On finishing Monkey Island

I told myself I wanted to replay the Monkey Island games, so that I could then finish Return to Monkey Island, the 6th instalment in the series. Written by the original creator Ron Gilbert.

I have played the first two games multiple times and know them by heart. All the others I have only played once.

Curse of Monkey Island, the third game in the series. was actually better than I remembered. The cartoony art style gave it that timeless look that is still enjoyable today. I still remembered how to solve most of the puzzles and didn’t really get stuck that often.

I think the only issue I’ve had with Curse is that it tried to follow in its predecessors shoes a little too much. The whole get ship, get crew thing is a returning trope in the series. It makes for a great setup for puzzles and narrative elements, but it still is just the same old concept rehashed.

Escape from Monkey Island is a whole different beast, though. I’m glad I played it on the Steam Deck, even if the controls were frustrating, at least I could rebind some of them to make sense for me. Moving around is a hassle. Left and right makes you turn around in circles, instead of going left or right. And up and down are just for going forwards or backwards. Basically, tank controls.

Fixed camera angles and tank controls in a 3D game do not mix well. I found myself going back and forth through different screens because of sudden camera changes. I had trouble crossing certain places with limited space, like the bridge in the sushi restaurant. Which is doubly frustrating as this is a timed event, you have to cross the bridge and get in the kitchen before the chef does.

And the story… Well… It never made any sense to me. The introduction of an Australian land developer, seeing LeChuck in the role of a lackey to Ozzie Mandrill (said Australian land developer), and just the overall silliness of the story that just goes from one direction to another. At the end the giant monkey combat might have been topical at the time, but now it’s just silly.

Tales of Monkey Island is a nice palette cleanser after Escape. It follows the classic Telltale formula of an episodic adventure that has a bigger focus on narrative elements than gameplay or puzzle elements. The game features puzzles, but it is more of an on-rails experience than other Monkey Island instalments. Rob Gilbert’s tenet of giving the player several goals in a game segment is dropped in this game in lieu of easier and more compact puzzles. However this never really bothered me. I think Dave Grossman did a great job of finding a middle ground between classic point-and-click adventure games and the Telltale vision of delivering a graphical adventure.

Finally came the time to boot up Return to Monkey Island. The long awaited Ron Gilbert version of what happens after Monkey Island 2. If you remember, that game ends with Guybrush and LeChuck (or rather your brother Chuckie) as children in a theme park. I remember it being one the most controversial endings of its time. When I first played it, I had no clue what it meant or didn’t fully grasp what was implied. After replaying the games now, I get why people are so divided by it.

Return to Monkey Island picks up right where Monkey Island 2 left us. I like the spin it takes on the ending, and I’m sure it’s not what people might have imagined. That in itself is already a great feat. The rest of the game is pretty much divided in two parts, the first part of the game has you going around Melee Island and reminiscing about Guybrush’s old adventures of Monkey Island 1 & 2. I have to say this had me twisted for a while. It didn’t add a lot of value for me, but I for people that haven’t played the originals in 18 years this might be a welcome wave of nostalgia.

Another thing I should probably mention at this time is the Trivia Book. Scattered around the world are Trivia Cards. Questions about any Monkey Island game, which might be a question about the Monkey Island universe, or a question about when Ron Gilbert started working at Lucasfilm Games. It’s a nice little bit of extra for fans of the game. But what I didn’t like about it, was the unintentional spoilers that filled the Trivia Book. Suddenly there’s a question about a part of the game that I wasn’t in yet. But the question did reveal something of what might happen. In my case it was the existence of Terror Island, even though I hadn't left Melee Island yet!

The second part of the game gives the player a lot more freedom. The whole map opens up and you get 5 items you have to collect, so 5 different tasks to complete where you can easily switch from one to the other, should you get stuck. The classic Ron Gilbert setup to avoid players from feeling frustrated. This is the meat of the game, the nostalgic vibes are left behind on Melee Island and you get a whole heap of new content. Ahhhh, how good it feels to be back in the Monkey Island universe.

The puzzles aren’t that hard and I would say that any seasoned adventure gamer will have no trouble getting through the game. I don’t think I ever got stuck on anything, all puzzles felt logical and I didn’t have to guess at solutions (or furiously combine all items with each other in my inventory). Another change from previous Monkey Island titles, is when hovering over items in the game, you get a glimpse into the mind of Guybrush. It no longer just says Look at maggots but instead provides Ew, maggots. Other examples include knowing what Guybrush will say to another character in advance, which I really found helpful. It just makes it clearer to the user where the story is supposed to go. Instead of having to talk to a character again to know which open dialogues are left that might impact the story in some way, you now get options that tell you exactly what Guybrush will act. It’s just a quicker and clearer way to help keep the player on track.

The ending of Return to Monkey Island is somewhat of a throwback to the ending of Monkey Island 2. And all along, multiple characters of the supporting cast are already warning Guybrush that the payoff might not be worth it. That Guybrush expects more from the reveal of the Secret than it might actually be. And that is exactly one of the possible endings. There are several others, which I won’t spoil here. A couple of variations on the default ending and a couple more unique ones.

This alone is what makes Return to Monkey Island so great for me. It never promised to deliver a huge reveal. It’s the journey and the fun you have along the way that is the reward. I enjoyed every step of the way, and the game ultimately tells us that it’s hard to reach peoples’ expectations. Ron Gilbert chose to go with his vision and his story. He managed the player’s expectations and delivered on that promise. Not trying to be anything that it shouldn’t be. Not trying to exaggerate or reimagine an ending that didn’t fit the scene.

Endings are hard, especially ones that have been talked and fantasized about by fans for 31 years. It’s usually best to stick to your own vision and create what you wanted to create, instead of catering to others. The same can be said about music, you’re creating music because you feel the need to create music, and if others enjoy what you created so much the better for it. But it gets created nonetheless.

Thanks Ron, for creating another Monkey Island game.