Since RtMI is published by Digital Devolver, I assume both Special Reserve Games and Limited Run Games will offer different variants next year.
Switch Physical Collection - 1,247 games (as of April 15th, 2024)
Favorite Quote: "Childhood is not from birth to a certain age and at a certain age the child is grown, and puts away childish things. Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies." -Edna St. Vincent Millay
Just downloading now, and feel a strange excitement about this game!
I grew up playing a lot of the classic point-and-click adventures, with especially fond memories of the Indiana Jones games + the original Broken Swords. I've played Monkey Island 1 also, but remember having to use a guide for some parts ha.
More recently I played Thimbleweed Park, which was absolutely brilliant (developed by Ron Gilbert no less!). If I get on well with RtMI then I may ask for more recommendations from the genre.
Currently I've scooped a few platinums on souls-style games, but keen to branch out my tastes a bit (own PS5 and Switch)
My aim is to beat this one with zero hints.... but maybe I'm getting ahead of myself!
@CJD87 ditto on the no hints thing. I wanna play this through and I KNOW I'm gonna get stuck on the puzzles and I'm gonna have fun being stuck.
@CJD87@N00BiSH In IGN's review, they praised the game for having a great hint system in the game if you get stuck. They were quite pleased, because it meant they didn't have to search the internet for a walkthrough for help, and they didn't have to risk seeing spoilers that are inherent to a walkthrough.
I really like how they handled picking up the baggage left by Monkey Island 2. I won't get into it, but the way it's set up simultaneously does and doesn't pick up after MI2's ending. It's pretty clever. The whole story in general is really great.
The art is pretty freakin' great. There's a great level of thought and care put into the environments and character designs and personally, I think it's closer to the first two games and even a bit better than Curse's art style. Obviously it's not gonna be everyone's cup of tea but it'd be stupid to act like the art was a cynical no-effort cost-cutting choice.
Music is great too, obviously.
Puzzles are well designed with not a hint of moon logic to be found. Almost every is puzzle is great and really makes you think without feeling frustrated for the most part.
Controls are solid too. I wasn't a fan of how Thimbleweed Park handled with an analog stick(a bit too stiff imo). But R2MI makes it work. Guybrush moves like a dream and the interface works really well here.
Overall, turns out when you're not kvetching about how the art looks, Return to Monkey Island is a pretty great game. Everything I expected and worlds more. Who would've guessed?
Finished it the other day, guessing it’s been out long enough we can discuss it without spoilers. Wasn’t a fan of the ending, especially after they “fixed” the ending from monkey island 2!
Overall I enjoyed the game, haven’t played a monkey island I didn’t. I found it to be too easy though.
I loved the game, but agree it was a tad easy. BUT I really really enjoyed this genre, and I'm keen to play more of this type of game. It made an excellent 'side-dish' to playing other more agressive/immersive titles (I play a lot of Souls-esque titles on PS5)
I played MI1 as a kid, but never got very far... I googled the plots for MI1 and 2 before starting RTMI. But if 1 and 2 got ported to Switch I would 100% buy these
My goal was to get through the whole game without using the hint book once... and I very nearly accomplished this until the final wheel puzzle!!!
I was wholly convinced that the ‘starting’ position for the centre wheel was 1726, followed by turning the inner/outer wheels, and finishing by changing the centre to- -> 1730 (“4 years” change as referenced by the limerick clue, found on the tombstone in the lava!!)
If indeed this was intended to be deliberately misleading, I think it was a massive oversight. In reality, they should have avoided inclusion of any 2 dates with a difference of 4 years.
I probably would have got this puzzle done after a while, but it would have almost certainly been via a “brute force” approach… as I was so convicted in my initial tactics!
Notable mentions though for puzzles that had me stumped:
1) Terror Island: realising I needed to light the lamp with Flambe’s head! I must have tried everything here, and it was only that throwaway statement from Hanging Bob which gave me the “aha!” Moment
2) Proving my identity as Ned via the photograph puzzle… it just never occurred to pass myself off as Ned, especially considering I was already the Queen of Brrr Muda by this point!!! Surely everyone would know my identity on the island, with chance to fool anyone?
Ultimately though I do stand by the fact that both the above puzzles were fair, and I actually loved Act IV… felt like this was the only act where the game really hit its stride
If you like monkey island you should definitely check out thimbleweed park if you haven’t, it’s buy the same guy. Grim fandango is an all time classic but god it’s hard, I don’t know how anyone could beat it without a walkthrough.
I was stuck on the same ones as you for a bit and the brr muda challenges had me stumped for a while. I only used the hints twice and one was on the stone wheel as well, I don’t know if I’d ever have got that. The 4 year thing totally threw me as well. The other time I used it was when trying to get the flaming Alaska for flambé, I knew what to do but it never occurred to me to use the knife
The only part I really don't like about the ending is how it ended before getting a conclusion to the story we were playing. I don't care that we did not find out what the secret of monkey island really is, it would probably be foolish to define it. The kinda regurgitated ending was alright for me, especially after reading the letter by the developers, I can see why they ended it this way.
@Madao I'm of two minds when it comes to the abruptness of the twist; on one hand, yeah, I do wish there was some actual confrontation before the reveal, but at the same time I kind of get it. It's like the game is saying "you know what's going to happen, so why it show it to you if you know what's coming?"
I seem to be having tremendous difficulty with my lifestyle
Happy anniversary to the best April Fools joke I've ever played.
A lot of my thoughts haven't changed much since it's release. I liked the art and I like the ending. If I could complain about anything, I'd say the puzzle design was a bit simple but I wouldn't call it completely mindless. Game of the year 2022 for me.
@N00BiSH
It was pretty awesome, actually. I played the original "trilogy" to death (I know that Curse isn't technically part of it, but bah - it's such a classic), and this really did feel like that overused term "love letter" to those games and the people who played them.
The puzzles were absolutely a step down from those original games, which I partly enjoyed because now I'm almost 40 and I don't have time to figure out how to get those dogs out of the way from the governor's mansion for hours on end, but I partly missed the challenge. It was kind of nice ultimately because it felt like most of the puzzles had a very logical "ah ha!" kind of connection whereas the older games, admittedly, had a few really out-there solutions that just didn't make sense to most brains.
Ending, as you said, was brilliant. Maybe one of the best endings and messages I've seen from a video game for a very long time. Worth a play from anyone who has ever touched a Monkey Island game.
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