In tribute to Michael Jackson, from the height of his fame here’s an old Sega Genesis classic, Moonwalker.

Dusting off their Threepwood. Guybrush that is. They’ve just announced a new special edition of The Secret Of Monkey Island available on PC and XBox LIVE. Here’s the original (left) and special edition (right) box art.

I’m not entirely sure I like the cartoony art direction, but The Secret Of Monkey Island is a classic computer game that deserves to be preserved and handed down through the ages.

From Lucas Arts…

LucasArts is proud to announce the return of one of the most revered adventure games of all time. In The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, fans of adventure games get to re-experience the hilarious swash-buckling adventure all over again in a fully re-mastered edition that brings the classic game into the modern era.

If you notice the original box says “by Ron Gilbert”. It just so happens he has a blog and he’s spilling some of Monkey Island’s secrets. It’s a must read for fans of the original but look out it’s full of spoilers.

Lucas and Tell Tale Games have also announced…

Tales of Monkey Island, a five-episode series on PC and WiiWare that takes Guybrush on an swashbuckling new adventure across the seven seas.

The Wii seems like a good fit for adventure games given their casual nature. Could this genre make a come back?

Following Microsoft and Sony’s E3 demos, Nintendo has revealed their secret Wii weapon.

Some how I doubt they spent as much R&D on it as the other two did their fancy controllers, but I bet they’ll sell more copies.

In an attempt to steal Natal’s thunder, Sony unveiled a prototype of their new motion control system.

I have to agree with them that sometimes you need a button. I’m not entirely sure what direction this is taking things. While everyone makes a big deal about the novelty of the Wiimote. I think it’s only part of the success story: it’s priced lower, it introduced casual party games, it doesn’t require an HD TV, and parents are more comfortable buying little Johnny a console that doesn’t support GTA. I’m happy to see innovation, but I doubt motion controls will significantly increase sales. I would also hate to see all the focus put on casual party games with bright happy color palettes.

Here’s a break from E3 news Reuters reports…

Created by Alexey Pajitnov at the Moscow Academy of Science during the height of the Cold War, and developed as a business by gaming entrepreneur Henk Rogers, the puzzle game has sold more than 125 million copies since its first playable version was completed June 6, 1984.

The article fails to mention that it was conceived as a KGB project to ruin the productivity of factories run by decadent capitalist pigs while subliminally encoding their worker’s brains with the communist manifesto. Fortunately their plan backfired and led to the collapse of the Soviet tetrominoes. (probably cuz I just made that up)

Today at E3 Microsoft announced it’s newest accessory to compete against the Wii.

The controller accurately tracks all of your movements fluidly and more accurately than the Wii (so they say). What is cool is that there is no controller to hold, you just move. To shoot in games they are going to have to do something but if done right this could be a fun peripheral.