Wannabe mighty pirate Guybrush Threepwood is back in 'Return to Monkey Island'. — Nintendo of America/TNS
In a year that brought about continued experimentation in gaming, as well as refinements of a style, it was arguably a throwback that charmed me more. Return to Monkey Island, the revitalisation of a franchise that had lain dormant since 2009, was a glorious callback to a largely bygone era of point-and-click adventure games.
Yet Return to Monkey Island doesn't strike me as a work of nostalgia so much as a reminder — a statement piece about the power of interactive storytelling, and a look at how much the medium has evolved since Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert last directed a game in the series, way back in 1991. Gilbert was again at the helm in Return to Monkey island alongside longtime collaborator Dave Grossman, and what could have simply been a celebration of all things retro — see Gilbert's own 2017 game Thimbleweed Park — was instead a relatively thoughtful meditation on getting older.
Uh-oh! Daily quota reached.
