"The third episode in Telltale’s Monkey Island revival delivers more lovingly crafted Threepwood antics, even if the plot takes a back seat this time round"

If there’s one thing to expect from the Monkey Island series, it’s the unexpected. When Guybrush Threepwood and company were swallowed whole by the titular Leviathan, I doubt that many could have predicted that this third chapter in the Tales of… series would incorporate a humorous take on The Newlywed Game, an bizarre underwater tribute to Cyrano de Bergerac, and a trio of drunken pirate frat-boys.

In many ways ‘Lair of the Leviathan’ is the most creative chapter so far, and the return of a certain fan favourite also helps make it the funniest. Yet it’s still indefinably difficult to feel involved in the overall plot; I originally described Chapter 2: ‘The Siege of Spinner Cay’ as the “second dish in a prolonged five course meal”, but if that’s the case then Chapter 3 is more of a side order. Plot-wise it fulfils its purpose, concluding Threepwood’s search for La Esponja Grande, yet many characters such as Elaine and LeChuck are given such minimal screen time that the episode ultimately feels removed from the previous two.

This may be due to the fact that much of Threepwood’s third Telltale outing is spent inside a giant manatee, wherein our ineffectual swashbuckler finally locates Coronado De Cava, a Spanish explorer whose years in isolation have driven him more than a little barmy. This new location does at least offer environments discernible from the previous offerings; the manatee’s interiors are expectedly gross, even if the surfaces do occasionally look like spaghetti hoops.