Return to Monkey Island (PC) - Part 1

Developer:

Terrible Toybox

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Release Date:

2022

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Systems:

Win, macOS, Linux, PS5, Series X|S, Switch, iOS, Android

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Hey they've returned to the original logo again, without the swirly 'O' and fancy 'A'. I kind of liked the new logo to be honest, but this is good too.

This week on Super Adventures, it's a Monkey Island game I've never played! I haven't even seen it being played and I've managed to dodge all the spoilers too. I get the impression that people who have played it generally like it... most of it, but even that I'm not sure about.

One thing I do know is that it's the sixth game in a critically-acclaimed, beloved and long-running adventure game series, following on from The Secret of..., LeChuck's Revenge, Curse of..., Escape from... and Tales of Monkey Island (they didn't quite have the naming scheme nailed down until the third game). I wrote about the other MI games in 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019, so really I should've had this published in 2021 to keep the pattern going. In my defence, the game was still a year from being finished at the time. This is practically brand new!

Okay, I should warn you that there will be SPOILERS here for the earlier Monkey Island games and the first hour or two of this one. And this a game all about puzzles and conversations, so I'll be ruining the story and the gameplay for you this time. I don't want to sound like I'm trying to talk you out of reading, just be aware of what you're getting into.

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The story so far...

There had been five games in the Monkey Island point-and-click adventure series up to this point, which isn't bad for a genre that was supposed to have died 20 years ago. I guess zombie ghost pirates just don't stay dead.

Though the series has definitely adapted to the times. When CD drives and multimedia became a thing, Curse of Monkey Island switched from silent sprites to fully-voiced cartoon animation. When every franchise embraced polygons in order to get onto the PlayStation, Escape from Monkey Island continued the trend of 3D adventure games being kind of terrible. And a decade later Walking Dead developers Telltale gave us the episodic Tales of Monkey Island... the last of the Monkey Island games.

But no franchise disappears forever, at least not in an era where everything has to be based on an existing IP, so now 13 years later we've got a new Monkey Island by one (or more) of its original creators! And it's 2D again! The first 2D Monkey Island since 1997!

Wow, they've even got the old logo. It's crazy to see a new adventure game with the Lucasfilm Games logo at the start. That hasn't been the case since... since Monkey Island 1 actually. Monkey Island 2 was the first to have the LucasArts Golden Guy logo at the start instead.

There's no copy protection history quiz at the start of this one however. There's no CGI intro either, which is probably for the best seeing how the last one looked. Though it does have a main menu!

"View the scrapbook if you are new to Monkey Island or need a refresher."

Oh I definitely need a refresher. I haven't played a Monkey Island game in six years, and it was Escape from Monkey Island so I was actively trying to forget it while I was playing it.

Okay, I should stop being so cruel to Escape now, as the game wasn't a complete disaster by any means. But it was clearly done by designers who weren't on the same wavelength as the original creative team. It didn't feel right, the characters didn't act right. Hopefully this time that won't be an issue.

Though getting the creator back after a break isn't necessarily going to bring back the old vibe either. The same time Escape was in production, George Lucas was coming up with Jar Jar Binks.

Wow Monkey Island 1 looks different to how I remember.

They just refuse to stick to an art style for this series. There aren't two games that look the same, not even 1 and 2, as the second game replaced the pixel art scenery with beautiful hand-drawn marker pen backgrounds.

I've been curious about how much this game is going to acknowledge the sequels after MI2. I remember Ron Gilbert mentioning that he wanted to pull a Superman Returns and make a sequel to the second entry that disregarded everything that came after, but that was a while ago now.

Hey the scrapbook does include things from the other games, even the bad parts. I didn't want to be reminded about Monkey Kombat!

Though this is definitely a 'bring your own memories' situation. I can click on the pictures to hear a bit of the story behind them, but it's got no interest in giving me a full wiki page on anything. It's not a recap, it's just... scraps.

There's even a page for Guybrush and Elaine's wedding in Curse. I got the impression that Gilbert didn't want them to actually get together, as he broke them up in the second game, but it seems like the game's running with it.

That's interesting, the game features a Writer's Cut mode. I would've preferred a Developer's Commentary track, but there's no reason (except time and effort) it couldn't have had both. What this does is it reinserts lines that were cut to improve pacing, or because they just weren't all that great. Like one of those movie director's cuts that was only made for marketing purposes and doesn't actually represent the director's preferred edit. It just makes the film longer.

