So I'm going to fly in the face of popular opinion here and say that Return to... is the worst game in the Monkey Island franchise for me. I'm going to fly in the face of popular opinion even more and say that Ron Gilbert is an overrated and washed up writer.

See, my introduction to this series was with the much-frowned upon fourth entry, Escape from Monkey Island. It's largely treated like the runt of the litter now, but when my young self stumbled upon it on the PS2, I was bewitched. It felt like I was playing an eccentric, interactive Saturday morning cartoon. The characters were charming, the jokes were laugh out loud funny and the gorgeous pre-rendered environments really ramped up the game's atmosphere. Sure it had its problems, but by the time the credits started scrolling, I was already a fan. From that point onwards, I borrowed a school friend's copies of the original Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge. I wasn't nearly as smitten with them, but they were still enjoyable (although I hated the latter's ending). From there I moved on to Curse of Monkey Island, which instantly went down as one of my favourite games of all time. I loved it then and I still love it to this day. Years later, the series got a new lease of life with Telltale's episodic entry Tales of Monkey Island. While opinion is divided on it, I thought Telltale did an admirable job of capturing the overall spirit of the series. It's the developer's best game, and episode 3 in particular is a hilarious highlight (thanks mainly to the undead but lovable skull Murray).

So now here we are, many years later, and Monkey Island has been revived once again. This time with some of the original talent back in the saddle. Cause for celebration right? Well errrrr, no. Not so much.

First thing's first - RtMI looks horrid. It looks visually unappealing. The garish art style became an early point of contention among fans, and while I do not condone at all the direct abuse the developers had to endure in the build up to the game's release, I do sit on the side of the fence that the art style is very much to the detriment of the overall gaming experience. It's cheap, ugly, and all the characters look like Canadians from an episode of South Park. In truth, the whole game is blighted by a lack of budget and necessary production values. Playing this game, I found myself yearning for the beautiful hand-drawn animation of Curse, or the detailed environments of Escape, or even the 3D movement and sense of scale of Tales. RtMI is not an ambitious game; it feels very safe and it feels like it was running on the tightest budget possible. This is not necessarily the fault of any of the developers, but I couldn't help but be disappointed by small scale of it all.

The game is also not particularly funny. This is a Ron Gilbert problem for me, because I didn't laugh much at the first two games either. The biggest reaction the gags got from me here was a sensible chuckle. Compare that to the three games that Gilbert was not involved with, and there's a night and day difference.

There's also the ending. Already known to be polarising among the fans, the ending in my opinion is... well, it's fucking shit. Gilbert opted to go for another meta denouncement, similar to how he ended LeChuck's Revenge and Thimbleweed Park. It wasn't particularly funny or clever back then, and it isn't now. Is this a personal failure on his part? Does he just not know how to give a story a solid and satisfying conclusion? I would say that RtMI's last ten minutes are its greatest failure. I could go on, but I think I should just leave it at that.

The game is not a complete stinker. If it was I would not have given it a 3 outta 5. It definitely does capture the spirit of old-school Monkey Island. The way certain chapters are structured, you have multiple objectives that you can complete in any order. I like this approach, as it enables the player to go do something else if they get stuck, much like the second game. The hint system is helpful and a welcome inclusion, the puzzles are never too irrational, and the music has that classic Monkey Island flavour.

But Return to Monkey Island is undeniably a disappointment for me. Like I said before, it is the worst entry in the series, and if there's a follow up in the works (and it seems like there could be given some of the winks and nods in the ending) then there are a plethora of issues to address. I personally would love to see Tim Schafer take another crack at it, with a decent sized budget this time! But I'm not holding my breath.

Cada dia que passa, mais eu me apaixono por Monkey Island.

The Curse of Monkey Island é o terceiro jogo da franquia, trouxe consigo a mudança dos gráficos pixel para animação 2D, e que é absolutamente linda. As animações são muito bem feitas, parecia que eu estava assistindo algum desenho animado que passava na TV Globinho.
Eu não vou ficar repetindo em toda review sobre o quão DELICIOSO é explorar, o quanto é engraçado os diálogos e outras coisas. Tudo que posso dizer é que a qualidade se mantém.
MI3 tem a dificuldade muito mais elevada que os anteriores, puzzles que chegam ao impossível de se resolver, a não ser que você pense muito fora da caixa ou use algum tipo de entorpecente.
Como eu disse acima, a exploração é muito boa, mas aqui há tantos detalhes na arte do jogo que você pode deixar algum detalhe passar batido.
Os personagens são extremamente cativantes, soltei várias risadas em vários momentos. Gosto muito do jeitinho único de Monkey Island.
Agora eu vou me preparar psicologicamente para jogar o próximo, conhecido como a ovelha negra da franquia!