Tales of Monkey Island Premiere Episode Now Available

Arrrrr! Polish up your swashbuckles and grab your sword, because legendary pirate Guybrush Threepwood sets sail today on the first all-new Monkey Island adventure in over a decade. Telltale's highly anticipated game series, Tales of Monkey Island, begins now at www.telltalegames.com for PC with "Launch of the Screaming Narwhal," the first chapter in an epic five-month adventure created by the same team responsible for acclaimed episodic series including Sam & Max, Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures and Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People. The first Tales of Monkey Island chapter is expected to release for WiiWare in the coming weeks as well.

The saga begins with a heated battle involving the brave but often bumbling Mighty Pirate Guybrush, his beloved wife Elaine, and their nemesis, the demon pirate LeChuck. When the showdown goes up in flames, Guybrush finds himself marooned on a strange island with winds that always blow inward. How will our hero manage to escape this meteorological anomaly? What has become of LeChuck and Elaine? And what's the story with the infectious voodoo pox that's spreading across the Caribbean, causing Guybrush and other pirates to act like unruly hooligans? These are just some of the many questions posed in this first chapter of what will become one of the most rollicking and rip-roaring entertainment experiences of the summer.

Dave Grossman, Telltale's design director and a designer/writer for the original Monkey Island games says "I was laughing my eyepatch off on a daily basis while we were first cooking up Monkey Island at Skywalker Ranch, but if you'd told me then that it would become a classic, and that twenty years later I'd be working with a killer all-star piratey crew to spin an epic new tale and bring the series to a whole new generation of players, I would have said well, probably,'Look behind you, a three-headed monkey,' but then I've always been a bit weird that way."

Tales of Monkey Island will unfold over the next five months, with each episodic chapter raising the stakes on Guybrush's quest to eradicate the insidious Pox of LeChuck, reunite with his wife, and vanquish his rival. Much like the best television and films series, the story becomes deeper and more engrossing with interweaving threads building to twists and surprises in the grand finale this fall.

Customers who order from Telltale's online store during the first week of availability can choose any other Telltale episode of their choice to include free with their purchase. Visit www.telltalegames.com/monkeyisland to get into the adventure now. Additional Tales of Monkey Island details, gameplay trailers, and a playable demo are also available at the site.