Return To Monkey Island Review

We’re all grown up now, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a bit of juvenile fun from time to time. That’s the vibe we get from Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman, original creators of the Monkey Island franchise, when playing their unexpected new entry in the series.

It’s a proper old-school nostalgia romp, an injection of youth juice for the old and flabby who wax lyrical about their first adventures with pirate-wannabe Guybrush Threepwood, including Guybrush himself. And for the most part, it doesn’t fail to live up to our rose-tinted rememberings.

In the wake of the Disney LucasArts acquisition, Gilbert publicly declared his desire to make another Monkey Island game. I distinctly remember thinking the company would reject the idea, content to sit on the property till doomsday. Thankfully, Gilbert wasn’t dealing with EA.

Two years of secret development on and we have the most pleasant gaming surprise of 2022. A true sequel, the ‘real’ Monkey Island 3. The first from Gilbert and Grossman since 1991.

Setting the scene

And 1991 is exactly where we pick up on our new adventure, with two boys running around an island playing pirate, a tutorial aping the out-of-left-field ending to Gilbert and Grossman’s last title, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge. (Was our grand adventure just in some dumb kids’ imagination all along? wait, whaaaat?)

When we finally meet Guybrush Threepwood, he is neither the plucky adolescent pirate we remember nor a child with an overactive imagination, but a Dad, sitting on a park bench, content to recount his adventures to the sprog that we have just had the pleasure of learning the controls with.

The specific adventure that Guybrush chooses to recount, the one we’re about to play, is the tale of how he discovered the actual secret of Monkey Island. The title of the first game, of course, but not exactly a thing that was ever revealed.

So a game that is a retrospective indulgence for us is the same for our main character. Clever.

The artistic monkey in the room

Before we go any further, we need to address the ‘monkey’ in the room, and that’s the game’s art style.

First seen when a gameplay trailer was revealed at the arse end of summer, it would be kind to say reactions were mixed. It would be more accurate to say countless fans downright hated it. So much so that Gilbert had to cancel a series of blog posts chronicling the game’s development due to the number of abusive comments he received. Ouch!

I too was guilty of a teenager-like tissy at what is, let’s be honest, not the most important aspect of a puzzle adventure game. By the time I finished the game, I’m happy to say I was totally over it. I’ve grown to quite like it.

The art is highly stylised and simplistic, utilising broad geometric forms and exaggerated proportions. According to Gilbert, it was inspired by fan art he received back in 2007. It’s clear he wanted to preserve the lo-fi pixel style of the original 2 games but without the obvious ‘retro throwback’ vibe of such a literal approach. The result is a quirky image, but one that lacks personality, especially when it comes to the characters themselves.

It’s not much of a problem if you compare it to the first 2 pixel-chonky Monkey Island titles. Still, it plays like a backward step compared with the free-flowing cartoon animation introduced with the 3rd game in the series, The Curse Of Monkey Island – a game that neither Gilbert nor Grossman were a part of.

A familiar inventory with some welcome quality-of-life improvements

Inventory management is inspired by previous entries in the series, and this version is by far my favourite iteration, as it’s so easy to use. As usual, all manner of quirky things will make it into your impossibly spacey trouser pockets, the utterly useless horse armour given away as a preorder bonus in a nod to the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion’s famously underwhelming DLC was my highlight.

Three new inventory items have a deeper effect on gameplay. First, there’s the to-do list, a self-explanatory and, at times, quite a helpful tool if you’ve forgotten what you should be doing.

Next, there’s the hint book, which reveals in stages the solutions to whatever puzzles you have ongoing – no doubt an attempt at keeping the TikTok generation engaged long enough to finish the game or for us confused older folk who don’t have the brainpower to grind our way to the solutions like we used to do, and had to do, way back when there was no Google to tell us what to do.

Finally, there’s the trivia book, where you’ll place trivia cards you’ve collected hidden all around the islands you’ll be exploring. Each card tests your nerdy knowledge of the Monkey franchise, from the commonly known to the downright obscure. It’s a clever bit of fan service that I hugely approve of and a nice reminder of the series’ rich history.

Point-n-click without the insults

Gameplay-wise, Return To Monkey Island plays exactly as you’d expect if you’ve ever engaged with a classic graphic adventure title.

Movement is faster and more direct than in most games of the genre, with each area featuring a series of handy circle pop-ups to indicate the locations of all the objects you can interact with. It’s a handy timesaver, but it’s also indicative of a desire to make the gameplay experience even simpler. Sup to the easily-bored youth, perhaps, but one that robs the game of some of the joy of exploration.

