This is a game I've wanted to play as long as I can remember and finally gave up hope that it would ever exist, but as release came closer, and especially after replaying the first two I began to wonder if this should exist at all. Monkey 2 is such a perfect statement, what reason is there for more? Besides the fact that it's long been believed that Ron had alway's intended to produce a trilogy, but it's been clear from recent interviews that his concept for a Monkey 3 was vague at best, and he left LucasArts of his own free will to create his own company. However it's clear not only from interviews, but from just playing the game, this only exists because Ron and Dave had something to say with it.

It could be argued the thematic point of all three of Ron's Monkey Island games is the same, and told with less subtlety each time. But I think there's enough off a difference between them to warrant their existence. Plus the context behind this one does give it some more weight.

I dunno... It's just beautiful... American games rarely try to say anything, but Ron is one of the few real auteurs in the space. I'm so glad he's back, and hopefully continuing to make these kind of games.

God this game looks beautiful too, anyone complaining about the art direction can shut the hell up.

When I played this a few weeks ago and wrote the below review, I gave it an 8. Upon further reflection, whatever it's about, or anything like that doesn't really matter. Never in my life has a piece of art/media/whatever made me so viscerally afraid. Unlike others, I've never thought this out or thought it would be a particularly good experience, but honestly, it achieved something incredible I think, and surpassed the bounds of the medium, or any medium, which, to me, makes it a masterpiece.

Original review/fresh thoughts:
Kinda hated playing it? I was not having fun but I guess that's the point? It's good at that. Not at giving any context to what the fuck your supposed to do. But I guess that's the point too?

I played the DS port of this for the first time when I was 5, it was unlike anything I'd ever played, probably because all the games I'd played at this point were crap, but this was the game that made me fall in love with video games. I begged my parents for a DS until they finally relented so I could play it, and then years later when the 3DS first arrived I did the same, simply so I could play it and it actually be playable and not look like shit. After many years, I've finally grown to accept the original release as the definitive one, and a masterpiece at that, though I definitely have a lot of nostalgia for the DS port. Finally beating it was amazing, I know I've marked this as replay but one of my greatest shames was that I was never able to land that third and final hit on bowser and this actually end the game and had to get a friend of mine to do it (I blame both me being shit at it, and having to use the dpad leaving in my thumb sore as shit after the many, many attempts.), But I also stuck through and got all 120 stars, something I always wanted to do. Happy to finally cross this one of the list, and maybe finally check out Sunshine.

I started this when 3D all-stars first came out but got like 80 something stars I think, and then picked it up again a couple weeks ago on a whim. Glad I did. Seriously, this is a revolution is both technology and design, on the same level as both Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros. that proceeded it, possibly Miyamoto's best work, though it definitely competes for that spot with The Legend of Zelda for me. I doesn't quite excite my curiousity as did when I was little, and some choices seem odd to me now but only if I think about it too hard, I know it well and the level design has a logic all it's own that I completely understand. Ultimately, it's just amazing how well this holds up, and I don't think there was a single entry in the genre it created that could match it, let alone top it, until Super Mario Odyssey.

Shouldn't rate because I only played a couple hours but boring as hell. Mechanics are fine, at least in terms of the tutorial part, but the level design was uninspired as shit, and god the cutscenes were constant and northing interesting was happening in the slightest. Once it got to first proper planet I think I quit in like 10 mins or something because at least the on rails onslaught of troopers in the tutorial gave me something to do.

Say what you will about force unleashed, that shits exciting at the very least.