There's another choice I have to make before starting and this one is literally game changing. It's... the difficulty mode. I can either play it on Casual and get easier puzzles for the busy on-the-go player, or I can get the full monkey by playing it on Hard. There is no Normal for me to pick this time.

I'm definitely not a pro-adventure gamer, but the internet's saying that the game's a bit on the easy side so I'm going to be reckless and put in on hard mode. Though the internet thinks that everything's too easy, so I might be sailing towards an island of pain here.

Hey, chapter title cards are back, that's a good sign. Not that they ever went anywhere; all the Monkey Island games have them.

(I think the second game did them the best).

What the fuck, this is the end of Monkey Island 2!

Why am I looking at the end of Monkey Island 2?

Does Return to Monkey Island actually take place between the second and third games, when mighty pirate Guybrush Threepwood was caught in LeChuck's spell and turned into a child? Am I going to see how he got out it it?

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (PC)

See, it's definitely supposed to be the same scene. Same place, same people, just redrawn in the new art style. It's like I'm playing the HD Special Edition... kind of.

By the way, I spent ages trying to get a MI2 end game save working to take this screenshot and it just wasn't cooperating, so I ultimately had to cheat. Finally after all these years I actually had a use for that 'Alt+W' shortcut that jumps you straight to the end credits! Unfortunately it also skips the last cutscene so I had to mess around with debug codes in the end.

Dude it even says 'Big Whoop'! The only thing that's missing is the creepy fairground music that's haunted me for decades. I don't know where this is going, but I'm interested.

Oh, there is something else that's missing: Guybrush's parents. These two seem to be a couple of strangers that Guybrush and Chuckie (LeChuck) are following around as a laugh. The two kids don't follow them much further though, and they walk back over here before giving me control so I can go visit the shops.

This isn't actually the first time I've played as Kid Guybrush, as he gets cursed again near the end of Curse of Monkey Island (lots of curses in that game). Except here he doesn't seem to remember anything. He's just a child playing with his friend in a theme park.

Wait, where did the theme park go?

I'm standing in the same place, these are the same buildings. How did it change without me realising? Why is this game trying to drive me insane?

Oh, I didn't notice the transition because the switch happened when the screen panned to the right for a bit. Anyway, there's no more Big Whoop. Either there's some magic going on, or this is a dream, or they've just got active imaginations.

Funny thing is, MI2 did the same thing, as Big Whoop Amusement Park looks suspiciously like a place you visit earlier on called Booty Island. But if I'm really on Booty Island right now then I should be looking at a costume shop. The barrel's in the same place at least.

Anyway, Chuckie has good ideas... which is a bit of a concerning thing for lil Kidbrush to think when I put the cursor over him. But right now it seems like the worst thing that'll happen if he follows his advice is they get some real nasty food from the Scurvydog vendor.

Holy shit, these controls... it's been so long since I've played a Monkey Island game with good controls! Escape and Tales were stuck with awkward 3D movement which made everything just a bit more awkward than it needed to be, while this is an absolute joy to play.

Okay it's really just the standard 'left-click to look, right-click to use' interface that every AGS adventure has been using since games like Beneath a Steel Sky and Broken Sword introduced it (since before Curse came out, in fact). But the bit of text that comes up when I hover the mouse over things is a new twist that gives me extra info before I even click. Efficient!

Thimbleweed Park (PC)

It's a different approach to Terrible Toybox's previous retro adventure, Thimbleweed Park, which deliberately aped the interface of old LucasArts titles with its box full of verbs next to a grid full of inventory items.

The art style is very different as well, as Thimbleweed features a classic pixel art style unshackled by ancient colour limits, while Return to Monkey Island is something new.

I wasn't sure I was going to like the storybook art style when I saw pictures of it but honestly it's won me over already. I just had to see it in action and see the personality the characters have. I could do without the gross Ren & Stimpy-style close ups it gives me sometimes when I interact with stuff.

Here's what Return to Monkey Island's inventory looks like.

We're off searching for money to buy a Scurvydog, so I need to use the outhouse key on the outhouse door to open it. Honestly, not the first place I'd look for cash, but I can believe these two would do it.

