LucasArts have announced that their much admired series of adventure games, Monkey Island, will be seeing a return to the world of gaming with two new Monkey Island related announcements.

One of the new announcements is a remake of the classic first game, The Secret of Monkey Island, with all new graphics and features, including re-mastered music and voice acting, with the ability to swap back to the graphics from the original adventure at any time.

This offering, entitled The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, will be available on Xbox LIVE Arcade and as a PC download in the Summer of this year.

The second announcement is related to a series of five episodic games entitled Tales of Monkey Island, currently in development at Telltale Games (Sam and Max, Strongbad) to be released on PC and WiiWare starting July 7th. The set-up for the game is explained thus:

“While battling his nemesis, the evil pirate LeChuck, Guybrush accidentally unleashes an insidious voodoo pox that threatens to transform the buccaneers of the Caribbean into unruly pirate monsters.”

This no doubt sets Guybrush off on an adventure, which probably involves ship-based travel from island to island around the Caribbean, to find a solution to the problem. Keep your eyes on the Tales of Monkey Island website, as well as the Monkey Island: Special Edition website, for further announcements.

Additionally, you can watch some footage below showing the comparisons between classic Secret of Monkey Island, and the new remake, the Special Edition:

E3 09: Classic Comparison

E3 09: Classic Comparison #2

E3 09: Fencing Tutorial

E3 09: A Walk Along the Docks