Push Button B

The Playstation Network finally posted a demo for the first episode of Tales of Monkey Island, titled “Launch of the Screaming Narwhal“. I didn’t play the Monkey Island games in the early 90′s when they were released for PC as another addition to your point and click adventure catalog. Seeing as how a 3D remake like this relies heavily on nostalgia (not unlike the Sam & Max series), I wasn’t overly excited to fire this one up. In fact, I didn’t play it at all. I sat in the living room playing another game while my wife played through this week’s demo. Her summary: “I would like it more if the guy didn’t talk so much.”  Though I was playing a different game at the time, I have to agree. The banter in Monkey Island wasn’t nearly as clever or entertaining when compared to Sam & Max, but I suppose it might be slightly more appropriate for a younger crowd as there isn’t as much “bodily humor” in Monkey Island – at least in the demo. “Launch of the Screaming Narwhal” is a pretty straight-forward puzzle/adventure game, where your goal is to find the stuff to put in the thing that will lower the bridge to let you get from point A to point B. If you want to try the PC demo, there is a link on the game’s homepage.

The more important part of this update is the mention of a great iPhone/iPad app called Tiki Towers. You have to build bridges, archways, ladders, and other types of scaffolding in order to get five monkeys from the beginning of the stage to the end, while gathering all of the available bananas. I didn’t do well in high school Physics, nor do I have any sort of background in construction and I think this combination is what made Tiki Towers so much fun. Instead of an actual problem solving game that would test my building know-how, I approach the game with a childish ignorance that results in a lot of trial and error and yelling at pixelated monkeys who tear up my bridges. You see, they’re monkeys. More than that, they’re video game monkeys. These little apes don’t just walk across bridges, they swing, jump, hoot, and holler their way across whatever it is you’ve built, destroying it unless it is structurally sound (see above comment about high school Physics). It’s original price was eight bucks, then it spent a week on the “Free List”, and now will only set you back a dollar. Simply put, this is the best bridge building game with monkeys in it that I’ve ever played.