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| A Determined Pirate Gets Sage Advice—Captured on Switch (Handheld Mode) |
I’m a bit ashamed that, with my growing love of point-and-click adventure games, the Monkey Island series was only a cluster of islands on the acoustic archipelago. Being conceived during the dawn of the nineties meant that I would miss the first two titles developed by Ron Gilbert during his time at Lucasfilm Games—while it was known as LucasArts. My earliest experiences with the genre were the edutainment titles by Humongous Entertainment that were a fun romp as a kid, but not so much now—a couple decades older and somewhat wiser. I was left wanting so much more and most of the Sierra games—that I am aware of—only run on Windows, at least according to GOG.
So I sought out other titles like the Sierra-inspired Guard Duty, the comedic sci-fi quadrilogy Deponia, and a callback to Maniac Mansion titled Thimbleweed Park. The last game, developed and published by Terrible Toybox, had Ron Gilbert on the team—early Monkey Island’s very same. I admit that I have yet to fully finish a playthrough—I’m a little past the halfway point—but the writing is something else in the best way possible. So when I read about, then watched the announcement for Return to Monkey Island, I decided it was finally time to dive in…
…and I regret nothing.
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| Passing on the Legacy In-Game, the Threepwood Way—Captured on Switch (Handheld Mode) |
Return to Monkey Island starts out with a fun little prologue of a tutorial staring Guybrush Threepwood’s son, Boybrush, and his friend, Chuckie, playing around in an amusement park. Even if you are familiar with the basics of any point-and-click adventure, Ron Gilbert and the team making this teaching experience an enjoyable one with a fully-voiced cast and little sprinkles of humor that lead into the grand adventure itself: A journey in which Guybrush Threepwood (voiced by Dominic Armato) plans on traveling to Monkey Island to uncover the Secret and ultimately one-up his ethereal adversary, LeChuck (voiced by Jess Harnell).
It is impossible not to fall in love with Threepwood’s antics as he unintentionally causes chaos on his journey. Every item he needs requires him to walk straight into events of roughish mischief with an equally lovable supporting cast that seems to roll with his punches...mostly. They even make the fourth-wall a part of the world—or, they aware of the fact that they are in a video game and just roll with it like a normal workday. Guybrush Threepwood is truly a master of metatheatre. More importantly, so are Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman who not only designed this game, but wrote the story in which everything just works together. The music and artwork only add to the charm, bringing the tropic locales to life alongside undead deckhands.
Even if, like me, you are mostly unfamiliar with the Monkey Island games, Return is a perfect entry point into the series. There is a scrapbook on the menu screen that provides a voiced recap of Threepwood’s previous adventures if his past voyages pique your curiosity. The story itself, however, does not require past knowledge of previous games to understand Threepwood’s world…unless you want to try your hand at the trivia cards.
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| Just one golden nugget...out of many. (Pst! He's Describing the Quill!)—Captured on Switch (Docked Mode) |
Question: How does the gameplay far on this Return to Monkey Island? Answer: Smoothly.
You can use either the touchscreen or the controller to guide Guybrush Threepwood on his journey back to the namesake island with little trouble. It does feel slightly more awkward with the controller—as in, I sometimes found myself missing important items in a room—but the game’s use of the top-shoulder buttons makes this a non-issue, allowing you to cycle through every highlighted object until you find the one you need.
Outside my minor fumble, everything else about the gameplay and the interface is truly a matter of pick-up-and-play. Or rather, in this case: Pick up, discover, and explore. There is also a hint book you obtain early in the game which, when a puzzle completely stumps you, provides a couple of lines to prod you in the right direction.
Speaking of puzzles, the difficulty modes do a good job of providing the player with the choice between smooth-sailing for the story (casual) and a full-on head-scratcher (hard). If you went from a casual playthrough to the more difficult one like I did, your interpretation of “full-on head-scratcher” may vary since the more challenging puzzles mostly just stick some extra bits and steps on the older ones.
There is also a neat little option that acts as a sort of “director’s cut” to the in-game dialog—ideally extending the writing. I say ideally since I also started my hard mode playthrough with the option turned on so its a little unclear how it works. That bit of mess is on me though.
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| No, Not the Artwork...I personally dig it—Captured on Switch (Docked Mode) |
The love Ron Gilbert and his team have for the Monkey Island series emanates in every detail of this unexpected installment. Return to Monkey Island is not just catering to long-time fans of the series, but to newcomers like myself who want to join Threepwood’s journey to possible riches. Unless you are a trivia buff or have a heap of Monkey Island nostalgia, this game perfectly stands alone with every character being memorable in both a loving and comedic way. What was simple in point-and-click gameplay is made simpler in controls, but the puzzle difficulty is left up to you. Spoiling this game further would be a disservice as it is an experience full of heart, japes, and barrels stuffed with grog and limes. In other words, I would set sail and make the pilgrimage to Monkey Island if I were you.
In Sum: The Secret is a glass of grog, rich in flavor and easy to pick up. It is a tale that does not require multiple nights at the bar listening to stories and sea shanties past. If it was a wine, it aged gracefully and will never pixelate: 9.5 out of 10
Additional Notes: As I'm writing this, there's an ongoing Kickstarter campaign for a book detailing the history of the Monkey Island games from French book publisher, Third Editions. Simply titled The Mysteries of Monkey Island, the book dives deep into the worlds of both Guybrush Threepwood and the team who created the games themselves. It goes without saying that it's not sponsored, but when I went to change my pledge for another campaign (the one for Fusion Retro Books's Annuals), this one popped up in my suggestions. After my experience on Monkey Island, I couldn't say no...
If you're interested in backing it, the campaign ends on October 17th at 11am (EDT).
