Leveling Down

DeathSpank combines Monkey Island humor with Diablo-style action/RPG gameplay.

I often prefer playing downloadable games because I feel like they are more bite sized so I don’t need to make a huge commitment to play them. I think I may have given up on Brotherhood, so I decided to check out DeathSpank, an XBLA action RPG that I picked up on sale a few months back. I have been wanted to try this game forever, because it’s from Ron Gilbert, who was one of the creators of Monkey Island. Does the humor from adventure games translate to an action RPG?

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The dastardly LeChuck is up to no good again in Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge

I really wanted to write about Starcraft 2, but decided to give any non-Starcraft playing readers a break. You’re welcome. (By the way, SC2 is awesome!) During my non-Starcraft time, I’ve been playing through the special edition of Monkey Island 2 which came out in early July. Since I loved the first one and love the Monkey Island series in general, I figured I’d take it out for a spin. So is LeChuck’s Revenge better than the original? Hit the jump to find out.

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Everyone knows Rock Band is a huge hit, but what else appeals to non-gamers?

Last week I started the conversation about the types of games non-gamers (specifically, wives and girlfriends) could enjoy or at least tolerate. After laying out some general principles and looking at some broad areas of gaming, this week I’ll be narrowing my focus and talking about some specific genres that might appeal to non-gamers. I’ve organized the games from most appealing to least, in general. As always, your mileage may vary, and I’d love to hear others’ ideas as well!

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Tales of Monkey Island continues the zany adventures of Guybrush Threepwood, who carries voodoo swords in one hand and root beer in the other!

Telltale Games is a company famous for making the new wave of adventure games including the Sam and Max games and Wallace and Grommit. Monkey Island is one of the most famous adventure game series of all time. What happens when you put the two together? Last year, we got to find out when Tales of Monkey Island, a 5-part episodic game that Telltale made to carry on the Monkey Island torch. Does it live up to the Monkey Island legacy? I finally got a chance to check it out. Hit the jump for my impressions through the first two episodes.

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After 3 days of voting, the first round of Leveling Down’s Video Game March Madness 2010 is over! There were some close matchups, some blowouts, and of course, some surprises. As a reminder for those of you who may feel that some of these games were unfairly seeded, we seeded all the games based on Metacritic scores. It’s all their fault!

Anyway, thanks to everyone for voting! The first 32 have now been cut down to the Sweet 16. After the jump, check out who I voted for, my thoughts on the results, and a preliminary look at the Sweet 16 matchups.

Tiebreaker note: I decided that casting a tiebreaking vote was too arbitrary and I felt uncomfortable with the power! So for tie polls, I tallied up the registered commenters who voted as the tiebreaker. It seemed like the fairest thing to do, so make sure you’re logged in to make your vote count the most!

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Leveling Down’s 2010 Videogame Tourney Has Officially Started! The rounds will take place over the next couple of weeks, and will be heavily decided by you, our Leveling Down readers.

Voting for Round 1, which consists of all 32 games in the tourney, will close on Wednesday March 24, 2010 at 6PM EST. On Thursday, cmfl3x will announce the 16 games that will move onto Round 2 and we will open Round 2 voting Friday morning and end it Monday at 6PM EST.  Hit the jump to read more about our first tourney and to cast your votes!

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For the next few weeks, my Xbox is going to take a backseat to my favorite sporting event of the year: March Madness. What little time I have left for video games will probably be spent playing Dragon Age: Origins, and since we’ve covered that on the site, I figured I’d try something new: a video game bracket!

I’ve chosen 28 of my favorite games across 4 different categories (“regions”), and as the NCAA tournament plays itself out, so too will you get to watch this video game bracket play itself out. Why am I doing this? Well, I love brackets, first of all. Secondly, it’s a chance for me to take a trip down memory lane and narrow down some of my favorite games of all time. I recognize that a lot of times comparing games is like comparing apples to oranges, which is why I separated the games by genres (loosely).

Anyway, I’ve left the 8 seed open in all four regions, so I need YOU, the Leveling Down reader, to suggest games to finish out the bracket. Hit the jump to see the selection committee’s (aka, cmfl3x’s) criteria and some other notes about this totally awesome tournament.

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In Part 4 of the Awards/Shopping Guide, Leveling Down will be tackling some of the more controversial categories: Best Story, Best Value, and Most Overrated. Admittedly, these categories are VERY subjective and are only our opinions, and on some counts even espion4ge and I don’t see *exactly* eye to eye. Nonetheless, controversy is a lot of fun, so might as well give it a shot!

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Monkey Island is still funny, challenging, and unique. The updated graphics are just a bonus

I first played The Secret of Monkey Island at a very different point in my life, when I was 10 years old and had all the free time in the world. A couple of weeks ago, a special edition of Monkey Island was released with updated graphics, soundtrack, and voice overs, and for better or for worse, it’s incredibly faithful to the original (you can switch between versions at the touch of a button).

For the record, my favorite 3 point and click adventure games ever are Full Throttle, Monkey Island 2, and Monkey Island, in that order. Point and click adventures seem to be having a bit of a resurgence, LucasArts and Sierra are both putting out their old games on Steam, which I think is a great thing. For those of you who may have missed the point and click craze, these adventure games are conquered by exhausting a bunch of dialog trees and combining items in your inventory in unique and creative ways.

The Secret of Monkey Island puts you in the shoes of Guybrush Threepwood, a wanna-be pirate who gets caught up in a complicated love triangle with Elaine Marley, governor of Melee Island, and her ghost pirate stalker, the evil LeChuck. It is a zany story that is moved along with even zanier gameplay and wacky humor. For example, early on in the story you pick up a chicken attached to a pulley. What could you possibly use that for? You’ll have to play the game to find out.

Monkey Island’s gameplay holds up for the most part even though it was first released 19 years ago. The special edition’s graphics look excellent (except for Guybrush’s weird hair-do), and the voice work is okay (but turn on the subtitles to get the full effects of some of the jokes). The jokes are a little less funny than when I was 10 years old, but there are still some laugh out loud moments. The game has implemented a progressive hint system, which is a blessing and a curse (I recommend staying away from it, the majority of the puzzles are fair and just require out of the box thinking). For fans of the original, I think the game is a must-buy. I still love this game and am hoping they give Monkey Island 2 the same treatment. If you’ve never played Monkey Island, I still highly recommend checking it out – it only costs 10 bucks, which is well worth it (think of it as a history lesson). After all, if Monkey Island taught me anything, it was this: “Never pay more than 20 dollars for a computer game”. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to dig up my old Monkey Island 2 CD-ROM.