When The Secret of Monkey Island revolutionized the genre of graphic adventures in 1990, pixel art as we know it today did not technically exist: the resources of the time were used to offer a versatile artistic section, at the service of SCUMM technology and adaptable to the systems of that time. Basically, that was it. That a point and click visually appealing was very important, but not the most important and, of course, what made Gytbrush Threepwood’s first adventure so special was not its graphics, but the crazy ingenuity of Ron Gilbert, Dave Grossman and Tim Schaffer.
Decades have passed since that milestone. Each one of those responsible for it ended up leaving LucasArts and with today’s technology there are no longer artistic limitations, but the genius of The Secret of Monkey Island and its sequel Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge are still intact. There were several later installments, more ambitious and much more careful on a visual level, but they are still in its shadow. They lacked what we can call the Gilbert touch, which is absolutely palpable in the dialogue and situations of Thimbleweed Park, their most recent graphic adventure to date. Fortunately, it won’t be the last.
A new installment of the saga Monkey Island is on its way: Return to Monkey Island. The direct and legitimate sequel to LeChuck’s Revenge from the hand of Gilbert himself, who, after years of very direct hints, has managed to associate himself with the refounded LucasFilm Games and with a Devolver that will not put ties to his imagination. An opportunity dreamed of by himself and by entire generations of fans of classic graphic adventures. And yet the reunion with Guybrush Threepwood has divided opinions.
Gilbert himself has gotten bored of having to explain the aesthetics of the game and has decided to nip the problem in the bud: no new advances or advances on Return to Monkey Island until further notice and, already put, the comments of his personal blog have been deactivated after having to delete some too uncomfortable.
The reason, as we say, is that the artistic section of the Return to Monkey Island not unanimously convinced. The new appearance of Guybrush does not correspond to what many fans expected to see, the one shown in previous games or the one they imagined, which is at least curious considering that, in addition to being an extension of the art director’s work rex crowle (Knights & Bikes and Tearaway), we are talking about the original vision of Ron Gilbertits own creator.
Return to Monkey Island, or why the second impression is the one that counts
Should Ron Gilbert make a Guybrush true to the character in the original games and living up to fan expectations? The answer is that Yes. You are not obliged to do so, but asking for less is simply being conformist. Much can be said of Gilbert, but not that he is a conformist person. something very different is that it had to follow the aesthetics of the first games or give continuity to the evolutionary line of the most recent ones.
We mean Guybrush and the same applies to LeChuck, Elaine, Stan, and even the Voodoo lady, all of whom will return in Return to Monkey Island. And beware, Murray, the first character already known from previous installments, did not appear until The Curse of Monkey Island, which Gilbert intends to ignore almost completely and intentionally.
In Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge the saga took a step forward in terms of quality, but it was not until the aforementioned The Curse Of Monkey Island, already without Gilbert in LucasArts, that Guybrush had a more or less defined aspect throughout the adventure. But, to be fair, the closest thing to a really defined aesthetic that the first two adventures had was cover illustrations.
The first question almost asks itself: why did Gilbert make use of the pixel art from the first two installments or from Thimbleweed Park? Basically, and as he himself will explain, because Return to Monkey Island is not a retro game nor does it seek to evoke a sense of nostalgia: in all respects it is a new installment whose priority is to be as interesting, fun and daring as the previous ones.
When Dave and I started brainstorming about Return to Monkey Island, we talked about pixel art, but we didn’t think it was the best. We didn’t want to make a retro game. You can’t read an article about Thimbleweed Park without it being called a “nostalgic game.” I didn’t want Return to Monkey Island to be just a retro game, I wanted to continue to push Monkey Island forward because it’s interesting, fun and exciting. It’s what the Monkey Island games have always done.
I wanted the art in Return to Monkey Island to be provocative, shocking, and not what everyone expected. Rex is an amazing creative force and we have an incredible team of artists, animators, sound designers, programmers and testers all pouring their souls into this game and it is beautiful to watch, play and listen to.
