Hot off the heels of their Back to the Future game, Telltale is back with another license close to the heart of my youth: Jurassic Park. It takes risks, leaving behind the traditional point and click interface of their past games for something a little different.

The first of the two demos I played was exclusively an action scene. Several of the game’s protagonists were stuck on a roller coaster and I had to prevent them from being eaten by a pack of dinosaurs. The solution? Successfully complete a lot of quick time events including button presses and quick flips of the analogue stick. You could sum up the entire action demo simply by saying “Space Ace”.

But there was a weird layer of detachment added to this scene. The character whose actions were affected by my inputs constantly changed. This made me feel less involved with what was happening on screen since no singular character represented the player. Occasionally I’d fail and watch a death scene before snapping back to the last checkpoint. I watched my cart go on the wrong track into a pack of dinosaurs, a young girl falling out of the car to her death and more, all while my death counter rose.

If this was all the game was, I’d be pretty sad. Thankfully the second demo I played was far more interesting, though still different than Telltale’s previous games.

The adventure demo had me in control of a mercenary woman named Nima accompanied by Miles Chadwick. Nima was clearly ignorant of the island, not knowing that it was full of dinosaurs, but Chadwick seemed to know everything going on. These were Dodgeson’s people that Dennis Nedry intended to hand off the shaving cream can full of dinosaur embryos to (before being killed by a dilophosaurus in his jeep). It’s this tie-in to the original story that makes the plot of Telltale’s game so intriguing. Making it so closely linked to the first novel and film without retelling it is a smart idea.

I found myself in the delightfully familiar locale of where Nedry’s jeep was stuck. Despite not seeing the can in the jeep, Chadwick insists on checking it more while sending Nima to accomplish the far more dangerous task of searching the surrounding area.

Nima has tracking skills. By holding buttons corresponding to different areas, I could have Nima closely examine various elements of the environment such as footprints. Strangely, I had to hold the corresponding button down until my search was complete. The whole thing gave me some serious Heavy Rain vibes.

Never did I find myself walking around as any character. Instead, I could bring up a shortcut menu to move to different areas of the environment. While in each environment, I could use the analogue stick to move the camera around a bit allowing me to examine more things.

In fact, examining things was the name of the game here. The closest I came to encountering a puzzle was when certain areas I attempted to examine were too dark. I had to move up to the jeep and adjust the lights mounted on top to aim at different areas to aid my search. I also occasionally conversed with Chadwick, but my dialogue choices seemed of little consequence. I either chose the right answer, or something else then the right answer. Hopefully the puzzle and dialogue aspects will get more complex further into the final game.

Eventually, several dinosaurs showed up and I transitioned into another quick time event driven action scene, complete with checkpoints and a few failures on my part. It at least felt more interesting transitioning from a calm scene to an action one, but it’s still hard to get too excited about quick time events in 2011.

I left a little torn about Jurassic Park: The Game. On one hand, the setup for the story has grabbed my attention. But on the other hand, the action gameplay is not particularly enjoyable. It’s definitely feeling more “interactive fiction” than game so far, even moreso than a traditional point-and-click adventure game. But if the adventure parts introduce more actual puzzles instead of the “look here, now look here” execution I’ve seen thus far, I could forgive the action scenes.

You read that right.

The are assuring everyone that this is no April Fool’s prank and that there is no expiration or cut off date. So if you’ve been on the fence about trying their latest episodic adventure, you are officially out of excuses.

You can head over to the Telltale games website right now and download Back to the Future The Game: Episode 1: It’s About Time. If you like what you play, the complete five episode series is only $24.99.

Sometimes, a mystery is surrounded by a puzzle; sometimes dozens of small, intricate puzzles that would confound and befuddle your average government agent.

Hidden away in the depths of FBI headquarters is the office of Nelson Tethers. Tethers is the top (and only) agent in the bureau’s Department of Puzzle Research. When a conundrum is too discombobulating for the rest of the FBI, it is up to Agent Tethers to elucidate the situation in Telltale’s latest, Puzzle Agent.

The first thing you’ll notice with Puzzle Agent is a departure from Telltale’s usual style of point and click adventure gaming. Sure, those elements are there in a small way, but the main focus of the game is on brain teasers. It is no secret that Puzzle Agent was heavily inspired by Level-5′s popular Professor Layton series on the Nintendo DS. They come right out and say as much in the game’s description on their website.

Set in the snowy town of Scoggins, MN, it is your job to find out why the town’s eraser factory has shut down. The factory provides erasers to the White House, and is Scoggin’s main source of income; which is why it’s sudden closure is so suspicious.

