We Won a NAViGaTR Award!
Monkey Island: Special Edition won NAViGaTR's Best Game Classic Revival Award and was nominated for two acting awards for the stellar voice work of Dominic Armato and Earle Boen.
This is the FIRST NAViGaTR award ever won by LucasArts! Congratulations to everyone on the Monkey Island team and at LucasArts for making this happen. Let's see what we can do this year!
Read the full press release
G.A.N.G. Award Nomination
Monkey Island: Special Edition for the iPhone has been nominated for Best Handheld Audio from the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) Congratulations go out to Jesse Harlin, David Collins, Tom Bible and everyone else within the LucasArts audio department.
To see the full list of nominations and the other games we're going to beat check out the following link.
Retro Gamer #70
You may not believe this, but getting on the cover of Retro Gamer Magazine was one of my top 5 goals when re-launching Monkey Island last year. Retro Gamer magazine has been a favorite of mine for some time and is the one magazine that I still actually buy and collect every month.
Go to Barnes & Noble or Borders in the States for the latest issue or check out their back issues at the following link.
And the award goes to…
How awesome is that!!?? Thank you IGN and to everyone that made The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition a huge success! Stay tuned for some exciting things happening in the New Year.
We also made The Top Ten Handheld Games of 2009 list over at Digital Spy!
Interview with Adventure Classic Gaming
The nice folks over at ACG have an interview up with me where we talked about the inspiration and development behind The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, our future plans for this and other franchises, and whether or not we'll ever reveal the true secret of Monkey Island.
And once you're done reading it, jump right into the forums over at MixnMojo to discuss it further.
Monkey Island iPhone Reviews
The iPhone reviews are still coming in! Here are a few more:
Destructoid 8 /10
Monkey Island 2: Cry Engine
I'm continually impressed by this guy. What do people think? Check out some more of his work at: http://www.loneclone.de/projects/monkey.htm
The Secret is Out: We have a hit!
The reviews are starting to pour in and The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition looks like a hit! Here are just a few of the reviews (click the image for the full review):
89% - Based on 17 critic reviews
9.5 out of 10 - "Don't miss this."
A - "What we have is a classic game packaged in a way for everyone (PC or console gamer alike) to finally and easily play it, and that's exactly what you should do -- whether you're learning the secret of Monkey Island for the first time or 50th time."
A - (Excellent) - “Secret of Monkey Island is a classic, and the enhanced visuals, soundtrack and audio, along with the inclusion of the original art and music is just icing on the cake.”
9 out of 10 - "Should you but it? Well, yes. It's Monkey Island"
8 out of 10 - While its age does lead to some problems in game design, this is a worthy remake of what is rightly considered a classic adventure game, and you’d do well to give it a try.
Monkey Island: Special Edition Released
Pirates! Adventure! Monkeys! Relive the hilarious swashbuckling misadventures of the wannabe pirate Guybrush Threepwood as he attempts to become the most infamous pirate in the Caribbean! Back by popular demand, The Secret of Monkey Island™: Special Edition faithfully re-imagines the internationally-acclaimed classic pirate adventure game from LucasArts in gorgeous HD detail.
Featuring an all new re-imagined contemporary art style, hand-drawn and presented in 1080p, complete voice over by members of the original Monkey Island™ franchise cast, a re-mastered musical score using live instruments, plus scene-for scene-hot swap to seamlessly transition between Special Edition and Classic modes at anytime.
Buy it now on Xbox LIVE Arcade, PC, and iPhone via digital download!
Calling Vienna
For the past few years our fans in Vienna have held an annual Monkey Island Memorial party where they celebrate all things Monkey. This year, however, they decided with the announcement of two new Monkey Island games that they would change the party from a memorial to a revival. We could, unfortunately, make it in person to join them this year (maybe next year?) so instead we recorded a quick little message to them.
And check out pictures from past parties at: http://www.monkeyislandmemorial.com