Return to Monkey Island

This game is to Monkey Island games what the "sequel" Star Wars trilogy (VII, VIII, IX) is to the Star Wars franchise: - At first glance, fan service nostalgia trip, but with a twist. It is actually deconstructing and destroying all the characters we got to know and love from the previous games, for seemingly no reason. - At first glance, an identity politics tirade (ex. the new "Pirate Leaders", and a noticeable, calculated increase in female roles), something which should have no place in entertainment in general. On the other hand, it could also be seen as the opposite - the author's cleverly hidden ironical criticism of identity politics. Either way, not something that should be brought up in a light-hearted adventure game. - Retcons all the previous entries, esp. the ending of MI2, but then the reason is lost, since we get a similar (and some might say even worse) ending here. Why? I regret wasting money on this game, even with a discount. One can only hope that someday we will see a renaissance of the genre, but this is definitely not it.

I'm writing this review after finished the game with my 2y old daughter sleeping right beside me. I think I was 6y old when I finished the first game. It's been a good ride. For the game, I found the art very charming and beautiful. And for the puzzles, a little empty sometimes. But I think that for the nature of this game, it's quite good.

It's not as bad as some say. The game is enjoyable. A lot of jokes on the modern times. Bluehaired women who are the villains in this story, has chased the pirate leaders out of the scummbar(taking over).LeChuck is also around. I was reluctant to buy this because of the artstyle, but it grew on me. Much better than Escape from monkey Island.

It's what you would aspect from Monkey Island, although I'm not really a fan on how the story is framed, Good challenge for some puzzles, al nd even using the hint system is better if you are stucked instead of looking it online, as it just points you in the right direction instead of telling the solution. It's great, for those time consuming or really subtle puzzles. It seems the real game is hidden under the "writer's cut" option, I thought it included some extra talks as a sort of "behind the scenes" but I realised only after that is a wordplay on "director's cut" edition with movies, with extra dialogue and characters that improve the story. Enable it for the first run.

I enjoyed the game quite a lot. It's basically a big trip down memory lane, full of references to the old games, and with a beautiful ending that made me well up. Although I imagine the game will mean little if you haven't played the rest. The music and voices are great, as well as the dialogue, although I feel not as funny as in the older games. The art style is not great, but it's not that bad. Not like the MI1 remake. The colors are nice and there are some funny animations. But man, imagine they did something like Double Fine did with Broken Age? The puzzles were a little too easy. There is an easy story mode, and a hard mode with extra puzzles. I went with hard, but there was barely a challenge. I went through the puzzles very quickly and never got stuck, except on some illogical ones. Don't expect to get stuck for days like with the old games. Most of the time I already knew what item I had to go get the moment I ran into a puzzle. But I guess it's just fun to progress through the story and follow the dialogue. All in all I can recommend this to fans of the series. For closure.