Return to Monkey Island, which remarkably returns series creator Ron Gilbert to the franchise’s director’s chair for the first time in 30 years, is a similar ride. It’s a funny, beautiful, polished and well-paced story filled with lots of puzzles that are both hilarious and challenging for anyone who appreciates a good adventure game. And Return wisely offers “Guybrush’s Scrapbook” in the main menu, as a fun, visual way to recap past Monkey Island games narrated by Guybrush. But for those like me, for whom the early Monkey Island games were a formative part of our gaming youth, this reunion with unpredictable pirate Guybrush Threepwood feels like coming home. To that end, I loved the not-so-hidden Trivia Cards scattered throughout many scenes, testing your knowledge of the franchise. The most obvious way that Return to Monkey Island differs from its predecessors is in its art style. Gilbert could have gone the pixel art route to pick some extra low-hanging fruit of nostalgia, but instead he went with a much bolder modern look. I confess: I didn’t like it when I first saw it. It’s a jarring departure from the games I love, but then again, so was the first post-Gilbert Monkey Island game, Curse of Monkey Island, which used a Disney animation style I loved. Return’s art direction is more abstract, but somewhere in the 11 hours it took me to finish the story I loved it. It uses a large chunk of the color palette, and its over-the-top character design fits nicely with Monkey Island’s sense of humor. The delightful music could easily fool you into thinking you’re still in 1991. “ But while you’d never mistake Return to Monkey Island for any other game in the series at a glance, the delightful music could easily fool you into thinking you’re still in 1991. Composers Michael Land and Peter McConnell return with another pleasant Caribbean music, and goes a long way to making this feel like a proper return to monkey island. The same goes for the voice cast, headlined by Dominic Armato as Guybrush Threepwood, who brings a low-key sensibility to a game filled with often absurd scenarios, though he’s not afraid to throw in a bit of sarcasm when the occasion calls for it. Everyone in this world knows that Guybrush is a benevolent mess, but they can’t help but root for this hopeless underdog and befriend him anyway. Armato’s performance is a big reason why I felt the same way. There is an innocence to Guybrush that shines through. And what about the plot? Return is set right after Monkey Island 2, but it’s framed in a clever way that I didn’t expect. This showed me a new side of Monkey Island: its big heart, which is quickly apparent in the playable Prelude that I won’t spoil here, and it keeps calling to me. Its primary story involves – what else – the quest for the Secret of Monkey Island, and that quest revolves around Guybrush’s never-ending rivalry with zombie-pirate villain LeChuck and their not-really-love-triangle with Elaine Marley. In fact, Return obsesses over the underlying mystery far more than any of its predecessors, and to repetitive comic effect. The decades of wondering if Gilbert will ever reveal the true Secret of Monkey Island are reflected in the game, with even Guybrush’s wife Elaine wondering why our hero continues to cling to it. Along the way, it revisits familiar locations like Melee Island and of course Monkey Island, and takes us to new ones. as well as bringing back familiar faces (like Murray!) and introducing a host of new characters. Shout out to Locke Smith, who you’ll visit many times and is well aware that her name is a pun.
Happily confused
An excellent story and memorable characters are only one half of the equation of the classic puzzle game: the other is a series of puzzles that are difficult and satisfying to solve, acting as the foundation of any great point-and-click adventure. Return offers a hearty helping of them here, always including a thread of comedy that runs through the traditional question of which item to use on which person or location at each turn. The puzzle-solving is as satisfying as ever, and the 2022 iteration of Monkey Island has learned to avoid the notoriously obtuse “adventure game logic” that so often made people bounce from the originals. Return to Monkey Island – Gamescom 2022 The puzzle structures and solutions don’t really break new ground, but none were so abstract as to leave me wondering how on earth I would have ever figured out the solution once I figured it out. And while nothing ever got me down to the point where I wanted to give up and try again later with a refreshed mind, sometimes I got a little stuck in the mud, as is true of the course in these games – like when I had to use a “sorry frog” to win back the favor of Melee Island’s ruler, Carla. So I used Guybrush’s ever-present hint book here and there and quickly learned that I didn’t have to swallow my pride completely before resorting to it. It’s a very welcome evolution of a feature first introduced to the series in LucasArts’ 2009 remasters of Monkey Island 1 and 2, and it feels guilt-free in its use because it’s not just a series of spoilers like using a walkthrough. Instead, it gives you layer-by-layer hints, nudging you in the right direction while still maintaining the sense of satisfaction you get from finally solving the puzzle yourself. Only once, in fact, did the hint book tell me something I really didn’t want to know at the time. The new to-do list also helps you keep track of everything you’re currently trying to tackle without feeling like you’re being led by the nose.