Much like the Layton series that inspired it, Puzzle Agent has you wandering the town, finding and solving logic puzzles to continue the storyline. The puzzles are worked into the plot a little smoother than they are in Layton, and are handled in mostly humorous ways. The puzzles themselves vary quite a bit in difficulty. As with all logic puzzles, once you “get” the answer, you’ll wonder how you didn’t see it in the first place.

If you do get stumped, Puzzle Agent has a really good hint system built in. There are three levels of hints, which start as a nudge in the right direction and end with more or less giving you the answer. Once the puzzle is solved, you are given a rating based on how many guesses it took you to solve and how many hints used. This made me try my hardest to not use any hints and only make a guess once I was absolutely sure I had the answer correct.

But they don’t give you an infinite number of hints either. As it turns out, chewing gum helps Agent Tethers think, but the town is all out of gum! As you traverse the town, you will find ABC gum stuck to things around the city which you can collect. These are what you spend to take a hint on puzzles. I’m happy to say I didn’t end up needing to use too many pieces of the gum that I collected on my adventure, but even if you do, there seems to be plenty of the stuff hidden around the city. Running out was never a concern.

I had fun playing through Puzzle Agent. The art by Graham Annable added a humorous edge to the games strange atmosphere. The writing will appeal to those that enjoy X-Files or Twilight Zone story types, as long as you don’t mind them being on the wacky side of things. The gameplay is casual enough that it should appeal to gamers of all levels. Puzzle Agent is an easy recommendation for the puzzle lover in your life.

This review is based on review code of the PC version of Puzzle Agent provided to us by Telltale Games.

Meanwhile, on a very special seventieth episode of “Barrel Roll! A Video Game Podcast”, the Rainbow Suspenders of Justice Friends meet at the Hall of Justice to take down Lex Luthor and his cohorts in the Hall of Doom. Will their fashion sense be enough to save the world?

In our “Games We Played This Week” segment, Jonah and Jesse tell tales of an actual LAN party (using computers and everything!) with Rainbow Six Vegas 2. Jonah has been trying his best to finish Saints Row 2 before the show (but failed), has put a little more time into Blue Dragon: Awakened Shadow and it’s finally starting to click. He also spent time with DJ Hero thanks to the recent price drops and sales.

Jesse has been playing Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, which may just be the best PSP game he has played. He also picked up Mega Man Zero: Collection, despite owning all the games on GBA. Wesley has been spending all his time on with Assassin’s Creed 2 and it’s DLC missions.

In the news, we nerd out about Telltale’s announcement of a Back to the Future game. There is a lot of talk about what we would like to see in DJ Hero 2 and which Dreamcast games we’d like to see hit XBLA and PSN.

Finally, we are contractually obligated to make our E3 predictions. All this and more on the latest episode of the Barrel Roll Showcast.

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Outro Music – “Fortuna (Star Fox)” by The OneUps

Telltale Announces Partnership with Universal

Kindom Hearts Re-Coded

Dreamcast Games Coming to XBLA & PSN

Necromachina

The new Fire Emblem

"Our #1: The Blue Footed Bubi"

On a very special sixty-second episode of “Barrel Roll! A Video Game Podcast”, we discuss our Top 10 Birds of the Year (thus far). Sure, the goldfinch may have other outlets’ votes sealed up, but with their wingspan getting them solid 9′s across the board, the Blue Footed Bubi is putting up quite the show.

In what we’ve been playing, we discuss the new Sam & Max from Telltale, Saints Row 2, Lost Planet 2, and Final Fantasy XIII among others.

In the news, we talk about the re-imagined X-Com and why it’s a bad idea, the second Silent Hill remake going to a different studio than Shattered Memories, more Monster Hunter crossovers and much more.

Join us, and let us know what your favorite bird is!

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Middle Song – “Dreams of Another Shore – Bordering Another World (Chrono Cross)” by Yasunori Mitsuda [Performed by Eminence Symphony Orchestra]

Outro Music – “Fortuna (Star Fox)” by The OneUps

“Can I have that bucket?”

“Why?”

“Because it’s there.”

“Tales of Monkey Island: The Siege of Spinner Cay”, the second episode in Telltales new Monkey Island episodic series, picks up immediately where the first game left off. While most Telltale episodic games can be played out of order without leaving the player completely lost, this is not the case with Tales. These episodes are written along the lines of old movie serials.

The first game left off with a cliffhanger that put Guybrush in a tight spot. This one picks things right up from there, starting with a sword fight. Rather than the insult sword fighting of the older games, this one has you solving a puzzle during your duel.