It's weird seeing Kidbrush just being a kid and Chuckie being a proper bro. In fact, it's actually kind of sweet seeing him enjoying himself and having a friend. Guybrush talked to a lot of people in the other games, but he was always on his own, completely determined to achieve his goals no matter what he had to steal or who he had to screw over. Actually there was Reginald Van Winslow in Tales, he was a guy he could hang out with.

Kidbrush does have some goals of his own, mostly thanks to Chuckie's friend Dee who just filled his TODO list full of them. I guess now that I found a coin in the outhouse and gave it to the Scurvydog guy I'm ready to take on more advanced challenges.

"Find our real parents" is a little vague, though I suppose Guybrush wasn't going to use their first names. In fact, no one's used his first name yet...

Hang on, is this Guybrush's son I'm playing as? Because that would be a great twist. I ain't mad at guessing that early if it turns out to true.

Hah, the subtitles call him Boybrush.

Alright, the next activity on my TODO list is a racing game up next to the hot air balloons. It's more of a test to see if I know the controls than actual puzzle, but I think I must have skipped the part where it tells me what to press to make him run.

You can actually check back through dialogue you skipped to make sure you didn't miss anything, which is a great feature. But it can't be that hard to figure this out. I mean, you can redefine the controls, it can't hide it from me forever. Oh, it must be 'double click' to run. Okay, cool, next challenge.

Oh, there's a tiny four-leaf clover in a patch of grass next to the track, I'll have that. Hang on, was this supposed to be a 'press to highlight objects' tutorial? Did I spoil it?

I made a wish at the well and then a giant Scurvydog fell from the sky. Uh... okay?

Oh, they must still be using their imaginations. Unless this is part of the curse!! Anyway, now that I'm dune with my TODO list tutorial I can finally head out and meet Boybrush's real parents.

Oh damn, this really is Guybrush and Elaine's kid! Good for you Guybrush. Though this raises the horrifying possibility that they really did call him Boybrush Threepwood. Wait, does that mean Chuckie is LeChuck's kid?

Man, I can't believe that Monkey Island has joined the 'video game about a dad' cliché list. It's hard to tell how old Guybrush is now with this art style, but he has a streak of gray in his hair, so he's not a young pirate anymore. Not in this part of the game anyway. It seems the main part of the story is actually going to be a tale told by Guybrush, just like in the second game. Except here he's sitting on a bench instead of hanging from a rope the whole time.

Incidentally, I expected the game to get a bit meta, but I didn't expect characters to straight up call Ron Gilbert Guybrush out for his habit of ending stories with some fourth-wall breaking, reality-shattering nonsense. I also didn't expect this to claim that despite everything in previous games we're yet to see the real Secret of Monkey Island™ (though this game's not doing the ™ joke anymore. I guess the lawyers didn't find it funny.)

PART I: A FRIENDLY PLACE

The Secret of Monkey Island (PC)

Okay, here's the beginning of the original The Secret of Monkey Island with its original 16-colour EGA graphics.

The game also a CGA mode with even less colours, and it got a makeover for 256-colour VGA cards, plus there are the ports and the Special Edition... but basically this was how it all started back in 1990.

And here's how Part I of Return to Monkey Island begins:

It's so faithful it's going to bring me to tears! It's even playing the proper theme.

The music in this has been so good so far and I soon got the explanation for that when Michael Land, Peter McConnell and Clint Bajakian's names came on screen. Those are the proper MI composers! Plus they also did the soundtrack to Day of the Tentacle and TIE Fighter and stuff.

It was written and designed by Ron Gilbert and David Grossman. Gilbert is the creator most strongly associated with MI, but Grossman worked on MI1+2, Day of the Tentacle and some of Telltale's adventures.

Lead programmer was David Fox. He said something about my Rescue on Fractalus article on Twitter once, so he's one of my all-time favourite programmers. These names are all very encouraging so far. Well except for the art team, I don't recognise any of the artists, but that's what you'd expect seeing as it's got an unfamiliar style.

And Dominic Armato reprises his role of Guybrush Threepwood!

The Secret of Monkey Island (MS-DOS)

The original game began at the fire up at the top of the cliff, which is actually a lookout post.

The lookout there was the one who told me to speak to the pirate leaders at the Scumm Bar, back when Guybrush was a mere Boybrush himself. He hadn't even gotten his iconic coat yet, or any stories to bore people with, or even his iconic beard.

But things change and now in Return to Monkey Island...

