A few hours ago the one that, for many, is the most important video game-related news of the year. It doesn’t matter if Sony announces the release date of its PS VR 2 for PS5, or if Microsoft enlightens us with an Activision-Blizzard exclusive. Even though Nintendo wants to distract us with the second installment of the great The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild. Ron Gilbert is back, LucasArts too and that deserves us to get serious, very serious.
We return to Monkey Island
It is a simple teaser of just one minute, specifically 58 seconds, but It’s enough to drive the community crazy with a project they had been working on for two years in secret. This announcement gives us the opportunity to warm up the engines with the saga and to do so, nothing better than revisiting the previous four installments on any platform for which we have any version available. Although before making any mistakes, we are going to make a point.
the saga of the Monkey Island officially has four games: The Secret of Monkey Island, The Secret of Monkey Island 2 LeChuck’s Revenge, The Curse of Monkey Island and Escape from Monkey Island. Of all of them, the first two cannot be found as such for the new platforms although the special editions that were launched 13 years ago. Remember that between 2009 and 2010 the classic was dressed in silk with better graphics (1080p) but leaving the development of graphic adventures practically the same.
Parallel, new adventures arrived, titled as Tales of Monkey Island that are not strictly necessary to prepare for the new Return of Monkey Island, but it doesn’t hurt to take a look at them to get a broader perspective of everything that happens to our funny protagonists. So if you want to relive the first four parts before the arrival of the fifth, let’s go over them a bit:
The Secret of Monkey Island (1990)
The original graphic adventure, the one that marks the path of the saga and presents us the main ingredients of what will be its magic formula: humor in abundance, impossible situations, a protagonist who is a bit of a disaster and a villain who has come from beyond the grave with a direct passport from hell. In short, Guybrush Threepwood, the pirate LeChuck and Elaine in a game where you have to talk, think, investigate and solve puzzles by mixing those objects that we find around the stage. I am glue and you are glue.
The Secret of Monkey Island 2 LeChuck’s Revenge (1991)
The success of the first game leads LucasArts to create its sequel. Renovated graphic aspect, much more spectacular, with the same ingredients of humor, even more impossible puzzles and riddles and an extraordinarily advanced narrative that keeps the level of the saga even higher. We will not tell you how he ends because he is a SPOILER of the good ones, but it will be surprising when you enjoy it again. Go LeChuck and Guybrush!
The Curse of Monkey Island (1997)
Already in the golden age of the multimedia phenomenon in the 90s, comes the first game that is practically a cartoon movie. The old SCUMM interface is given a better life, now all graphics are full screen and the spirit of the originals is maintained through a crazy story with continuous references to common places in the franchise. Get it back to play it again. Definitely.
Escape from Monkey Island (2000)
So far it is the last title of the franchise and it is, of the four, the one that passed with more pain than glory. It is the first to add 3D to the characters and the scenarios have the appearance of pre-rendered graphics. It is quite far from the general aesthetic, but hey, you have to understand the years in which it arrived. Be that as it may, we will meet the same characters again and star in a story that, hopefully, will continue in 2022 with Return to Monkey Island.
