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

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.

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.

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!

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.

Lucidity, a new game from the LucasArts team that re-imagined The Secret of Monkey Island is now available on Xbox LIVE Arcade and PC via digital download.

In Lucidity, players take a trip into the imagination of Sofi, a young girl who is filled with a persistent desire to explore new worlds and overcome all obstacles in her way. In this challenging puzzle platform game, players are tasked with keeping Sofi safe as she drifts deeper into the strange new world of her dreams. Through quick reaction and placement of randomly generated puzzle pieces, players must create a path through beautifully detailed dreamscapes to keep Sofi in perpetual motion and deliver her to safety.

"Lucidity comes from our effort at LucasArts to form several small internal development teams and give them the creative freedom to make games that surprise, amaze and inspire," said LucasArts President Darrell Rodriguez. "The re-imagining of The Secret of Monkey Island and the development of the all-new Lucidity are just the beginning of this effort."

The iPhone reviews are still coming in!  Here are a few more:

Destructoid 8 /10

]]> http://www.craigderrick.com/archives/88/feed 0 http://www.craigderrick.com/archives/89 http://www.craigderrick.com/archives/89#comments Sun, 02 Aug 2009 07:14:30 +0000 Craig http://www.craigderrick.com/?p=89 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

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.

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!