Wow, okay I guess they don't change that much. Man this game is so 2020s; everyone these days just wants to see things from 30 years ago!

Guybrush's arch-nemesis LeChuck is planning an expedition to find the REAL Secret of Monkey Island and Guybrush intends to go on his own voyage and beat him to it. First though he needs to speak with the pirate leaders in the Scumm Bar and get a little financial backing. It's hard to go anywhere without a ship and a crew, which Guybrush understands better than anyone seeing as he's had to do this to get off Mêlée Island in two previous games already.

The game's dialogue system is just how it was in the '90s, with all your potential replies listed in full. This means you almost always know what Guybrush is going to say, which is something games like Sam & Max tried to solve by using icons instead. I think it's more of a feature than a bug though, especially as the game can use it for some sneaky exposition. I mean, we learned a bunch about LeChuck here just from the things Guybrush could say.

I went down the cliff to the docks, which also looks a lot like it did back in the first game. Though the 'Re-elect Governor Marley' poster now has Carla the Sword Master's name on it. Good for her!

It's also nice to see that the legendary Scumm Bar is back at the docks again, looking just as it did. More or less.

Escape from Monkey Island (PC)

Escape from Monkey Island gave the bar a drastic reimagining, which is something I never appreciate. If we're in the same continuity and something's supposed to be the same, make it look the same! Unless a character is imagining that it looks like Big Whoop Amusement Park I mean.

Oh the curly clouds! I remember them. Return doesn't do them, but then the original game didn't either Curly clouds was Curse of Monkey Island's contribution to the Monkey Island aesthetic.

The Secret of Monkey Island (PC)

You can tell that Return has gone back to the moody atmosphere of the first game, kind of.

The Scumm Bar is also kind of similar on the inside, with that familiar sea shanty playing (it's a real shanty called Oh, Good Ale, Thou Art My Darling, and has lyrics in real life). Though the tune transitions into a metal cover as I walk into the back to see the pirate leaders.

The three pirate leaders are so iconic they even got referenced in other adventure games. Well, Simon the Sorcerer's the only one I can think of right now, but it's still kind of amazing to me that the original creators have finally come back to tell another story about these characters.

This must be what Maniac Mansion fans felt like while playing Day of the Tentacle!

Wait, where are the pirate leaders?

I'm in the same room, but these are all new faces. Time's moved on, the pirate leaders' relevance has faded and they've been replaced by the next generation.

Guybrush may have earned himself a reputation with the old guard, but the new pirate legends don't know or care who he is, and they're certainly not impressed by his comparatively minor achievements. So there will be no funding for his independent pirate project. Instead they suggest that he works with his worst enemy, seeing as they're both headed to the same place.

I feel like this could be a metaphor for something.

Boybrush suddenly interrupts as he had no idea Guybrush had met someone famous. Captain Madison's plunder stats are amazing!

Guybush didn't like her much though.

He didn't like her one bit. Their laughter has made him sad and now I hate them for it.

I like that the game is doing close ups of characters though. There were quite a few of them in Monkey Island 1 (mostly near the start), then later games used them much less often. Tales of Monkey Island had 3D characters with enough animation to actually be expressive during conversations, so this is a step backwards from that, but it's 2D so it's a trade off they had to make.

This art style isn't going to be for everyone, especially up close like this, but somehow when it's in the game I'm fine with it. I remember that I also disliked the style of Double Fine's Broken Age until I saw it in motion, and now that I'm looking back it feels strange that I ever had a problem with its character design.

Broken Age

Oh damn that's terrifying!

It's been too long since I've seen Broken Age in motion and now it's creeping out again. The teeth, man, the teeth.

Alright, now I need to go look around Mêlée Island and find a ship and a crew, same as always. Time to go relive the glory days

Hey I found his wife Elaine and damn these two are so cute together now. It's... weird is what it is. Good weird.

She acts like she wants to be around him and has respect for him, and he adores her. It's night and day from Escape From Monkey Island. There are still jokes in their dialogue, but the game's dropped the jokes about their relationship. So far.

Also it turns out that the pirate leaders have been mean to Elaine as well. First, I'm kind of glad that the disrespect isn't all flowing Guybrush's way, second... I'm going to get those guys for being mean to my wife.

Escape from Monkey Island (PC)

Mêlée Town is another location that Escape from Monkey Island redesigned entirely and I wasn't keen on it. They even changed the time on the broken clock that never changes, meaning that it's the only stopped clock I've ever seen that isn't right twice a day.