"And I've got a TIP for you. Get the POINT?"

The game controls exactly like episode one. You point and click to interact with objects, but move Guybrush with either the “WASD” controls or by dragging the mouse. You can also run when moving with the mouse by holding down the right click. This feels incredibly awkward, but the increased walk speed is worth it. I am still of the opinion that the old point and click interface works best, especially since you are already using it for a majority of the game.

Once again, the writing is top notch. From start to finish, the game provided plenty of laughs. Now that I have finished the original Monkey Island (and Special Edition), I can see that they are really building off of the existing MI universe in these new episodes.

The voice actors also turned in great performances. Since this one allows Guybrush and Elaine the chance to interact more, you get a much better feel for the characters and their relationship. The secondary characters are off the wall, as you would expect, and the actors do a great job bringing the universe to life.

"Two Unsavory Pirates"

Without giving away any spoilers, I have to say my favorite parts of this episode were the interactions between Guybrush and LeChuck. I’ll leave it at that, because I really don’t want to spoil anything.

They also mix up the locations more in this one, as you go island hoping between several tiny islands to solve many of the puzzles. While it did make the game feel a little bigger moving from island to island, this was counterbalanced by the fact that most of the islands are very tiny; so tiny that the screen barely has to scroll over for you to have walked across the whole thing.

Like the first episode, the majority of the puzzles made enough logical sense, at least within the game universe’s twisted logic, that you can get through this episode in just a few hours. If you do get stuck there is, once again, a built-in tip system to help you out. If you aren’t progressing, Guybrush will randomly say helpful things to clue you in on the next puzzle.

“The Siege of Spinner Cay” is a nice continuation of the story and I am looking forward to the twists and turns they take us through in episode three.

You can get the entire season of “Tales of Monkey Island” from Telltale’s official site.

This review is based on the PC version of Tales of Monkey Island: The Siege of Spinner Cay provided to us by Telltale.

"Here There Be Monkeys"

Can I first start by saying, seeing the Lucasarts logo at the front of an adventure game again really gave me a warm fuzzy feeling? Because it did.

Now it is time to come clean. While I love Lucasarts’ classic adventure games, pirates, and comedies, I have never actually played a Monkey Island game. This gave me a unique perspective going in to the new “Tales of Monkey Island: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal”, the first in a new episodic series from Telltale games.

In a way I’m glad, as the game did not have to live up to some high bar it’s predecessors have set for many gamers. I have played several of the Telltale adventure games already, so there is the second bar, another high one, that I’m sure many will be judging this game by.

You will be happy to note that the game lives up to the hype you may have built up for yourself. In that I mean, it is a clever point and click adventure game that is laugh-out-loud funny.

The basic plot is that LeChuck is at it again, this time trying to use some crazy monkey based voodoo to bind the seven seas to his will. You, once again taking on the roll of Guybrush Threepwood, are attempting to stop LeChuck and save your wife Elaine when things go horribly wrong.

This kicks off the start of what is to be a larger story that spans all five episodes of this new series. After this initial encounter, Guybrush is stranded on the mysterious island of Flatsom. Here all the winds are blowing inward toward the island, making it impossible for ships to leave. His hand has also been cursed, so he’s got that going on too. The story is well presented, the characters are charming, and as mentioned above, it had me laughing hard for most of the game.

The play control is a little different than I was expecting. In most point and click adventure games, you click where you want your character to move and they do it. Here that mechanic only applies if you are clicking on something you want Guybrush to interact with. To walk, you have to use the good old “WASD” or you can hold the left click and drag him around. It is a little strange at first, but I got used to it pretty quickly.

Being an episodic game, it is fairly short. I was able to get through it in just a few hours. The difficulty curve was a little lower than I was expecting. This is either because they wanted to ease people into this new adventure or that after playing many of the other Telltale games, I have started getting into the mindset of how their puzzles work.

There is a built in hint system, like most of their games, where the character will say things to give you clues as to what to do next. You can adjust this higher if you find yourself getting stuck. The folks at Telltale seem to want you to enjoy the game and not get frustrated and quit like what would often happen in old-school adventure games. I think they have struck a pretty good balance with this one.

There isn’t a lot more I can say without spoiling the plot or the puzzles, so I’m going to cut this review a little short. I would definitely recommend this to fans of adventure games, comedies, or pirates. If you are new to the genre, this game will ease you in and make you smile while it’s at it. If you are veteran, there are some references thrown in just for you.

Personally, I can’t wait for the second episode.

This review is based on the PC version of Tales of Monkey Island: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal provided to us by Telltale.