Monkey Island news are spreading quicker than a pack of rabid monkeys on a quest to find the second biggest banana tree!

USA Today has posted a Monkey Island short review which covers Tales of Monkey Island AND The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition. More news means more people are going to know about it. More people increase the chance of more sales. More sales… big chances for a few more sequels, savy?

If you’ve been eagerly awaiting the release of Tales of Monkey Island for WiiWare in Europe, wait no more! Word is that today is the day that all EuropWiians will be able to get TMI on their shiny white consoles. Don’t just sit there, go take a look at the Wii shop channel!

VideoGamer.com ringed up Dan Connors, CEO of Telltale Games, yesterday to ask him how Tales of Monkey Island has been selling. The answer? It’s been selling very well, better than the boys and girls at Telltale had expected, and it’s reportedly their best-performing game yet, sales-wise. Look here to see that I’m not lying.

The Escapist have had a little chat with Mark Darin of Telltale Games, in which some interesting details surface about Tales of Monkey Island. For one, insult swordfighting, a staple of the Monkey Island series, won’t feature in Tales of Monkey Island, although it will be referenced. The reason? “It’s been done to death.” So, what do you think? Are you glad not to have to juggle around insults anymore, or are you a little bit sad to hear this?

The article also features some information on what’s going to happen in chapter 2, so if you don’t want any spoilers, do not click this link! Or just wear two eye-patches.

For all those art lovers… Monkey Island lovers…

No… Monkey Island Art lovers! (yeah, that’s it). Two images emerged showing us where our favourite pirate might end up in the second chapter of Tales of Monkey Island. Check them out here and here.

Just so you know, I’m not going to make it a habit to post fan-made stuff, but this is just too good to pass up. Check out this YouTube HD video, imagining how a Monkey Island 2: Special-Uber Edition would look. One can only hope LucasArts are watching this video and taking notes. Guy.brush explains here on LucasForums how he put together this work of genius.

The one and only Game Designer for a Day contest at Telltale, in which you can submit a line of dialogue and possibly see it in Tales of Monkey Island, has entered its third week. That means you can empty your mind and refill it with awesome ideas, then empty it again onto the screen. Try it, it’s fun!

Telltale Games have just announced the Tales of Monkey Island release date for WiiWare on their blog. All you Wii gamers in North America will be able to play the game on July 27. A European release date is still unknown, but news about that should come soon. As for the price, the first episode will cost 1000 Nintendo Points.

As most of you may remember, the big old Monkey Island treasure hold, formely known as worldofmi.com, had a trivia section in which all the in-jokes and references were categorized accordingly.  Naturally, with the launch of Tales of Monkey Island, the fans had fun noticing all the subtle jokes that they ran across and discussing them over a mug o’ grog.

Our team gathered all the cool infos and posted them here for your enjoyment. Feel free to bring your own contribution to the list, in case we may have missed something! Just write it in the comments below this post.

• If you’re playing the game with subtitles, you’ll notice that Elaine uses the word “Scum”, and the subtitles read “Scumm”. This takes us back to the system that was used in the past by LucasArts to create games such as Monkey Island and Indiana Jones.
• While reading the newspaper, Guybrush will mention a number. 1138 is a number hidden in most George Lucas films, hinting at his student film “1138″, later remade as “THX 1138″.
• The shrine to Nor Treblig, Keeper of the Crossroads - “Ron Gilbert”, creator of the first two Monkey Island games, spelled backwards.

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