Return to Monkey Island

Worth the three-decade wait.

Return to Monkey Island has the same excellent puzzles, laughs, and unpredictability that made the series great, though the ending is odd.

Return to Monkey Island is well worth the wait. This is a quest for booty you don't want to miss.

Return to Monkey Island reaches into your heart, rips out your desire to know THE SECRET, and clenches it in front of your face. As hard as it would be to concede that The Secret of Monkey Island™ might always have been a MacGuffin, it’s agonising to contemplate that your 30-year longing for the Monkey Island 3 might be just the same. Delighting as you tremor, Return presents to your transfixed gaze a phenomenal point-and-click adventure, bubbling with passion and fun. All the way through, you will hope, achingly, that the big reveal is coming – and then…

Return to Monkey Island is pretty much as perfect a sequel to such a series of classic games as one can get. The puzzles are just as clever as they were decades ago, the visuals are the stunning, characters both new and old are a joy to interact with and provide great humor, and the story is not only well-crafted, but also has surprisingly profound moments. It's easily a classic that can proudly stand alongside the other Monkey Island games, and one of the year's best games in general. Take it from a now-behind-bars Stan: it's one worth picking up.

It's time to set sail with Guybrush Threepwood once again.

Though I still remain surprised that Return to Monkey Island even exists, I can't contest what Ron Gilbert and developer Terrible Toybox have wrought here. By masterfully combining the witty and thoughtful point and click escapades of the series past with a newfound warmth and charming aesthetic, Return to Monkey Island is by and large the series return that fans have long been waiting for and is a roaring success in the process.

It’s been a long time coming, but Return to Monkey Island is an absolute treat for fans of the series. It looks wonderful, it sounds wonderful, and its combination of excellent puzzles and expert writing will keep you transfixed from start to finish. Our only real complaint is that newcomers may find this a difficult starting point – but that’s easily rectified by jumping into the originals.

At the end of the day, there were always some risks involved with Return to Monkey Island, and opinions are going to be divided among the hardcore fans and relative newcomers. What cannot be denied, however, is that this is an amazing point-and-click adventure that retains much of the beloved charm, while still updating the experience to be a more well-balanced affair. This is an excellent return, to say the least, and I can only hope this is the beginning of a new age that Terrible Toybox will be leading from the front.

A deft and heartfelt journey through nostalgia.

Return To Monkey Island might be playing the entire nostalgia hand, nevermind the card, but it's also a very good modern point and click game that makes a perfect new entry to a beloved old series.

The creator of the Monkey Island series returns to offer his vision of a third game – and it’s got more to say than its nostalgic trappings first suggest.