Return to Monkey Island

Honestly, my hopes were not high for Return to Monkey Island. Of course the first three games are stone-cold genre classics, but the fourth was disliked, and while Telltale’s Tales of Monkey Island games had their fans, I think looking back most can accept they’re firmly in the territory of “meh.”

Then, there was that whole Kickstarter thing in the early 2010s. Every single retired adventure developer remerged from their caves to make a new game, and god, they were all awful. Jane Jensen’s execrable Moebius: Empire Rising, Al Lowe’s disappointing Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded, and the Space Quest guys taking half a million bucks to spend a decade making the completely broken and still unfinished SpaceVenture

So when it was announced that original creator Ron Gilbert and original designer Dave Grossman were reuniting for a new Monkey Island, yeah, I worried. But goodness gracious, that’s a lot of build up to tell you it’s completely wonderful

Rather than rely on nostalgia, Return to Monkey Island makes the stunning choice to not repeat any of the series’ catchphrases (there’s no insult swordfighting, no second biggest anythings), instead coming up with a swathe of new, excellently funny ideas of its own. It looks and sounds gorgeous, is laugh-out-loud funny throughout, and has an ending that’s as poignant as it is divisive.

What a completely marvellous treat.