But in Return to Monkey Island the place is back to normal again! More or less.

I really appreciate that the game has put the island's layout back as it was. It's not just nostalgia, it's consistency! Authenticity. Fidelity. It's getting it right.

The places has gone downhill in the meantime though, with shops closing and graffiti on the walls. There is one shop on the left that's doing well, but I can't go in yet. I'll go check on an old friend instead.

It's the Voodoo Lady, Guybrush's greatest ally, making her 6th appearance (with the same voice actor too). Though I have to be honest, the first time I played Secret of Monkey Island I managed to complete the game without ever meeting her, as you can leave the island without her help.

She's definitely not going to be financing my expedition, as she's got her own problems. In fact she's going out of business, that's why everything's priced to clear. Though she does give Guybrush a device which could offer guidance, at a terrible cost. The cost of fully enjoying the journey which he is about to embark on. You can think of it like... a hint book.

Guybrush asks what it really is and she just tells him it actually is a literal hint book. Much cheaper than calling the LucasArts hint line, and more tempting.

I continued under the clock through into the next area and then went down the street behind the church to see if I could do anything with the mysterious door that's been there since the first game.

It's weird that Guybrush has basically nothing to say about the door, seeing as Monkey Island 2 revealed its sinister purpose: it leads to the network of suspiciously modern tunnels connecting Mêlée Island with Dinky Island.

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (PC)

Though perhaps there are no islands, and this is just part of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Big Whoop. Who even knows what's real in these games?

Alright, the general store is shut so the next building I'm going to check out is the prison.

Hey Stan still has that weird effect on his coat. And Otis is still in jail!

The Secret of Monkey Island (MS-DOS)

He was in the other cell last time though. Actually the last time I remember meeting him was in Escape, where he was willing to join my crew in exchange for a cushy government job. Him and Carla the Sword Master. Now she's the governor and he's back in prison.

Otis and Stan don't promise to be much use even if I do break them out, but it's worth a try. Besides, it'd be nice to help out my... acquaintances that I've encountered a couple of times.

Though I've noticed the tone of their conversations is different so far, in a good way. It feels like a reunion of old friends that maybe didn't realise they were friends until they'd spent enough time apart.

Alright I need something to open the jail cells, so the obvious place to check is the locksmiths opposite. The trick to operating a successful shop is to find the right location.

Also, yay it's a new place on the island that I've never visited before!

The Secret of Monkey Island (MS-DOS)

The locksmiths just wasn't there in the first game. Well, the building could've been there, but it wasn't on screen.

Right away I've spotted a plate of crackers and a book that I'll likely have to steal at some point. I'll probably need to get the locksmith to turn her back first by asking her to make a key or something.

It turns out that she's called Locke Smith and her parents did this to her on purpose. It also turns out that she can make keys just from knowing a lock's serial number. It's like how if you buy PC game on DVD, you can sometimes use the serial code in the box to unlock a key on Steam. Actually it's nothing like that, that was a terrible analogy.

It's more like having the combination code to a lock written under the lock. The only reason that this isn't a massive security flaw is that the serial number is written so small that you need a special magnifying glass to read it.

Alright, so my new mission is to find a magnifying glass so I can free Otis and Stan for no reason.

The final stop in Mêlée Town is the governor's mansion, Guybrush and Elaine's former home.

It seems to be even closer to the edge of the cliff than I remember, and it's making me nervous. It's definitely lost that big garden at the front that it had in Escape.

Escape from Monkey Island (PC)

There used to be room here to set up a catapult so far away that it misses the mansion with every shot.

Anyway I walked into Guybrush's old house, only to find myself facing a fearsome opponent. Perhaps the finest with a sword who ever lived.

Guybrush pulls his own blade and prepares to test his skill against theirs in a battle he will almost certainly survive, because this is a story he's telling on a park bench many years later.

But to find out how he survives you'll need to check back next time! Or check someone playing it on YouTube. Or just play the game yourself.

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART TWO

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Thanks for reading. I know these two-part articles make it a bit too easy to guess what the next game will be (it's the same game), but it can't be helped I'm afraid.

On the plus side, now that you don't have to fill the comment box up with guesses it can be used for other things instead. Like talking about the game, talking about my site, uh... talking about other Monkey Island games I guess. Choose some good dialogue options.