Monkey Island Returns is the surprise 6th instalment in the much beloved point and click adventure series. Seriously, we had no idea this was coming until about a month ago and ’The Secret of Monkey Island’ (#1 in the series) was perhaps the first game we fell into fanboy love with as a child!
Released today on steam we’re dying to sink some hours into this adventure. But puzzle adventures don’t tend to progress well when half asleep at end of a mentally exhausting day and the humour loses its flavour against dimmed wits so we’re saving this one for some golden gaming hours. When the sun is up and all is right with the world.
For those new to point and click adventures, you work your way through the narrative by solving puzzles and circumstances that often require some out of the box or creative solutions. These are not fast paced games but so rewarding when you finally break through a block. Who would think to carry grog three city blocks while it eats through seven or so mugs? We sure as hell didn’t for so, so very long.
Monkey Island’s brand of humour is iconic in the genre, lead by none other than Guybrush Threepwood – pirate! Think recent BA graduate who watched Pirates of Caribbean on repeat for 9 semesters and now wants nothing more than to be a feared swashbuckling pirate of the seven seas! Alongside Guybrush the trailer shows returning characters of one of our favourite 8 bit sweethearts governor Elaine Marley, Walley (sorry pal, never liked you) as well as the staple evil does LeChuck!
The franchise itself has worn many hats since it’s first release in 1990, artistically speaking, and ‘Monkey island Returns’ seems to be no exception. Over the years the titles have also been inconsistent on their delivery with some instalments failing to reinforce the core elements that won our hearts in those early days despite the improved graphic and gameplay opportunities over the decades. ‘Escape from Monkey Island’ (#4) we’re looking at you, you piece of sh… ahem.
But, with the return of Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman at the helm, key to the develop of #1 and #2 that launched the series on their success we have high hopes! The trailer depicts several locations familiar from the first game so we can expect to see much of Melee Island and anticipate that nostalgic buzz in high doses! That’s not to say the game won’t be friendly to newcomers to the franchise. With many screenshots and trailer moments reminiscent of the past titles, ‘Return to Monkey Island’ looks to cover a lot of ground in the story from games #1 and #2 and picking up from there. That said as well these games have always done very well narratively in setup and development, guaranteed to engage but not lose you in overly complex or convoluted nonsense under the guise of a puzzle or challenge so we feel audiences at any stage of their monkey business will do just fine.
As for ourselves we’ll be jumping into this title when we have the chance so keep an eye out for our review but for fans of the series or even a good point and click title we’re prepared to back this one by our gut.
If you do play this title, like it and are new to the franchise, we also thoroughly recommend checking out the back catalogue with ‘The secret of Monkey Island’(#1), ‘LeChuck’s Revenge’ (#2) and ‘Curse of Monkey Island’ (#3). TellTale Game’s take on the franchise with ‘Tales of Monkey Island’ (#5) is also a fun romp in the world of Threepwood brand pirating you’ll likely also enjoy.
See you in the Caribbean!! See the trailer here!
