Return to Monkey Island review: The best kind of nostalgia

Monkey Island is a franchise that you can criticize for any reason, but you must admire its inexplicable refusal to let go.

Today’s release of Monkey Island: Return marks 13 years since the last game, Telltale’s Tales of Monkey IslandA series of episodic adventures that started in 2009, titled. This hiatus was preceded a nine year break. Curse of Monkey IslandThe final LucasArts adventure title was titled. There was also a six year lapse prior to that.

Monkey Island: marks the return of two of the three original series creators (Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman are back, DoubleFine’s Tim Schafer is not). Guybrush Threepwood is a mighty pirate so it’s not surprising that he is very focused on his own history.

Though the game picks up after the events of Gilbert’s last entry, Monkey Island 2,, Retour doesn’t attempt to brush the non-Gilbert games out of the canon. It just decides to pick up on an unanswered question hanging in the series’ history. Namely: “What actually This was the Secret of Monkey Island?” Despite being the title of the first game, the titular secret was never actually revealed.

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So Return follows Guybrush as he’s launched into a race with his constant nemesis, the ghost pirate LeChuck, to uncover the secret with the assistance of former-governor-turned-scurvy-activist Elaine Marley, who happens to also be Guybrush’s wife. Throughout the voyage, there are lots of fun meta jokes about how long it’s been since the last Monkey Island game. Many on Guybrush’s home of Melee Island don’t seem to remember him that well, and Threepwood remarks on a suspicious number of remodels in the town.

But while Monkey Island: is aware of what a relic it can feel like at times, it doesn’t seem that interested in evolving.

Clear upgrades have taken place. You can see the ugly, polygonal graphics of Escape Tales of Monkey IslandThey have been replaced by a Henry Selick-esque aesthetic that resembles a living map with paper dolls and hinged paper characters. The look will undoubtedly polarize long-time adherents to the games (a first in all of pop culture fandom, I’m sure), but it’s certainly less dated than the 3D models employed for every other Monkey Island game released in this millennium.

The adventuring process has been simplified in one important way: you no longer need to choose How you’ll interact with objects in the world. Instead, that’s established through context. The left click could allow you to carry on a conversation, view a painting or move around in another room. The ability to right click may allow you to speak to the friend, steal their wallet or talk to them. But those are just two choices. This makes it more engaging and the UI serves the story more than being the main focus, which is more often the case in this genre. It’s a welcome refinement, though I do miss forcing Guybrush to describe how a lamp sounds or explain why he can’t talk to a tree.

Terrible Toybox/Devolver Digital

A comparable improvement in travel would be appreciated. Watching Guybrush stroll after your furiously clicking cursor from screen to screen wasn’t particularly pleasurable in Monkey Island: The Secret of Monkey Island and it’s no less of a chore some 32 years later.

Luckily, the other parts of the series’ lineage that Monkey Island: ReturnThese are more than welcome to be held on to.

Monkey Island’s warmhearted, witty and corny Caribbean jaunt is continuing. Guybrush is supported by Stalwarts Stan (the slippery, used ship-salesman) and Otis (the often incarcerated thief), who aid him in his journey. Sword fights are fought through insults, both literal and metaphorical. It’s the same avuncular, eager-to-please Monkey Island you’ve always known.

Puzzle solutions are as harebrained as they’ve ever been — you can’t borrow the chef’s mop, you must obviously go on a spiritual quest to discover the fabled mop-wood tree. Maybe the apology you wrote on the frog wasn’t personal enough? There’s a casual mode with fewer puzzles, but that feels more like an abridgement than an evolution. If you do get stuck, there’s no need to call the LucasArts 900 number. Instead, you’ll find a built-in hint book that nudges you in the right direction.

Return’s humor, perhaps the most fundamental facet of the series, doesn’t try as hard as some more cringe-inducing efforts in the comedy adventure genre. There are very few pop culture references or overwrought visual gags (I’m looking at you, Starbuccaneers). It seems content with hovering between “mildly amusing” and “smirk-inducing” on the Chuckle-O-Meter. The game is firmly in possession of its predecessors’ workmanlike refusal to leave any gag unpunned, which isn’t necessarily my bag. Some of the abstracter gags I liked had me having deep belly laughs.

Terrible Toybox/Devolver Digital

Though it’s doubtlessly captivating to read what a grown man does and doesn’t find funny, I must cease, to make special mention of returning composers Michael Land, Peter McConnell, and Clint Bajakian, who continue the franchise’s “pirate reggae” score in a way that’ll feel like a snuggly blanket to ’90s adventure nerds. Ditto to the returning voice cast, including Alexandra Boyd’s implacable Elaine and Dominic Armato’s affable and ever-hapless Guybrush.

It all coalesces in an experience that’s nostalgic in the best kind of way. Monkey Island:I felt that the series had re-created the joy of my youth. It didn’t just nudge me in the ribs, but it reminded me of the great times we had back then.

Curiously – yet refreshingly – for a series with this long, uneven history, Monkey Island: Return doesn’t seem to be particularly interested in reasserting its own significance or greatness. It appears content to be able to understand how the rest of the world and especially players, frame its existence. It doesn’t require players to have previous knowledge of the series, but it doesn’t over-explain its characters or in-jokes either.

Monkey Island: ReturnThis is another Monkey Island game that makes a conscious effort to keep up with the changing gaming landscape while still retaining the original Monkey Island DNA. And if you’re looking for the secret to creating an enduring franchise, you could do a lot worse than that.

Monkey Island. The game was launched on September 19 for Windows PC, Mac and Nintendo Switch. Devolver Digital gave a pre-release downloading code to the PC game. Vox Media is an affiliate partner. They do not affect editorial content. However, Vox Media might earn commissions on products sold via affiliate links. Here are some links to help you find. additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.