LifeisXbox’s Return to Monkey Island review | Pum pumpetum pe tum tum tum, pum petututu tu tu tum… aaah, that intro song… Oh hello, there reader! Welcome to Stan’s Mighty Emporium of wonderful reviews. And do we have a doozy for you! Return to Monkey Island brought to us by Terrible Toybox! Oh ho ho ho, don’t worry either my friend because you won’t be disappointed no sirree. Not at all. It has everything you need! Pirates, love, children, intrigue… Did I already say, Pirates? Yes! This tale has it all. And if you buy now? You’ll get a complementary peg leg for the price of a peg leg and the game. Yes… Wait, what? Oh. Sorry, our supplier notified me that their last peg leg went out the door. But, that doesn’t mean that should prevent you from getting this game. Oh no no no. ~Frantic arm movements~.
My gosh, how I missed this franchise to no end… And here we are, back at it again. You are taking on the role of Guybrush Threepwood (or Threepweed, depending on who you are). It seems that LeChuck is at it again by trying to get to the secret of monkey island. So, will you take on this noble task and try to stop evil from winning, or will you walk the plank, and roll over like a land lover? What was that? You will? Great! Then board the (review)ship ye scurvy seadogs and let’s get ready for our review of… Return to Monkey Island!
Most Memorable Moment
Completing all the challenges that were thrown at me by my adversary LeChuck… Getting all the keys, surviving Monkey Island, and finally winning my chase against LeChuck. After hours upon hours, I reached my end goal. I clicked on the chest which held the Secret… Of Monkey Island, and low and behold there it was… There was the mighty treasure! There it was, gleaming like a polished gem… the [REDACTED].
ℹ️ Reviewed on Xbox Series X | Review code provided by PR/publisher, this review is the personal opinion of the writer.
What we Liked!
- Original Cast | While not every voice may be the original voice actor, others returned to take on their role again. The most notable ones were Guybrush and everyone’s favorite plunder bunny Elaine! And don’t think that they phoned in their roles either, they clearly gave it their all. As well as all the other voice actors in this Return to Monkey Island. It always warms my heart when people give it their all, and more to bring their character to life and make it more vibrant.
- Visually appealing | While I did have to get used to Return to Monkey Island‘s choice in visual art direction, I appreciated their choice. The colors were lively and peppy while the surroundings just looked amazing! Every scene in this game just looks wonderful and you can clearly see that the art team did its best to make the world feel alive like no other.
- Dedication | Dear Terrible Toybox. I must applaud you for your attention to detail and subtle hints to other Monkey Island franchise games. Including small bits and bobs here and there towards those games not only shows a true dedication and love for our Mighty pirate but also how determined you guys were to actually make a game that totally fits into the world of Guybrush Threepwood and his blasted arch-enemy. So yes, I can only hope that we see more from your team because you delivered a perfect Monkey Island game.
- Length | Lengthwise Return to Monkey Island won’t disappoint either. Often great adventure games end after 3 hours or so and leave us wanting, while bad adventure games tend to be 15+ hours and we have to trudge through the bog to reach the end goal. Return to Monkey Island is a wonderful game with a length of 7-8 hours, depending on how quickly you can run through the puzzles that it throws at you. I played on Hard mode, so I did around 10 hours because I just couldn’t figure out one puzzle that had me scratching around for clues… Damn you mop! (If you know, you’ll know… And if you accidentally throw some items on the fire…)
- Clever | The jokes in Return to Monkey Island won’t leave you disappointed either. Not only are they damn right funny, but sometimes they’re even hilarious. And the fact that Terrible Toybox got the humor right as well just shows you how dedicated they were to making the perfect storm of adventuring and laughing. The puzzles were perfect as well, while not overly complicated they do make you challenge yourself to find the right clues in some of the audio queues for instance or a tiny hint dropped in one of the many dialogues the game has.
Mixed Feelings
- Nothing| Actually there isn’t anything noteworthy to write that was so and so. I mean… C’mon, this is Guybrush Threepwood, Mighty Pirate we’re talking about here!
What we Disliked
- Point and ‘click’ | If there is one thing that absolutely annoyed me to no end? Then it has to be the console version of a point and click system as well as the inventory menu. My goodness does it blow. If you want to interact with your environment you’ll have to highlight one the umpteen white circles that blot the screen. But if you want to interact with a white circle that is slightly above another one, you’ll have to do the circle dance. Wiggle your stick around and hope that the hitbox scans your input correctly and goes towards that one, instead one that is way off on the right side. Because if that happens and you go back to your original line? It’ll put you on the bottom circle. Your inventory bag doesn’t behave much better either. You’ll actually lose more time scanning around your inventory for an item than playing the game… Okay, that’s maybe a bit exaggerated, but you’ll get it when you play the game.
How long to beat the story | 7-8 hours.
How long to achieve 1000G | 10+ hours.
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