Return to Monkey Island Critic Reviews

Return to Monkey Island isn’t a grand reinvention of point-and-click adventure games in mechanical or narrative ambition. It is, quite literally, a return. It sticks to its own identity, and aims to be the best version of itself – a comforting, charming game with great characters and amusingly esoteric puzzles. That a new Monkey Island game exists with Gilbert and Grossman at the helm makes Return to Monkey Island an attraction well worth the curiosity. And that this traditional format still satisfies while remaining largely unchanged, several decades later, speaks volumes about how timeless their ideas and this world have always been.

A wonderful continuation of a classic that takes us back to an improbable story in an impossible place and leaves no buckle unwashed.

If true achievement in art is realising creative ambition, then Return to Monkey Island is a masterclass bursting with metatextual mischief. By turning inward and confronting its own legacy, this sixth entry in a storied series summons the laughter and adventure of its forebears but ventures beyond them to deliver a surprising and brave dose of heart. Those looking for nostalgia will find it, but not in a way that feels fleeting. And newcomers to the series will find a sleek, must-play, carefully modernised adventure game that provides plenty of reasons to dig in the LucasArts archives.

Return to Monkey Island is a fantastic addition to the series and a great game in its own right. If you’re a Guybrush Threepwood fan or want to revisit the high point of adventures past and present, you owe it to yourself to come back to Monkey Island.

The nostalgic return of the hero who captivated us at an innocent age came to remind us in the most emphatic way that no matter how old we get, we will always want to be children.

Guybrush’s new adventure is every bit as fun as his previous ones. This is a triumph of a game that manages to live up to exorbitant amounts of expectation and ticks every box.

The game deserves to be called one of the best point-and-click adventure games of recent times. It continues the narrative and completes the old story to general satisfaction. It blends tradition with innovation and isn't afraid to reckon with both its own legacy and the genre as a whole.

If you were a fan of the original game/s then absolutely grab a copy… it’s a nostalgic joy and will warm your heart better than a bottle of Rum.

Return to Monkey Island is the real deal, and like that quote above it’s hilarious. But, if you’re a fan of Monkey Island and the classic adventures from LucasArts there’s an extra dose of joy to be found. A joy that comes from a game and sequel that is born from the past and not one beholden to it.

It took me a couple of days to convince myself, because at the beginning Return to Monkey Island seemed to be a victim of the hype: what should we have expected, in fact, from those who wrote the rules of the game and today it goes down again in the arena after thirty 'years? But then I became more and more immersed in the crazy archipelago invented by Ron Gilbert and I can not help but promote the work with flying colors. Only, always remember to face it in difficult mode, because with the "casual" one you would end up getting only a small percentage of the achievements and missing out on much of the more "cerebral" fun.

Return to Monkey Island is a nostalgic and fun swashbuckling experience that delivers an adventure that fans of the series and genre have been waiting years for.

Aided by the Terrible Toybox team, Gilbert and Grossman deconstructed the legend and rebuilt it, modernizing it but also paying homage to the past. Return to Monkey Island is not just a great point’n’click that will remind you why you fell in love with the genre, but also an artistic statement that needs a certain degree of maturity to be fully appreciated. We were promised a comedy about pirates, but also got a piece on mortality.

A brilliant return to the series at its best that modernises the point-and-click form.

I believe that Return to Monkey Island will become a remarkably personal game for many of the people who play it. For those who have grown up with the series, Return illustrates what it’s like to reflect on your youth and try to find a new purpose in a world that has moved on. For those who are new, it could provide them with an excellent entry point into a brand-new genre of video game. Return is not just a return to form for the series and a celebration of everything that made it great; it’s also an outstanding example of a genre that paved the way for almost every deep narrative experience in video games today.

A nostalgic, swashbuckling adventure you won't want to miss.

Return to Monkey Island expectedly comes packed full of smartly crafted puzzles, funny dialogue, and memorable characters. But as series creator Ron Gilbert returns to the series’ director’s chair for the first time since 1991, it unexpectedly offers a lot of heart, too. It is an adventure gamer’s delight.

Return to Monkey Island is everything I wanted and more. Daft humour with plenty of dad-worthy gags, puzzles to both frustrate and delight you, lovable throwbacks around every corner, and all while being effortlessly enjoyable. It feels like Monkey Island has fittingly come full circle with this title in many ways, and yet I can’t help but be selfish and want more Guybrush from Gilbert. There’s still room in the scrapbook for more adventures, and if we’re lucky, maybe we won’t have to wait 30 years for the next title.

This is a fantastic adventure, beautifully designed, fun and nostalgic, that proves the genre still have what it needs to be alive and doing well in 2022.

Return to Monkey Island is exactly the game that could be expected from Gilbert and his associates, in which the love for the characters and their stories is combined with a profound reflection on time and the role of the gamer.

Return to Monkey Island is a good old adventure game, made modern. It is vintage gameplay in a modern package, with a focus on accessibility, without sacrificing the outlandish puzzles and quirky oddities. The visuals don’t quite feel right, and yet with excellent voice acting, and scenarios and dialogue that feel straight out of the early 90s, the world is almost perfectly recreated 30 years later. Return to Monkey Island is a delightful adventure, and while it might not quite reach the unobtainable prestige of its predecessors, with a much more accessible design it’s destined to become Guybrush Threepwood’s most popular tale yet.