Return to Monkey Island | NSW/PC | Devolver Digital/Lucasfilm | 2022

Cheeky Devlin wrote:Gonna try and blast through SoMI and MI2 this week I think, just to get back up to speed with everything Monkey in time for RtMI.

Tangentially related, but I finally ticked "The Dig" off my P&C todo list last night.
Decent game, lovely polish and presentation (For the time at least) but it's let down a little by being a bit too wordy at times and having some big leaps of logic (Had to look a couple of things up). Robert Patrick voices the main character and it's a decent enough wee story with some nice art work and locations. The humour's a bit dry compared to other Lucasarts games though. Worth a shot for fans of the genre.

Looking at either Simon the Sorceror or Discworld as my next one (After Monkey). Both of which I've played in the past, though I never finished either of them. Discworld especially was full of moon-logic from what I remember.

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:Will pick it up when it drops to 19.99.

Cheeky Devlin wrote:

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:Will pick it up when it drops to 19.99.

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:

Cheeky Devlin wrote:

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:Will pick it up when it drops to 19.99.

Guybrush would approve, right?

But seriously, I'm so happy this as good as I'm hearing. It really did bring a tear to my eye.

Cheeky Devlin wrote:

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:

Cheeky Devlin wrote:

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:Will pick it up when it drops to 19.99.

Guybrush would approve, right?

But seriously, I'm so happy this as good as I'm hearing. It really did bring a tear to my eye.

Yeah it's very nostalgic so far, which put a huge smile on my face when the title came up and the music played.
Loving it's themes as well. The old making way for the new, how things change, how people change. Looking forward to delving more into it.

Also, I know it was a joke, but it is currently £19.49 on Steam if you're interested.

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:

Cheeky Devlin wrote:

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:

Cheeky Devlin wrote:

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:Will pick it up when it drops to 19.99.

Guybrush would approve, right?

But seriously, I'm so happy this as good as I'm hearing. It really did bring a tear to my eye.

Yeah it's very nostalgic so far, which put a huge smile on my face when the title came up and the music played.
Loving it's themes as well. The old making way for the new, how things change, how people change. Looking forward to delving more into it.

Also, I know it was a joke, but it is currently £19.49 on Steam if you're interested.

Sounds awesome.

I don't have anything PC related that can run even the simplest of games, so I will have to pay the extra £3 for the Switch version

twitter.com/craigderrick/status/1572142340093136903

Cheeky Devlin wrote:

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:

Cheeky Devlin wrote:

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:

Cheeky Devlin wrote:

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:Will pick it up when it drops to 19.99.

Guybrush would approve, right?

But seriously, I'm so happy this as good as I'm hearing. It really did bring a tear to my eye.

Yeah it's very nostalgic so far, which put a huge smile on my face when the title came up and the music played.
Loving it's themes as well. The old making way for the new, how things change, how people change. Looking forward to delving more into it.

Also, I know it was a joke, but it is currently £19.49 on Steam if you're interested.

Sounds awesome.

I don't have anything PC related that can run even the simplest of games, so I will have to pay the extra £3 for the Switch version

If you're a Monkey Island fan then it'll be worth it.

Up to Part IV just now.

It's been consistently fantastic so far. Taking a break for the night but gonna dive back in tomorrow.

I have noticed as few easter eggs/references that weren't necessarily obvious at first glance.

In Part III...

For example in the Jungle, the Beehive you pass is shaped very similarly to Winnie the Pooh. Also, the Tentacle for LeChucks favourite meal is very reminicent of Purple Tentacle from Day of The Tentacle. I'm sure there's plenty more I've missed as well.

Oh and it looks like we might be getting more P&C revivals from Lucasarts given this is what one of their Executive Producers tweeted following the launch of Return.

twitter.com/craigderrick/status/1572142340093136903

I am all in for a return to Maniac Mansion/Day Of The Tentacle at some point.

Jordan UK wrote:Loving RtMI. Up there with the best in the series.

Popped in to post about Maniac Mansion. Would love to see this become a thing. RtMI has shown that the old point and click genre can see still be relevant today sort of begging the question, why had it taken 30 years for this to happen?

still wrote:If you've never played any Monkey Island before, does this make sense as a stand alone purchase??

Cheeky Devlin wrote:

still wrote:If you've never played any Monkey Island before, does this make sense as a stand alone purchase??

It's pretty welcoming to newcomers, but without having played the first two games a chunk of the jokes/story might not work as well as some might like. It's hard to tell as I've been playing these games since the early 90's and it's not easy to put myself in your position.

