Telltale had big names and intriguing demos on display, though they’re not necessarily the same product this year.
The major announcement from Telltale this year is their partnership with Universal Studios to bring some big-name movies into episodic gaming; the two named properties are Back to the Future and Jurassic Park, with the former getting a go first. Telltale mentioned that Jurassic Park isn’t a name that lends itself to comedy all that easily, so they’re going to have to go in a slightly new direction as far as that’s concerned, but they sound up to the challenge. Neither one of these was available for demonstration this year, however.
What they did have was Puzzle Agent, which, continuing with their television metaphors for “seasons” of games, is what they’re referring to as a “pilot” for a potential game series. Puzzle Agent is a game whose story apparently has influences from Twin Peaks, Fargo, and the X-Files; the story features a FBI agent who heads up the Dept. of Puzzle Research, and (in the pilot) is sent on a mission to the town of Scoggins, after receiving a cryptic message from a scary man in an astronaut suit. The animation is being guided by one Graham Annable, noted for his popular YouTube Flash cartoons, and it has a sort of Flash-esque, slapdash style to it but it works well.
The gameplay, breaking from standard Telltale form, is heavily inspired by Nintendo’s Professor Layton series; besides cutscenes, and heading wherever the game tells you to (rather explicitly, the demo didn’t seem to want the player to get lost), you’ll be solving a number of small-scale puzzles, like a jigsaw puzzle. One of the puzzles we saw had us trying to direct a snowmobile across slippery ice using well-placed deflecting logs.
Like in Layton, you can unlock hints by collecting items; in this case, it’s ABC gum that our puzzle agent finds lying around Scoggins. You’ll also receive a score based on how well you complete the puzzle; unlike in Layton, though, you can compare your scores to others online to see how you stack up. Puzzle Agent is slated for a WiiWare release this year, as well as on other systems, and it looks like it’ll be a good addition to the service; more than one of us at NintendoGal are big Layton fans, and to bring the format to a new IP with a new style holds a fair bit of promise.
Telltale also showed off the next installment in their ongoing third season of Sam & Max, entitled “They Stole Max’s Brain!” The beginning of this episode shows a rather angry Sam driving about town, utilizing threat tactics, noir-style exposition, and a dialogue-choice system similar to Mass Effect in order to get more information on where Max’s stolen brain happens to be. Telltale mentioned that this season was going to feature more “gratuitous cinema” than the previous two, as well as some psychic powers from Max.
When asked if the third season would be bundled into a Wii disc, the rep responded with what was basically “well, we did it the first two times, so…” The statement was non-committal, but implied that there was no real reason it wouldn’t be happening, though they’ll have to find a publisher for season three if they intend to do it, like for the two seasons before.
Stay tuned to NintendoGal.com for more E3 impressions this week.
