I'm very sorry to write something so negative about Monkey Island: had high expectations for Return, as I had been waiting for this game for literally thirty years. But doubts emerge already at the presentation of the first trailer, with those horrible flash game graphics. Then the game comes out and...it's just bad. First of all, it is incomprehensible to me, INCOMPREHENSIBLE why Ron abandoned the idea of ending the story his way... it was what we were all waiting for, "Guybrush goes to hell". But no, all of a sudden that idea isn't being used, and in exchange we're given a pathetic soft reboot of the first two, which adds nothing to what we already knew. Interface and puzzles simplified beyond belief, and a nursery school atmosphere, like a cheap Sunday morning cartoon. Forget "On Stanger Tides" and the dark atmosphere of the first two: this is specifically a product targeted for children aged 12 and under. I'll tell you what definitely happened : Ron had his very clear ideas on how to design this game (those written in his famous 2014 post) , but he was understandably scared of failing. This is why he let himself be convinced by some idiot at Disney to abandon everything he had thought, which was probably "too dark" to be sold according to their damn marketing calculations, to focus on on a boring soft reboot for casual gamer, to maximize revenue and "be on the safe side. Now, every time such a beloved series is distorted in the name of market laws, irreparable rifts and disappointments are created in the fandom. And they never learn their lesson, EVER. They keep making the same ridiculous mistake. The only solution is this: make another Monkey Island, in pixel art and this time rigorous compared to the past and which tells the story we've all been waiting for: Guybrush goes to hell.
