The titular ship, the Narwhal, in"Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 1" is a ship crafted from the jetsam that gets pulled into Flotsam Island, where Monkey main character Guybrush Threepwood is stranded. In many ways the Narwhal is also a perfect metaphor for the way developer Telltale Games develops their titles, which take their standard 'point and click' revival style play, adds an established brand, and combines to two together into a very palatable, but far from amazing snack of episodic gaming.

Telltale can crank episode after episode of their series out in what seems like an almost constant stream (Sam and Max, Wallace and Grommit, Strongbad and now Monkey Island). This style of development does make for a pretty staggering flow of output, but it also means that almost every episode of every series Telltale creates feels a bit less than fully developed.

"Launch of the Screaming Narwhal" does not escape this feeling. While the writing is funny and keeps you playing to see what happens next, the actual puzzles you solve have a tendency to follow a very skewed logic- to the point of feeling more thrown together than planned to perfection. Twice in the course of "Narwhal" you have to follow directions on a map based off of the sounds emitted from the landscape around you, and there are also a number of items to collect or actions to perform that seemed 100% designed as time wasters to make your play session last longer than just one hour.

But still, while I have some major gripes about the way Telltale designs their games, I do have to admit that what they make is always just as entertaining. While some of the objectives might annoy you, there are also a ton that make you feel really good once solved, and a ton that are simply funny to watch unfold.

While I would like it if logic came into play a bit more when playing a Telltale game, the developers do a great job of choosing properties that emanate whimsy, and a certain amount of twisted logic does seem appropriate at times with a game such as Monkey Island. And Telltale games' graphics are always lush and colorful, even if they are not making the most detailed and high tech games on the market.

Once I was done with this around 3 hour quest I instantly found myself ready to move on to the next chapter. The fact that I will be waiting impatiently for that day to come is a testament to the fact that this game deserves its 3 out of 3 stars.

3/3 stars