Chances are, if you were an 80s or 90s baby, you’ve played Monkey Island at some time or another – or at the very least, you’ve always meant to. I fell into the latter. I grew up on a healthy dosage of point-and-click games, from Space Quest to Kings Quest to Police Quest and even Zork. Then later progressed onto games like Grim Fandango, Manic Mansion, Full Throttle and the Deponia series. However, the one franchise I just never seemed to find the right time to play was Monkey Island.
Don’t get me wrong; I’ve always been acutely aware of the franchise; how could I not be? And I’ve known people who have played it – it’s just a journey I’ve never personally embarked on until now. So when I first heard about Return to Monkey Island along with the rest of the internet, I considered it a sign from the universe to go back and play all the previous titles in preparation. Pro tip: Don’t. If, like me, you’ve never played these games in your youth and don’t have a strong nostalgia for the games, you are set to be very, very disappointed.
Playing through the previous titles without any history to fall back on was so incredibly painful I almost swore off the entire franchise and didn’t play Return to Money Island. But I am nothing if not a sucker for punishment, so when Return to Money Island was released, I tried to suppress the gag reflex I had thinking about the previous games and jumped right in. And boy, oh boy, boy, am I glad that I did.
The first thing I was met with when starting the game was a prompt asking me if I had played the previous games and if I would appreciate a refresher. The story “catchup” takes about five minutes and is a play-by-play of the games before ensuring that you have your bearings when you set sail. Also, had I known about this feature before, it could have saved me from going back and playing games that are better off left unplayed or fondly remembered.
Going into the game as an adult with no preexisting love for the franchise gave me a unique vantage point to talk about the game. All too often, “revived” games rely heavily on nostalgia and offer very little outside of that sphere. With Return to Monkey Island, the nostalgia and fan service is definitely there, and if you do have memories with the franchise, it’s probably going to be an even deeper experience than I had. However, the game never uses history as a crutch, and if this is your first foray to Monkey Island, you’re sure to have a great time, sea legs or not.
Return to Monkey Island is a notable return to the franchise for many reasons, one of which is that the game sees the creator, Ron Gilbert, return to the franchise after over 30 years. And I think bringing Rin Gilbert back wasn’t just the right thing to do for the revival but was also paramount to the game’s success. Monkey Island is a funny, challenging and well-paced point-and-click game. Still, even more importantly, it’s a game practically oozing with love. It translates so intensely that it’s almost impossible not to have those feelings rub off on you.
Another feature the game incorporates, and one that drives home that this franchise grew up alongside its players, is a convenient “recap” feature. Essentially the entire game you play is told through the lens of Guybrush (the protagonist), now a father and telling the stories of his adventures to his son. When the game picks up that you haven’t played for a while (a week break in my case, thanks to loadshedding), players will be met with a scene where Guybrush asks his son if he still remembers where they are in the story. If you say no, the game runs you through everything that’s happened until you stopped.
I can not overstate this feature’s greatness and how badly I wish it were a standard across all story-based games. I can not even tell you how many times I’ve been committed to a game, stopped playing for a while, and when I’ve returned, felt so removed from the story and lost that it was almost impossible to get back into. But that’s also not the only convenient features Return to Monkey Island presents.
Another winner for me personally is the difficulty options. Upon starting the game, players can choose how they want to enjoy their time, even down to deciding if they’re okay with a bit of moon-logic to their puzzles. Now, difficultly settings are hardly new to games, and if anything, it’s more shocking if a game doesn’t include them. However, it is new to the point-and-click genre, and even though I chose to play it with all the frustration that comes with old-school moon logic, it’s nice to know that people unfamiliar with the genre can now pick it up and enjoy their time without having the game essentially gatekeep itself.
The biggest elephant in the room, if you will, surrounding the new game is the departure in art style. I’ll be honest with you, I was not too fond of the latest style straight off the bat, but in the franchise’s defence, I wasn’t crazy about the weird “Disney-esque” art style of Curse of Monkey Island either. But that being said, after a couple of hours of playing, the art started to grow on me. By the time I had finished the game, I was a bit of a fan, mainly because of how well the style suited the game’s humour and story.
By now, you’ve probably realised I’ve yet to talk about my favourite part of any game: the story, and that’s no accident. I refuse to spoil anything here. As I said previously, the game handles catching players up and bringing them into the story with such expertise it needs no help from me. All I will say is if you enjoy point-and-click games, you should give this one a try, regardless of if you’re invested in the series or not. And suppose you are someone with love for the entire franchise. In that case, this is a well-crafted homage to the games that have come before. Instead of reinventing the wheel, Return to Monkey Island works on making the journey home as smooth as possible.
