Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 4: The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood

The protagonist of this particular tale, the Mighty Pirate himself, Guybrush Threepwood, has been on one heck of a rollercoaster ride over the past three episodes. Between turning the evil pirate Le Chuck into a dashing human fellow by accident, unleashing a lethal voodoo Pox upon the Carribbean, having one of his hands replaced by a hook, seeing his greatest fan Morgan LeFlay betray him, as well as being swallowed by a giant, injured manatee, Threepwood has had quite a tumultuous time. Sadly, for him, there is no rest for the wicked (or clumsy in this case). For this fourth episode, Threepwood is strong-armed back to Flotsam Island by LeFlay where he is duly handed over to the crazy scientist De Singe in exchange for a handsome reward. However, after all of Threepwood's antics on the island in the first episode, Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, he is swiftly apprehended and put on trial for numerous crimes.

As with the previous chapter, Lair of the Leviathan, Telltale has focused more on smart puzzles instead of a collect-a-thon of items and going through various permutations of item-person-object to solve matters. Instead a modicum of logic is required as Threepwood initially attempts to dismiss all charges by representing himself in Court. The process of figuring out how to unravel a conundrum, then work out how to break free of the prison shackles and hunt down the required items is a far more satisfying process than merely collecting everything in one go and then cycling through a cluttered inventory. Later in this episode there is also somewhat of a treasure hunt, with (comparatively) 'cryptic' clues given and a handy map to keep tabs on where you travel to around the island and its jungle. Any issues found with previous entries have been wiped clear (such as the map, which is much easier to read than earlier in the series) and it is clear Telltale has been taking on-board as much user-feedback as possible to ensure this is the best episode so far.

 

Since every Wii is standard, experiencing Tales of Monkey Island on the WiiWare service has one major advantage over the PC edition - the slowdown encountered on weaker home computers is not present here. Additionally, there is no need to use the keyboard and mouse combination, since the duo of Wii Remote and Nunchuk are the defaults and are considerably less cumbersome. Players can choose to use a Wii Remote alone, with infra-red pointing for highlighting and interacting with items, dragging the hero around in various directions or talking with people Guybrush meets on his journey, but use of the Nunchuk and Wii Remote in tandem is far simpler. Analogue stick walking (or running if holding down the Z button) is much more intuitive on the whole, leaving your right hand free to do all the Wii Remote point-and-clicking for a smoother experience all round.

Just like with Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, the heart and soul of the game has not changed considerably over the span of each episode. However, considering how solid the initial game engine created actually is, all that was required was a slight bit of tweaking here and there. A more essential factor was how Telltale dealt with the story's arc, and it has indeed been paced to perfection, with this episode providing the juiciest storyline yet, with twists and turns towards its conclusion that might seem obvious to long-term fans, but could well shock newcomers. This 1,000 Point chunk of gaming goodness will keep the average gamer occupied for up to five hours when soaking up the humour found by following all available conversation threads, and leads nicely into the final chapter (Rise of the Pirate God, which will hopefully arrive on the WiiWare service in the next week or so in all regions).