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.

Fairly interesting narative, very interesting structure and the secret ending is up there as one of the greatest endings in video game history for me.

Plays like shit at first but once you get some decent weapons and upgrade them fully it's perfectly playable (occasionally fun even.) Getting the secret ending is a slog and while weapon stories are a great addition, grinding out the weapons to unlock all the stories is not at all worth it.

That last paragraph sounds bad but I really did love the game, just don't go in expecting great combat and probably use a guide to unlock all the weapons.

Definitely has it's problems but I couldn't help but love it. Fujibayshi & Mori crafted fantastic story from minor references in backstory text, offhand comments, minor aspects of illustrations and other little details from the series' previous entries.

Criticism is often directed at the games linearity and repetitiveness but I didn't find that to be a problem for me, Twilight Princess' sad excuse for an open world felt far more linear than the areas here, which all open up with various shortcuts through your first run, making the areas anything but linear on returns trips. as for those return trips, it doesn't feel very repetitive as most of repeat visits are spent in new areas or the old areas are completely transformed, and going through the sections of old areas quicker and easier than before gives a great sense of progression.

The motion controls worked well for me despite a few hiccups (slightly better on Wii than switch) and it's all worth it for that fantastic final boss fight.

Such an amazing structure to not only this game but the whole trilogy, some of the best plotting of any trilogy not just in video games.

Most of the open world design was outdone just two years later by Nintendo but the quality of the writing in not just sidequests, but even Witcher contracts made this just as memorable as Breath of the Wild, even if most "exploration" in this one is just going to each question mark on the map instead of actually exploring.

I felt like the preperation required before battles in the first two was heavily downplayed by the streamlining in this one, but I'm sure it's much more necessary on harder dificulties (which I will inevitably try on a replay.)

I don't think I've ever come close to a 100 hour single playthrough on a game before but seeing that playtime after I finished really spoke volumes to me that I was able to stay invested for that long and commited so much time to it, and I think it does justify it's length when like 98% games can't, nothing felt unnecessary at all.

This trilogy is some of the best storytelling of the medium (even if the standards are quite low, but still) and despite the fact that once I get around to Hearts of Stone & Blood and Wine I'll have probably sunk 200 hours into the series, I'm certain I'll be back to replay it someday.

Definitely has it's problems but I couldn't help but love it. Fujibayshi & Mori crafted fantastic story from minor references in backstory text, offhand comments, minor aspects of illustrations and other little details from the series' previous entries.

Criticism is often directed at the games linearity and repetitiveness but I didn't find that to be a problem for me, Twilight Princess' sad excuse for an open world felt far more linear than the areas here, which all open up with various shortcuts through your first run, making the areas anything but linear on returns trips. as for those return trips, it doesn't feel very repetitive as most of repeat visits are spent in new areas or the old areas are completely transformed, and going through the sections of old areas quicker and easier than before gives a great sense of progression.

The motion controls worked well for me (even if they worked a bit better on the Wii) though I was constantly mashing y to recalibrate and having a bit of trouble in some of the later minigames, to the point where I gave up and used non-motion controls for one or two of them, which did feel like cheating. Either way, it's all worth it for that fantastic final boss fight.

As for the HD version, it's the best of all 3 (or 5, if you include the 3DS remasters) as it doesn't change the visual style at all like Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD (to a lesser extent) did, and doesn't change any aspect of the game design, only making slight changes to the more stupid annoyances of the Wii version (more of Fi's dialogue is optioninal/prompts are slightly more subtle, no text boxes every time you pick up loot) and adding the option of substituting the motion controls for joystick controls, which as I said earlier, feels like cheating, but it's obviously necessary and it was nice to have the one point I decided to play handheld.

The same amazing level design from the first two, but with more creative twists on the formula. It does start to, worryingly, feel a little closer to absolution in the third mission, but the linear, story centric parts (all fantastic) are all in the beginning and end of each mission, and from your second playthrough on, the cinematic openings are skipped by default (though you can change back to original starting location if you wish) and more mission exit options are given, allowing you to bypass the linear endings.

As an individual game and conclusion to the trilogy it's absolutely fantastic, as an entire package with the entire "World of Assassination" trilogy and all previous DLC, it's easily one of the greatest games of all time, and I hope it will be treated and remembered as such into the future.

it took me far to long to play this all the through, but I'm glad I finally did. I'm a huge fan Tim Schafer and 3D platformers are one of my favourite genres, so I knew I was going to like this, but I was still blown away.

As genius and creative as you'd expect from Schafer, and his collaborators from previous and subsequent projects bring their a-game as always.

I experienced a few crashes and a lot of minor issues, but for the most the part the game still ran pretty well.