How you interact with objects has improved, with the addition of a red cross that pops up when you try to combine objects that definitely won’t work together. In games past, you could endlessly ask Guybrush to attach a rubber chicken to a map piece or some other madness, requiring him to tell you, “That doesn’t work” or ” naaaaah” every time you attempted such an ungodly union. Now, you know instantly what works with what.

The puzzles themselves? They’re vintage Monkey Island – imaginative, clever and funny. As for the mechanics, apart from the odd time-sensitive interaction, there are no insult sword-fighting, grog-mug-swapping or voodoo doll-stabbing moments to change the pace or style of the puzzles. It’s a definite shame.

Locations-wise, our adventure takes place over various distinctly characterful islands, so nothing unusual there. Return To Monkey Island takes the differences to the extreme with two locations, Terror Island and Scurvy Island. The first is a near-giant monster in island form, and the latter a pretty field of limes, but sadly, both are wasted beyond one or two specific puzzles. The one location I liked was Brrr Muda (great name), a ‘Caribbean’ Island in the north that happens to be a frozen wasteland and home to an indigenous people ruled by the Queen of Brrr Muda, someone you’ll need to defeat in a series of odd challenges to help unlock (tiny spoiler) the secret of Monkey Island.

The greatest hits of returning favourites, with a few oddities

Return To Monkey Island decides to retread much of the ground, quite literally, trod in the very first game. Namely, Mêlée Island is your main port of call.

And with that comes a reunion with many of the beloved characters we were first introduced to in 1990, with the odd twist thrown in. The pirate leaders holed up in the Scumm Bar are now running a fish and tackle store, replaced in their leaderly guise by a distinctly modern gaggle of moody pirate Gen-Zers.

One of my favourites, Stan, the second-hand salesman of anything from Ships to Coffins to Life Insurance, is back. However, he won’t be selling you up the river with anything on this occasion, as is Wally, the haplessly helpful monocle-donning Cartographer and, of course, the Voodoo lady.

Another favourite, Murray, the indignant human skull who was never part of the original Gilbert/Grossman games, is featured heavily throughout. Of all the returning stars, Murray has the funniest lines.

LeChuck is back, of course, but his motivations are more confused than ever. No longer in pursuit of Elaine (more on her in a moment), he seems determined to one-up Guybrush in whatever endeavour our wet-blanket hero is obsessing over. It’s more in line with a pubescent school rivalry than a blood-thirsty fight for the ‘great’ prize.

The most confusing character in the game, though, is Elaine Marley, who is still Guybrush’s wife. Flitting around the edges of our latest adventure, she acts more like a patient mother dealing with an errant child than a wife who clearly should be more invested (and downright irritated) by her husband’s madcap behaviour.

“Is it exactly how we remember it? Or rather, is it what we wanted it to be? Yes and no.”

According to Gilbert, early versions of the game had the characters estranged and at odds with each other, but this conflict didn’t go down well with testers. The resulting change is a bland compromise. This is especially evident when Guybrush ruins something important to Elaine, yet all she does is smile and brush it off. Who wants such an oddball pairing of husband and wife to get on that well in a comedy adventure video game? So much humour comes from conflict, and the writers missed a trick on this score.

Conclusion

Return to Monkey Island doesn’t just take us back to our childhoods, it does so through the eyes of Guybrush himself, who, like the creators, is all grown-up but happy nonetheless to recount another great adventure.

Is it exactly how we remember it? Or rather, is it what we wanted it to be? Yes and no.

The fan service is plain to see, with an all-star cast of Monkey Island favourites and that signature puzzle adventure form made all the better by improved inventory management and quicker movement systems. As for the puzzles themselves? They’re as clever and imaginative as ever.

The character work is a bit disappointing, though, with many confused and conflicting motivations letting the writing down somewhat. The art style is pretty weird, too. The consolation is that if you hate it, you’ll probably get used to it after a while, as I did.

And as for the secret of Monkey Island itself? As a fan from age 6, I had a lot invested in this one! If you’re a fan of the series, you won’t be surprised by the daftly humourous resolutions to that central question, depending on what version of the ending you’ve haplessly wound up with. An amusing but slightly underwhelming outcome. Classic Monkey.

Return To Monkey Island is available to buy on Steam for £19.49.