“I am Guybrush Threepwood, mighty pirate!”
Between the moment Guybrush said that iconic phrase in Return to Monkey Island and our re-imagining of well-known characters like used boat salesman Stan S. Stanman and Cobb with his “Ask me about Loom” badge, I was already enveloped in a whiff of nostalgia. And you would eat all of that too if you’re a fan of Monkey Island. What’s special about Monkey Island enthusiasts is that we can bite your ears off, which makes the series so unique. It’s the earnest naivety of its pirate hero, Guybrush Threepwood, and the series’ whimsical and self-centered humor. But most of all, it’s that one absurd puzzle you must solve in the original Monkey Island mystery: the sheer exhilaration of transporting an ultra-tart concoction of a pirate drink called grog across an island without melting its tankard and burning your hands along the way.
It still exists in Return to Monkey Island, a point-and-click adventure game that hasn’t lost any of its luster and immense charm since creator Ron Gilbert’s last Monkey Island game, which is almost 30 years old a lot of such preferences to remember old. It feels like time has barely passed since, with the premise of its daring story faithfully derived from a Monkey Island structure that feels refined to perfection.
Guybrush goes in search of the biggest secret of the island of the same name and needs a boat and a crew again. He stops by Melee Island, the haunt of every self-confessed powerful pirate and others in the Caribbean, and runs into some old and not-so-friends there. The Voodoo Lady makes several dramatic explanations about the nature of Guybrush’s ill-fated expedition, with him eventually scrapping all available resources for his voyage to Monkey Island. Hijinks, which can involve the sophisticated use of chicken and other poultry-related products, ensue. You get the drift.
The essence of Monkey Island lies in its signature goofy flair and a genuine sense of humor that Return to Monkey Island exudes. It’s challenging to get into specifics without veering into spoiler territory, but there’s a wealth of playful jokes and self-aware gags that made me gasp due to the game’s impeccable comedic timing. An early scenario designed to introduce the ability to quickly jump through dialogue lets you hear a rambling monologue about the exquisite function, history, and beauty of anchors.
Return to Monkey Island punctuates its punch lines with remarkably comedic timing. There are settings for jokes that will pay off in ridiculous conclusions at a later date. There are countless references that break the fourth wall and poke fun at everything from pop culture to the quirks of video games. There are throwbacks to past gags like the stunning, intangible textures of Stan’s jacket that never stops being funny. This humor is more than superficial; It’s thoroughly cast into every part of Return to Monkey Island, from its eccentric cast of characters to the way its puzzles play out, like a specific quest involving a mop, some grease, and a tiny hole. Return to Monkey Island exudes personality, with plenty of charisma.
Given the popularity of the series, it would have been easy for Gilbert and his Terrible Toybox studio to create a new Monkey Island game that simply capitalized on his fans’ sentiment towards the series – a knowing wink, a few inside jokes or references to breadcrumbs to longstanding gags in Monkey Island (and there are so many of them). But while Return to Monkey Island is a sequel to Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge, Terrible Toybox isn’t content to let the game serve as just an elaborate throwback to the earlier games.
Notable is the refreshed art style of the game. Far from deviating sharply from the spirit of the series, this feels more like a much-needed lick of paint on a beloved but older series that’s symbolic of the new yet familiar direction Return to Monkey Island is taking. Take the Scrapbook, for example, a nifty feature that briefly narrates the colorful exploits of the famous Mighty Pirate to help new players get started and to serve as a throwback to a series that spanned three decades.
There’s also a hint system that’s brilliantly woven into the story, and it’s meticulously thought out and immensely helpful to people like me who can be cornered by its puzzles, and it doesn’t reveal all the answers at once. Clues presented through a grimoire are gradually revealed depending on the obstacles you face, encouraging you to discover the solutions to the puzzles yourself. It does this by presenting keywords that can inspire a solution – perhaps a revelation – or vague clues that gently nudge you in the right direction.
And then there’s the refreshing point-and-click interface, which is more intuitive than the antiquated “nine-verb” menu of traditional point-and-click titles. No longer will you haphazardly pull bells and whistles on these verbs to accidentally discover what you can do with them; This new interface streamlines such interactions to examine or use these objects. As a result, Guybrush’s humor and jokes associated with the abuse of these items in the older Monkey Island games disappear in this title. You can no longer talk to random artifacts you’ve pulled off the shelf or shuffle unrelated things together. Fortunately, such gags are largely trivial in the first place (don’t worry anyway; Return to Monkey Island is a source of great jokes).
You can even choose between two difficulty modes, allowing you to choose between an experience that prioritizes the story over the puzzles, or another for puzzle enthusiasts who prefer a little brain teaser. The sum of these parts points to an incredibly thoughtful design that makes Return to Monkey Island an adventure that everyone can immerse themselves in – one that can be equally appealing to new players, especially those who might be worried about getting into to trudge a series with decades of history.
On the other hand, distilling it into its component parts wouldn’t quite embody the splendor of this Monkey Island sequel. Instead, I would like to point out that Return to Monkey Island feels like a homecoming, a throwback to those sepia-toned days when, many years ago, I first experienced the thrilling adventures of the intrepid Guybrush Threepwood in The Secret of Monkey Island. It’s also why, despite Terrible Toybox’s valiant efforts to make Return of Monkey Island more accessible to new players, it’s still fans of the original series who would get the most out of this point-and-click experience. They’re the very people who will be delighted to catch a glimpse of, say, the same scrap of molten metal Guybrush once used to hold his grog if they briefly recall the absurdity of this enigma. Deeply nostalgic and downright funny, Return to Monkey Island makes me a kid again, laughing at Guybrush’s umpteenth last-ditch effort to distract his opponents with, “Look behind you, three-headed monkey!”
