Return to Monkey Island (from Devolver Digital and Lucasfilm, Ltd.) with Ron Gilbert - Releasing September 19th, 2022 (Switch/PC), November 8th, 2022 (PS5/Series/Game Pass)

[Romier S]

Awesome!

 

https://returntomonkeyisland.com/

 

 

[Angry the Clown]

Oh wow. 

[Angry the Clown]

Art Director is the excellent Rex Crowle who has worked on games like Tearaway and Knights & Bikes:

 

 

[ChrisBardon]

That looks neat!  I'm a little confused though-I read about this being a direct follow up to Monkey Island 2, and basically ignoring the rest of the series.  Is there some animosity there?  MI3 wasn't bad by any means, and Escape and the Telltale games were OK (and even had some of the original folks involved if I recall), but this seems like a deliberate move to retcon the series. 

 

But look, Thimbleweed Park was brilliant, so if this gets made in the same gameplay style, I'm all for it.  I just figured Double Fine would be involved in some capacity if any old Lucas properties came back from the dead. 

[iainl]

Not only was MI3 pretty good (not quite up to 1&2 standard, but pretty good) but it’s also when Murray was introduced, so having him in the trailer seemed weird. 

[Cyberwoo]

18 hours ago, iainl said:

Not only was MI3 pretty good (not quite up to 1&2 standard, but pretty good) but it’s also when Murray was introduced, so having him in the trailer seemed weird. 

 

Well they do nudge Murray off the pier and into the water.  One could take that as a diss to MI3 and the games that followed.   

[Graeme]

1 hour ago, Cyberwoo said:

 

Well they do nudge Murray off the pier and into the water.  One could take that as a diss to MI3 and the games that followed.   

Curse is my favourite of the series, and Murray is a big part of why (along with the exquisite animation, phenomenal voice cast, and some very clever jokes and puzzles), so I hope that wasn’t a diss. 
 

I’m very excited that this is happening. I’m glad Gilbert, Grossman, and McConnel are involved and I actually started to get a bit emotional when I saw those names. There is something about Monkey Island that just hits me. I am a bit surprised that Tim Schaefer isn’t involved, but I’m not upset that he isn’t. 
 

I’m not really a big fan of the art style shown in this trailer, but it’s not bad. We’ll have to see how I feel when they show more. 
 

This year too!

[Angry the Clown]

While he's contributed a lot of voice work for the series in addition to voicing Murray, Denny Delk's post-trailer tweet suggests that perhaps there's more for the character than merely being the subject of a dismissive gag for the teaser.

 

 

 

[Graeme]

Good. I was excited to see him. It never even occurred to me that him being dumped into the sea could have signalled his death.

[Angry the Clown]

On 4/5/2022 at 9:31 PM, Graeme said:

Good. I was excited to see him. It never even occurred to me that him being dumped into the sea could have signalled his death.

 

From the horses mouths:

 

Despite being Monkey Island 3 both in terms of Gilbert’s history with his own series as well as chronologically, Gilbert and Grossman both say the decision to canonify the other Monkey Island games rather than ignore or dispose of them was an easy one. “Yes, they are canon,” Grossman said, with Gilbert adding, “Neither Dave nor I felt like we could throw them out. There are a lot of beloved games. We love things like Murray. Throwing them out seemed like a pointless thing to do.”

 

https://www.ign.com/articles/return-to-monkey-island-ron-gilbert-dave-grossman-how-it-became-reality-monkey-island-3

[Angry the Clown]

Gameplay trailer:

 

 

It's launching with a console exclusivity window on Switch.

[Graeme]

I will absolutely play this, and the game looks pretty good, but I am really not a fan of this art style still. I hope it will grow on me as I play it. 
 

That Monkey Island theme just gets me every time I hear it. 

[Romier S]

September 19th it is!

 

 

[Brandon H]

I can’t wait to get my horse armor.

[Romier S]

This is out and ready for purchase on PC and Switch. 

[Graeme]

I’m really torn on which platform to get this on. On one hand, Monkey Island is “traditionally” a PC game and is best played with a mouse. 
 

On the other hand, I really don’t like sitting at my desk to play games anymore, and would like the flexibility of playing on a Switch.

