Return to Monkey Island – The return of Guybrush and LeChuck!

Do you want to look old or, on the contrary, do a little makeover? Then play Return to Monkey Island!

Monkey Island is a point and click adventure game series that started in 1990 and was created by Ron Gilbert. I’m not going to redo the history of the license, the canonical episodes or not, in short, there’s Wikipedia for that! Just know that Ron Gilbert only worked on the first two episodes and that he is at the helm of this Return to Monkey Island. Will we find the paw of the expert? Green light for the test!

Return to Monkey Island exudes love for the series and fans will love it. But let’s talk about the scenario! It’s been many years since Guybrush Threepwood faced his worst enemy, zombie pirate LeChuck. His great love, Elaine Marley, has resigned as governor and Guybrush finds himself adrift, frustrated that he never discovered the secret of Monkey Island. Young hip pirates, under the leadership of Captain Madison, have driven the old guard from power, the situation on the island of Mêlée has worsened and the famous businessman Stan has been imprisoned for “commercial crimes”. Guybrush thinks of forming a crew to finally discover this secret, but arriving at the port, he sees that LeChuck is already ready to leave. This is the beginning of a colorful adventure.

I need a dog that gives a key!

We are still in a point and click game, but modernized for the occasion. It is especially useful for the adaptation of the game on console, because necessarily with a pad, we do not like to move a cursor on the screen too much. Return to Monkey Island manages to be playable, while keeping the essence of the original game. This time, we move our character on the screen and at the same time we can select “bubbles” with the right stick which are key objects. No need to click everywhere, just go to a point of interest and find out what to do. Good news for lazy people, there’s a well-thought-out tier system that will help you get out of a sticky situation. In short, you can play Return to Monkey Island while being relaxed, just to enjoy the story, the adventure, the dialogues and the humor. But don’t worry, if you want to spice things up, we can play the game on Hard, to have more difficulty in the puzzles!

Short outing in the woods

Technically speaking, Return to Monkey Island is quite successful. At least, its artistic direction is a success. Without offering exceptional graphics, the cartoon side makes the whole thing very nice and overall, we find the spirit of the license at first glance. The strong point of the game is at the level of dubbing in English. It’s very high level, coupled with very successful music. To top it all off, the French subtitles are very good, you don’t miss a beat of the adventure even if you’re not bilingual. In terms of lifespan, it takes about 8 hours in Normal mode to complete the adventure for the first time. Perhaps less for regulars of the genre.

It’s nice your story

Return to Monkey Island is a successful sequel to a legendary series. We find the original spirit initiated by Ron Gilbert, and it’s nice to see. Fans will be thrilled, and newcomers have a good opportunity to get on board. And to top it off, Return to Monkey Island has been available since its release in the Xbox Game Pass. No excuse to miss out!