If you're not in any rush I would at least play through the first and second game. There are HD special editions available which have the voices, or you could use ScummVM to play the originals.

EDIT: Return does give a basic story recap of all 5 previous games though.

still wrote:

Cheeky Devlin wrote:

still wrote:If you've never played any Monkey Island before, does this make sense as a stand alone purchase??

It's pretty welcoming to newcomers, but without having played the first two games a chunk of the jokes/story might not work as well as some might like. It's hard to tell as I've been playing these games since the early 90's and it's not easy to put myself in your position.

If you're not in any rush I would at least play through the first and second game. There are HD special editions available which have the voices, or you could use ScummVM to play the originals.

EDIT: Return does give a basic story recap of all 5 previous games though.

Thanks Devlin. Not sure if they are available on Mac and I really don't like playing games on Mac anyway. Haven't picked up my Switch since early April but was thinking of giving this a go. Will have to do some investigation. (Also fancy Tunic next week - you see nothing you fancy for months on end then two gams turn up together!)

Cheeky Devlin wrote:

still wrote:

Cheeky Devlin wrote:

still wrote:If you've never played any Monkey Island before, does this make sense as a stand alone purchase??

It's pretty welcoming to newcomers, but without having played the first two games a chunk of the jokes/story might not work as well as some might like. It's hard to tell as I've been playing these games since the early 90's and it's not easy to put myself in your position.

If you're not in any rush I would at least play through the first and second game. There are HD special editions available which have the voices, or you could use ScummVM to play the originals.

EDIT: Return does give a basic story recap of all 5 previous games though.

Thanks Devlin. Not sure if they are available on Mac and I really don't like playing games on Mac anyway. Haven't picked up my Switch since early April but was thinking of giving this a go. Will have to do some investigation. (Also fancy Tunic next week - you see nothing you fancy for months on end then two gams turn up together!)

ScummVM has a mac port so you could easily play it there.
There's also Android/iOS ports, so if you know how to transfer files to your devices that's an option too.

I would probably suggest your mac though as they just work best with a mouse.

https://www.scummvm.org/downloads/

I can provide you with the game files if you need them.

Switch only has Return to Monkey Island and not the earlier games, which sucks.

still wrote:

Cheeky Devlin wrote:

still wrote:

Cheeky Devlin wrote:

still wrote:If you've never played any Monkey Island before, does this make sense as a stand alone purchase??

It's pretty welcoming to newcomers, but without having played the first two games a chunk of the jokes/story might not work as well as some might like. It's hard to tell as I've been playing these games since the early 90's and it's not easy to put myself in your position.

If you're not in any rush I would at least play through the first and second game. There are HD special editions available which have the voices, or you could use ScummVM to play the originals.

EDIT: Return does give a basic story recap of all 5 previous games though.

Thanks Devlin. Not sure if they are available on Mac and I really don't like playing games on Mac anyway. Haven't picked up my Switch since early April but was thinking of giving this a go. Will have to do some investigation. (Also fancy Tunic next week - you see nothing you fancy for months on end then two gams turn up together!)

ScummVM has a mac port so you could easily play it there.
There's also Android/iOS ports, so if you know how to transfer files to your devices that's an option too.

I would probably suggest your mac though as they just work best with a mouse.

https://www.scummvm.org/downloads/

I can provide you with the game files if you need them.

Switch only has Return to Monkey Island and not the earlier games, which sucks.

That's a very generous offer. I'll give them a go. (Might play through Tunic first though.... and then make Monkey Island my ongoing winter project.)

The bastards did it again!



Seriously though I did find the very end of the game a bit flat. At least in MI2 it felt like you'd had this climactic battle with LeChuck before it went weird, but here it feels like something was cut as it just... ends.
At least there's a bit more context to it now.

But until that point I'd loved everything about the game. It's easily up there with the first two games (Not that Curse is bad, it's just not quite as good as its predecessors).

The difficulty was just right and I only delved into the hint system twice in the whole game.

I was expecting more from Terror Island. There were so many locations that seemed empty there.

Brrrr Muda was strawberry floating great.

I was convinced that Elaine was going to ditch him after hearing about all the horrible things he'd done. Guybrush is a bigger menace than LeChuck in these games.

The letter in the scrapbook was a nice touch I thought and it definitely lined up with how I was perceiving the game and it's themes.

Then that tease at the very end of the book. I really hope they do more. It doesn't even have to be soon, but I definitely want them to come back to it at some point.