Return to Monkey Island Reviews
It’s been a long time coming, but Return to Monkey Island is an absolute treat for fans of the series. It looks wonderful, it sounds wonderful, and its combination of excellent puzzles and expert writing will keep you transfixed from start to finish. Our only real complaint is that newcomers may find this a difficult starting point – but that’s easily rectified by jumping into the originals.
Return to Monkey Island feels like a real celebration of the series so far by including characters, locations such as Melee and Monkey Islands and plenty of callbacks, but expanding on all of those things with plenty of brand new components to act as a worthwhile celebration and sendoff for Guybrush and his adventures. Guybrush continues to be an engaging, hilarious and believable character that really helps immerse you into the story of himself and his fellow adventurers. The ending may be hit or miss with some fans but will certainly promote discussion and it’s just great to see a new Monkey Island game in 2022. Whether you’re new or existing fan, Guybrush’s latest adventure is well worth experiencing.
I am honestly very happy with the game overall and I am tempted to play through the entire franchise again. Thank you, Mister Gilbert, and everyone else involved in this game. For expanding the story I’ve been with since I was a kid and for hitting me right in my childhood, but in the best way.
Return to Monkey Island is a love letter to fans of the LucasArts classics of the 90’s. The characters and story was a joy from the first moment to the last and the puzzles were crafted in a way that make you feel clever for solving them. When you add this together with the beautiful art style and top quality voice work you end up with one of the best point-and-click games we have seen yet. Period.
I would say that I’m truly glad this game exists in the way it is presented. It does play a little bit on nostalgia, but it does not stop there. It has successfully established itself as a great game in itself, not hiding behind the nostalgia of the previous entries.
Like the older but wiser cast of characters, the puzzling gameplay has matured, taxing your wits, but not your patience, never leaving you so bogged down with frustration that you can’t enjoy the comedy. Some gaming franchises age like milk, some age like wine, but Return to Monkey Island has aged like the finest bottle o’ rum.
A well-devised foray into the life of a wannabe pirate captain, Return to Monkey Island is a masterclass in series revival. A game nostalgic enough to appeal to original fans but has its own unique identity for newcomers – easily a part of the Monkey Island legacy, but not trying to be it. The game doesn’t drastically shake up anything but keeps it fresh while continuing a long-standing journey.
On the whole, I had a really great time with Return to Monkey Island. I think it hits a lot of the right notes fairly consistently, and while it does feel very familiar, there are enough surprises to keep things interesting and rewarding as you stick through the game and see it to completion. What it doesn’t do (and I don’t think it’s trying to), is recapture that feeling of playing the original games for the first time. It’s a great vehicle for getting yourself back into the headspace of those games and immersing yourself in the lore again, but for everything that’s familiar, there is a lot that’s different, for better or worse. And, it’s also still an adventure game, which these days is something you need to be in the mood to play. Having grown up playing them, I’m nearly always up for this, but it’s just a different pace and feel from so much of what else we play nowadays. You can feel Return to Monkey Island trying to find its place in the current landscape, and in many ways I think the game is a success. It’s true what they say, you can’t go home again. Return to Monkey Island knows that, and it’s there to help you embrace that fact.
Return to Monkey Island is above all a return to the origins of the series. They say that lightning never strikes the same place twice, but Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman managed to create an experience that in every way evokes the feelings conveyed by the original titles. Let's hope that Guybrush's adventures (these new adventures) don't stop there! We suspect that there are still many stories behind this infamous secret!
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Ahhhh, nostalgia, there is something warm and fuzzy about returning to something you remember vividly from your childhood. Monkey Island is a series I played a lot growing up and it was a blast returning there recently. It is a lot different now though on the Nintendo Switch, if you had told me I would be able to play Monkey Island, on the go when I was a nipper, I would have laughed in your face but here we are. Isn’t technology great?
Thirty years after the last Monkey Island signed by Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman, Return to Monkey Island comes to us in this nostalgic and fascinating way with which we recognize old characters and a legendary unrevealed secret. It's a whole construct based on the power of narrative and how humorous and fun it can be in exploration segments, or simply in puzzle operations. The magic of Monkey Island is still there, the familiar tone of the voices toasts us with echoes of the past, but it is also a new adventure, filled with new characters and a fervent leap in the chapter of surprises, being visual art an element of this ability with which it successfully surprises. The contestatory voices have been silenced and today, both new players and veterans seek such secrecy with the same fervor as 30 years ago.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Return to Monkey Island is great. It takes the adventure game to new heights of hilarity with a clever narrative, fantastic stylized graphics, wonderful music, and a huge amount of heart.
Return to Monkey Island lives up to the near thirty year long wait with a modernised take that feels fresh, unique and brand new. Nostalgia naturally fuels a major proportion of its endearing qualities, but the new puzzles, the sumptuous music and the glorious performances bring the series back to life in ways we couldn’t have imagined. An absolutely stellar return for a franchise we thought we’d never see again.
Return to Monkey Island is a smart reinvention of the adventure game that caters to new audiences while still managing to appease long-term fans of the genre. From the witty dialogue, to the beautiful visuals, the excellent voice acting, and the clever puzzles, this is an adventure you won’t soon forget from beginning to end and a joy throughout.
Ron Gilbert, who started the series, focused on continuing the adventure from Monkey Island 2. You can easily find out that his unique sense of humor remains still to date. Even though there are slight disappoints with art style and ending sequence, it is destined to be moved at the end of the game if you are a fan who shared the long journey of this franchise.
Review in Korean | Read full review
The effort to help this genre is amazing and Ron Gilbert proves that he has a lot of ideas.
Review in Greek | Read full review
Return to Monkey Island is the "big" dot in a "small", sweet franchise of our memories. Monkey Island has grown within us, grown with us. These aren't games that can easily captivate anyone today. A little poorer than what one expects from a finale, a little special in its aesthetics, but at least it's as crazy, as innocent and as clever as before. So I say goodbye to the most beautiful memory of my childhood with a tear and a smile. See you at sea old friend Guybrush…
Review in Greek | Read full review
Return to Monkey Island brings another high quality Guybrush Threepwood journey, clearly demonstrating the charisma of the series that captivated many players and was deeply important to the development of point-and-clicks. Especially for those who have ventured to Monkey Island before, this is a very captivating adventure.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Return to Monkey Island is what it was meant to be. Art, sound, dialogue; it's all part of its blend of playable and communicative talent. It's perfect again.
Review in Spanish | Read full review