William Willing

The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition has been released to Xbox Live and of course, I’ve bought and played it. I was actually quite impressed with how well it is designed (something I was less knowledgable of, fifteen years ago). I decided to take some notes on the design of the game, which I have published on my Casual Game Design blog.

It’s good to see that Double Fine’s upcoming game Brütal Legend is getting a lot of attention these days. The Double Fine people deserve it after way too little people played the awesome game Psychonauts. That game is easily one of my favourite computer games of all time. (The only reason it’s not on my list of favourite games is that I hadn’t played it yet when I put that list together.) Yahtzee likes it too, by the way.

So I hope Brütal Legend will be a huge success. There’s no doubt in my mind that it will be great, because when was the last time that Tim Schafer made a game that wasn’t totally awesome? Never, that’s when. A few days ago, he responded to questions of fans via Twitter. You can read the entire Q&A if you have some time to kill, but here are some of my favourite quotes.

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Of all the reasons to buy an Xbox, I never thought Monkey Island would be one of them! Sure, you may not like the new graphics, but just the fact that they are doing this is great news. Let’s hope it doesn’t stop here.

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One of my favourite games was re-released a while back: Another World. The new 15th Anniversary Edition has high-resolution graphics, increased colour depth and remastered music. It also includes the original version. I bought the game in the store and I wasn’t disappointed. I suggest you take a look at it at Another World’s web site.

You can buy Another World online for a measly EUR 7,- ($9.55). Well worth your money, if you ask me. You can also buy the boxed version of the 15th Anniversary Edition, if you can find it in a store near you. It will be more expensive - I payed about twenty euros for it - but it comes with some behind-the-scenes documents that aren’t on the web site and it includes a video on the history and development of the game. The extra stuff is nice if you’re a fan, but it is nothing you can’t do without.

So, don’t be stingy, pay the seven euros and enjoy a great game.

A couple of days ago, a friend of mine sent me a list of his ten favourite computer games of all time. Of course, I had to respond with my ten favourite games.

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