Tales of Monkey Island – Siege of Spinner Cay

I like pirates me. I think a good old fashioned hook, peg leg and shrieking poultry on your shoulder demanding pieces of eight is as good a statement as you could make; lets face it, anything has more class than a pair of Kanye West shades! Thankfully, Tales of Monkey Island: Siege of Spinner Cay is here to fill even the heartiest swashbuckler with more style, puzzling fun and cheeky humour than you could shake a skull and cross bones at!

Upon embarking on this second installment of the 5 piece saga that compiles Tales of Monkey Island, things aren’t looking all to rosy for our hero Guybrush Threepwood. In an attempt to kill off long term foe Ghost Pirate LeChuck once and for all, and thanks to a cursed cutlass, Guybrush can now add turning his most infamous foe human to his long list of achievements and is now forced to don a pirate pox infected hand as a side effect – charming! As if that wasn’t bad enough, the newly corporeal LeChuck appears to be womanising Guybrush’s red headed lover Governor Elaine Marley and is being chased down by a female assassin! What else can our pirate pal do but try to save the day?

Having spent many a recent and highly enjoyable hour replaying my favourite memories of The Secret Of Monkey Island thanks to the special edition release on Xbox Live Arcade, to say I was as giddy as parrot on grog to get my hands on this latest edition to the series was a bit of an understatement! LucasArts made an outstanding revamp of the original title, leaving Telltale Games a lot to live up to now the series has been handed over to them to continue. The most noticeable difference is the 3D design and environment, which although is an understandable shunt into the present day, can leave nostalgic gamers such as myself feeling a bit lost and not entirely catered to. Monkey Island was a series with a style of its own, and not one that can necessarily translate as easily or as well to a three dimensional world.

This has also paved way for a new control system, including what I can only describe as more of a hold and drag rather than a point and click, which gave the genre its name in the first place. Not knowing what to expect when walking (or should I say sailing) into this adventure, I found myself struggling for the first 30 minutes to get to grips with the controls; but this probably says more about my inability to adjust rather any downfall or redesign of the game! Familiar elements such as the inventory are there, with a nifty reshuffle and ability to combine items into new and fantastic ones. Above all else the witty banter between the characters and the surroundings which made me love the series in the first place was still present by the barrel full to constantly put a smile on my face as I made my way through the game!

My only real disappointment with The Siege of Spinner Cay as a whole was the limited amount of game time. Although this is understandably but a small fragment of a much bigger whole, the addictive game play left me wishing for more in under four hours. Having to wait another 30 days, although extending my gaming in theory, left me a bit cold in wanting to relive this particular chapter again until I could get my grubby pirate mitts on the rest of the game and teach the scurvy loving Caribbean a lesson by completing it once and for all! Although I’m sure that the overall game will be worth the wait, leaving players high and dry monthly may not suit every one’s gaming style tastes.


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2 responses to “Tales of Monkey Island – Siege of Spinner Cay”

  1. ironanno avatar

    I enjoyed Launch of the Screaming Narwhal a lot more than this episode. Spinner Cove felt a lot more barren and devoid of characters when compared to Flotsam. Also the puzzles had me stuck long enough to kill the enjoyment in solving them.

    I felt the review was more about Tales of Monkey Island as a whole than a review of a single episode. What does Spinner Cove do differently?

  2. MrCuddleswick avatar
    MrCuddleswick

    I barely played the Monkey Island games back in the day. I was too busy with X-Com and Syndicate I think! I’m going to get the re-issue of The Secret of Monkey Island for the iPhone (even though I’d like the achievements on the XBLA version), but I’ll hold off on these new episodes until I’ve worked through the re-issue. Then maybe I’ll be addicted…..

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