He says he essentially forgot about “Monkey Island.” Those weaned on games in the ’80s and ’90s, however, did not. That’s when it clicked for me.”Īfter ending the second “Monkey Island” game with a cliffhanger - one that “The Return to Monkey Island” seeks to answer, essentially bypassing the narratives of all non-Gilbert-helmed “Monkey Island” games - Gilbert went on to start the kid-focused Humongous Entertainment, which he helped lead for about a decade. It seemed like I could make a fantasy game without it being a fantasy game, and I read a book, ‘On Stranger Tides,’ and it was interesting because it was a pirate book but with a lot of voodoo magic. Pirates felt like a nice connection between those two things. I really did not want to make a fantasy game. “The beginning genesis of the game came from the fact that games like ‘King’s Quest’ were selling really well,” Gilbert says.
There are talking skulls, mysterious voodoo, dangerous booze and swordfights that put the emphasis on insults slung over action - think lots of personal attacks with puns - and all of it results in one of the more colorful, absurdist pirate tales told in any medium. The “Monkey Island” games were some of the most fully realized interactive texts of their time, building upon the dense puzzles of Sierra On-Line games such as “King’s Quest” - as well as such LucasArts titles as “Maniac Mansion” and “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” that preceded them - by more dedicatedly emphasizing dialogue and twisting stories. (Terrible Toybox / Devolver Digital / Lucasfilm Games) “Return to Monkey Island” re-introduces players to characters from one of the most beloved and influential franchises ever made - the optimistic, would-be plunderer Threepwood, the revenge-seeking ghost pirate harasser LeChuck and the quick-witted swordmaster Elaine Marley, generally the only reliably intelligent one of the lot. The “Monkey Island” franchise, with original creator Ron Gilbert at the helm, is resurrected this week with the release of “Return to Monkey Island” for PC and the Nintendo Switch. Today, Sparrow and Threepwood are properties of the Walt Disney Co., but as the Johnny Depp-associated Sparrow lies dormant - aside from his robotic presence at Disney’s theme parks - in 2022, Threepwood has unexpectedly risen from intellectual property limbo. And both too are original creations influenced by Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean.īut only one was just as handy with a rubber chicken as a sword.
Neither is a stereotypical pirate, each has had decent luck in the romance department, and the two have shared an appreciation of comic timing. There’s an alternate, game-driven reality where the most famous pop-culture pirate of the 21st century isn’t Jack Sparrow but is instead Guybrush Threepwood.īoth are good-natured and bumbling, and both have had to battle supernatural foes.
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