During the most recent Nintendo Direct Mini, Terrible Toybox, Devolver Digital, and LucasFilm Games finally revealed the first look at Return to Monkey Island, the newest entry in the groundbreaking point-and-click adventure game series in 13 years. This trailer came with many reveals, such as the first look at the new art style, glimpses at the returning voice cast, and a peek at the gameplay for the upcoming title. The trailer finally promised that this adventure will finally reveal how Guybrush found the fabled "Secret of Monkey Island."
A small piece of news that went relatively unnoticed was the reveal on the game's Steam and Nintendo eShop pages that Return to Monkey Island will be the final game in the Monkey Island series. The Steam page specifically lists it as "the exciting conclusion to the Monkey Island series." While this news will undoubtedly come as a shock to many, Return to Monkey Island acting as the series' conclusion ultimately makes a lot of sense.
The Road to Return to Monkey Island
Return to Monkey Island is one of the most unlikely modern video game sequels to even exist. For a long time fans had given up hope on seeing Ron Gilbert return to the series he created in 1991, especially given the series' new ownership under The Walt Disney Company as part of its acquisition of LucasFilm in 2012. While many had assumed Disney had no interest in revisiting LucasFilm Games/LucasArts IP, Ron Gilbert made many posts on his social media accounts claiming that he was going to attempt to buy the rights to the series off Disney.
Disney eventually did show some interest in LucasArts' old IP after teaming up with Double Fine Productions to release remasters of classic titles such as Grim Fandango and Full Throttle, lending some hope to Monkey Island's eventual revival. Later, the company would even go on to acknowledge the series in other ways such as releasing The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge as part of Xbox's backwards compatibility program, and releasing classic titles like Curse of Monkey Island on Steam. No major indications that a new Monkey Island game was coming arrived until mid-2021, when Microsoft's Sea of Thieves featured a reference to Monkey Island as part of its Pirates of the Caribbean crossover, indicating that it was possible to license the IP from Disney.
Then finally, earlier this year, in true Ron Gilbert fashion, the latest entry in the Monkey Island series was finally revealed in the form of an April Fool's Day post on the creator's personal blog, something he often promised to do if he was ever to create a new game. The game was then officially announced on April 3rd, 2022 as Return to Monkey Island, a Ron Gilbert-led follow-up to Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge that is set for release in 2022. While the game will acknowledge events and characters from later games, Gilbert has stated that this will be mainly based on concepts for a follow-up to Monkey Island 2 he planned before leaving LucasArts.
Why Return to Monkey Island Is A Good Place To End The Series
From explaining the long and uncertain road to even receiving a Ron Gilbert led follow-up to Monkey Island 2's infamous ending, which concluded with the twist reveal that the events of the game were possibly just two boys playing pretend at a theme park, it's easier to see why Return to Monkey Island makes such a good final outing for the series. It's evident from his battle to win back the rights for the series and develop a new entry that Gilbert has had a lot of time to think about how Monkey Island should end. This includes telling a story about how Guybrush eventually found the "Secret of Monkey Island," and ignoring entries that don't fit into Gilbert's original vision for the third entry.
Furthermore, many details can be grasped from the information recently released about the game that indicate why this is where the story should naturally conclude. These details range from the recent trailer opening with Guybrush recounting experiences from his past - indicating that this story is being told at a point where Guybrush may be done with pirating - to new, younger pirates such as Captain Madison replacing previously dominant ones and ushering in a new generation. Even the pirate leaders on Melee Island seem to have been replaced.
Even for fans of Monkey Island, it's hard to know where the series could go after a big blow-out like Return to Monkey Island. Ever since Monkey Island 2, the series has been spinning its wheels with certain story elements, like how Curse of Monkey Island failed to satisfyingly pay off its predecessor's ending reveal by ignoring its storytelling nuances, Escape From Monkey Island failing on its promise of introducing new villains and instead falling back on LeChuck, and Tales of Monkey Island being just as standalone as the game before it despite introducing some interesting new elements. It seems like if there was ever a game Monkey Island should bow out with, Return to Monkey Island is shaping up to be the one.
Return to Monkey Island will release for PC and Nintendo Switch in 2022.
