate My Neighbours (AT LAST) are now available on the system for download, on WiiWare and Virtual Console respectively.

Hoorah!

Source: Kotaku

Telltale have released four new pieces of concept art for Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 4: The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood (due out soon!), which we've kindly put up in our Concept Art gallery for the game.

Be warned: there are some slight spoilers.

Edit by ATMachine: Description of the concept art removed to avoid spoilers. If you DO want to be spoiled, click away!

Steve Purcell is now showing off on his blog his three initial concept sketches for the Tales of Monkey Island cover painting.

(Yes, we know this post is a week late. But here at Mojo we like to say that slow and steady wins the Cheese Squigglies.)

Interestingly, Purcell writes that he was never satisfied with his drawing of Elaine on the Secret of Monkey Island cover. In fact, his pencil layout drawing for the MI1 cover shows that he redrew Elaine, taping a cutout of her revised figure on top of the paper.

(And if you've never visited Purcell's blog, don't forget to check out all the posts under the Pirates label, which includes some character concept art he did for The Curse of Monkey Island, as well as storyboards for an "unidentified" pirate film.)

Source: Spudvision

The game is out, and the reviews are starting to appear.

Perhaps you've already given Lucidity a play -- but if you're still wondering if its worth your time, be sure to read our review by Surplus Gamer.

It might be a little too early to start a review round-up for games released in the past 24 hours, but what the hell. Eurogamer has put up its review of Lucidity, giving it an 8/10, whereas IGN's take is far more reserved with a 6.3. A pool of two reviews doesn't give us much in the way of a useful consensus, but the game looks like it could do well with the critics. Of course, it'll only cost you $9.99 to find out for yourself.

Republic Heroes fared far worse, with some pretty bad GameRankings averages across the various versions. Oops! Of course, when you're dealing with Star Wars, being a bad game doesn't necessarily make you a flop, but those holding out the reasonable hope for the game to be the next Grim Fandango may have to contend with a slightly different reality.

The people at LucasArts who brought you the Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition have released Lucidity today! It's available through Xbox Live Arcade, Direct2Drive, and Steam. Lucidity sells for 800 Microsoft Points or $9.99, depending on your choice of platform.

Source: LucasArts Twitter

Well, aren't you excited? You can get it from LucasArts or anywhere else for just about every platform. LEC is also listing some sort of "Sith Edition" of The Force Unleashed for November 3rd, complete with extra levels, if that sort of thing tickles your fancy.

The LucasArts Workshop want you to ask them about the upcoming Lucidity, their first original game in ages. I should remind you that the game hits in two days - October 7th - and is available for Xbox Live Arcade and PC (downloadable).

If you're in the need for some insane tunes 50 Cent-style done right, why not listen to fan remixes of the game's soundtrack? And read some good, informative, behind-the-scenes posts while you're at it? (The blog's full of these, but I linked you to some selected ones and am going to hope you don't notice they're all consecutive and recent.)

Update: Questions answered.

Source: LucasArts Workshop

Does the world need another LEGO Indiana Jones game? Who knows, but this new trailer looks damn hilarious.

According to theforce.net the game is reported to be out on November 17.

Source: Star Wars website

In commemoration of his 20th year in the games industry, Tim has put up a lengthy post about how he landed his job at Lucasfilm Games in 1989. Although his story - which includes inadvertently revealing that he played a pirated copy of Ballblazer during his telephone interview - is well known to the sort of creeps who read this site, even the most educated scholars of Tim will want to read this, for included are scans of the Lucasfilm Games assistant designer/programmer position posting, Tim's job offer letter signed by Steve Arnold, and even the infamous cartoon resume Tim sent in which he adapted his imagined experiences as a Lucasfilm employee in text-adventure comic form.

I love the 80s!

Beta testing signups are now underway for the forthcoming Bioware MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Due to server load, the signup form can be a bit glitchy, but keep persevering, it should let you through eventually.

Good luck, and if anyone here makes the beta, let us know you're in... if the NDA allows it.

Source: swtor.com

LucasArts have released a nice new trailer for Lucidity which can be seen at GameTrailers. And very sweet it's looking too.

There's just a hint of the different locations we'll be playing, as well as a genuinely surprising moment at the halfway point and a touch of the creepy "Byssan Lull" main theme.

Lucidity is not released on October 7th in all major stores. It's better than that.

Update by Kroms: LucasArts confirms the game's price at $9.99.

Source: GameTrailers

While looking at the listing at the Australian Classification Board website for "Zombies at my Neighbors", I happened upon this from August 6;

Handsome Halibut

What the hell? A web search shows up no other reference to the title. Speculate away, mojoans.


Update: Follow our conversation with LucasArts via twitter.

Source: Aussie Classification Board

Clone2727 on the mojo forums has found an IGN listing for the old-school LucasArts game Zombies Ate my Neighbours coming out (date to be determined) on Wii's Virtual Console download service.

However, this was first brought up a few years back on Mojo, so the IGN listing may just be a hangover from then, unfortunately.

Update: Huzzah! It was rated on 23 September 09 by the Australian Classification Board, and submitted by Nintendo.

Source: IGN

Lucidity doesn't just look impressive, it also is sounding really good, if this soundclip is anything to go by. The theme is composed -- or re-imagined as it is -- by Jesse Harlin, who of course got quite a bit of attention for his excellent work on The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition.

Oh, and the lyrics are in Swedish. Although it sounds suspiciously like they're being sung by a Norwegian pretending to being a Swede.

Listen!

Update by Zaarin: Jesse Harlin has updated the blog again with another piece, “Carte d’Etoile” (or “Star Map” in English) which will play on the map screen of the game. He's also uploaded the sheet music to the piece and suggests that anyone who can play the piano should record themselves playing it and send them a link. Now go tickle those ivories!

Seems like LucasArts are giving out free codes for the Steam version of Knights of the Old Republic. 3EH2E-LFSD5-PVXXJ-664ZM-R4RE2

Tell us if you try it and it works. Needless to say, it's great that they're doing this (if they are) - in which case, hey Jim Ward? Thanks for leaving!

LucasArts also just revealed that Cad Bane is an unlockable character in the new Clone Wars game.

Update: Each code is only usable once (ie: only one lucky person gets to use it), but they might give out more, so keep an eye on their Twitter page and you might get lucky.

Source: Twitter