 

Also, despite the game being a fairly “simple” 2D game, I assume it will run at higher resolutions on the PC. 

[ChrisBardon]

5 minutes ago, Graeme said:

I’m really torn on which platform to get this on. On one hand, Monkey Island is “traditionally” a PC game and is best played with a mouse. 
 

On the other hand, I really don’t like sitting at my desk to play games anymore, and would like the flexibility of playing on a Switch.

 

Also, despite the game being a fairly “simple” 2D game, I assume it will run at higher resolutions on the PC. 

Get the PC version and then play it on a Steam Deck?

[Angry the Clown]

I forgot this was out so soon. I had October/November in my head.

[Graeme]

3 hours ago, ChrisBardon said:

Get the PC version and then play it on a Steam Deck?

Well, I don’t have a Steam Deck otherwise that would be a no brainer. I could play it on SteamLink, but that wouldn’t be a better experience than the Switch, so why bother? 
 

I think I’ve decided to get the Switch version.

[Romier S]

 

[Angry the Clown]

So happy it's coming to Game Pass.

[Graeme]

I bought it for Switch. I was sick on the day it released and tried to play it, but just wasn’t feeling well enough to concentrate on it for long. 
 

I dunno though, I just don’t have the motivation to go back to it. It’s just not calling to me the way it should.

 

I’ll give it another shot soon. I’m sure I’ll love it.

 

As expected, I don’t like much of the art style. Guybrush just looks weird. 

[Magness]

I thought this one was a lot of fun. And it played beautifully on the Steam Deck 😊

[ChrisBardon]

Finished this up on the Xbox today, and the art is definitely better in motion.  10 minutes in and I didn't really have an issue with it.  The game is actually longer than I expected it to be, with chapter 4 being the meatiest, which is where there was one more "do three of these things" puzzle chains than I thought there'd be.  Difficulty also seemed fine too-there was a choice of hard/casual at the beginning, and one of the first items you get is an in-game hint book (no option to decline it, and no achievement for not using it either).  I'm actually kind of interested in seeing what playing on the lower difficulty actually changes, and a second pass through should take no time at all.  UI on the console was all hotspots on the screen, which I think is similar to the MI remakes on 360?  Either way, there were only a couple of places that were really dense and meant a lot of tabbing through hotspots or triggering the wrong things. 

 

There is a fun easter egg at the end of the game in the scrapbook that sheds some light on the game, and I do think it succeeds at being a new Monkey Island game.  I'm not sure whether anyone who hasn't played any of the older games would be into it, but as an adventure game fan, I'm glad it exists.  I might have to say that Thimbleweed Park was a better game, but if this does well on Game Pass, then I really hope that we could get more of these.  Game Pass would be a perfect place to bring back something episodic?  Old pre-walking-dead Telltale style stuff? 

[Graeme]

I finally picked this back up a few days ago and finished it this morning. 
 

I loved it. The writing is great, there’s some really good jokes, the voice acting is fantastic as always, the puzzles were really good too. It’s a great return to a game universe and characters I love by the original creators and I’m so glad they just decided to continue the story instead of retconning some of the sequels. 

I really liked the hint system they implemented, as I had to use it a few times. I’m sure other games do the exact same thing, but it’s nice to be able to choose a task you need help with and get hints for just that puzzle without having anything spoiled or without it just being spelled out for you (until you need it). I had to use it a few times and for the most part, it just confirmed that I was (or wasn’t) on the right track. 
 

I’ll nitpick though. The art still has its issues. I don’t dislike it, and most of the time I didn’t even think about it. Guybrush is the worst model and his red nose really turns me off. It’s really only “bad” during the close ups that happen infrequently.

 

For me, the voice cast of MI3 is iconic and the proper voices of all these characters. I’m probably going to have issue with just about any deviation. Thankfully, most of the main characters return, but the current Stan voice isn’t very good IMO, and while Jess Harnell is an amazing voice actor, his LeChuck isn’t as good as previous versions. 
 

If Dominic Armato can’t do Guybrush for any reason though, just don’t bother even making that game. 
 

I also didn’t like the very last puzzle to escape Monkey Island, and I’m not totally sure about the ending.