Does that mean that the new art in the game is worse than the original games? To taste the colors, but if we compare The Secret of Monkey Island with Return to Monkey Island, it’s clear that the Guybrush of 2022 has more than earned the benefit of the doubt.
In fact, it is striking that the group of pirates at the SCUMM Bar in this installment are not the three generic corsairs from The Secret of Monkey Island, but each one is quite recognizable and diverse. A new generation of pirates more modernaccording to the synopsis of the game itself:
It has been many years since Guybrush Threepwood last faced off in a duel of wits with his nemesis, the zombie pirate LeChuck. His true love, Elaine Marley, is no longer Governor and Guybrush himself is lost and feels incomplete, as he never got to discover the Secret of Monkey Island.
Young, hip pirates, led by Captain Madison, have driven out the old guard, Mêlée Island has gone bust, and notorious businessman Stan has been jailed for “marketing-related offences.”
It will be interesting to see how Gilbert plays with longtime fans, integrates the time lapse between installments as a theme for this new adventure, and in the process delivers us a game where Guybrush Threepwood once again steps out of his comfort zone. comfort to discover the Secret of Monkey Island.
Among other things, because there are already many graphic adventures with generic plots, simple puzzles and flat characters. too many.
Give me Grog and good puzzles, I’ll see to it that Guybrush has a hard time
Monkey Island is a saga built on one premise: to offer the player a crazy pirate amusement park where they can constantly have fun. Unlike Sierra’s graphic adventures, you can’t lose the game unless you spend more than ten minutes underwater, which is more of a recurring joke than a condition, so the player can use their wits or lunar logic to Experiment with each item in your inventory or stare around for clues, rewarding yourself with at least one witty joke.
Seeing the first official screenshots of the game, the second is already fulfilled wonderfully.
It is inevitable that all of us who have played Monkey Island we have an image more or less associated with what Guybrush Threepwood is like, since at some point we have put ourselves in his shoes. Sharing pranks, adventures and pranks. Making great discoveries or putting the paws to the bottom. Deceiving scammers and innocents. Insulting strangers between sword thrusts. Running silly errands and resorting to voodoo when all else fails. How not to be reflected in it?
We agree that the Guybrush imagined by Rex Crowle and Ron Gilbert is nothing like the one we could see more clearly in The Curse of Monkey IslandEscape from Monkey Island or the series of Tales of Monkey Island. But, on the other hand, that was always Gilbert’s intention. Even when he was at LucasArts.
If I had stayed and made Monkey Island 3, it wouldn’t have looked like Monkey Island 2. We would have moved on, and Day of the Tentacle is a good example of that.
I never liked the art in Day of the Tentacle. Technically and artistically it was fantastic, but I never liked Chuck Jones’ wacko style. But that was Dave and Tim’s game, not mine. They can do whatever they want and I fully supported it.
Curse of Monkey Island also took a leap forward. It introduced us to a taller, lankier Guybrush, with spoken dialogue and those hand-painted backgrounds that were all the rage in the late ’90s. It was very much a game of its time.
The animated style of Tex Avery and Chuck Jones that LucasArts popularized with Day of the Tentacle and subsequent graphic adventures, but it was definitely something that Gilbert did not like and, by extension, the originally planned closure of the Monkey Island trilogy that he wanted do before starting his own career would have gone in another direction.
Perhaps, that Monkey Island 3 that never was would not have resembled the aesthetics of Return to Monkey Islandbut it is clear that the fans would not have cared if the puzzles and the dialogues were good and, in turn, we were given challenges capable of making us squeeze our brains.
With difficult puzzles, capable of leaving us stuck and frustrated, but fair to the player once solved.
Basically, because those puzzles and dialogues were what established the quality leap for LucasArts graphic adventures in front of all the others. What made them different and unique. And, in this respect, I applaud that Ron Gilbert takes us out of the comfort zone. Let him take us into the unknown and, from there, he ask us for the third time the big question: What is the Secret of Monkey Island?