Publisher Devolver Digital and Lucasfilm Games have officially announced the making of Return to Monkey Island for some time in 2022. A direct to Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge, the game will release nearly 32 years after the original Secret of Monkey Island and over 13 years since the release of 2009’s Tales of Monkey Island.
Introducing Return to Monkey Island, a new game by Ron Gilbert that picks up where Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge left off.https://t.co/5E3zi5JkEt pic.twitter.com/frkrN1OLXD
— Devolver Digital (@devolverdigital) April 4, 2022
Return to Monkey Island 2022 Release Date, History, and Details
The sixth entry in the critically acclaimed point-and-click comedic adventure series, Return to Monkey Island, will be directed by series creator Ron Gilbert and co-written by Gilbert and Dave Grossman, who previously worked on Tales of Monkey Island, as well as developed by Terrible Toybox, perhaps most famous for releasing another point-and-click adventure game, Thimbleweed Park, in 2014.
“Announcing Return to Monkey Island, the long-awaited follow-up to the legendary Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge by Ron Gilbert’s Terrible Toybox in collaboration with Devolver Digital and Lucasfilm Games, coming 2022″, the official description reads.
Series composers Michael Land, Peter McConnel, and Clint Bajakian will return to compose the game’s score; Dominic Armato, who has voiced series protagonist Guybrush Threepwood in every Monkey Island game to date, will return once again to reprise his role.
Gilbert announced the game on his personal website on April Fools’ Day as a joke/promise he teed up nearly a decade ago in a Tweet. Although no further details have been given regarding the game’s story (not even what consoles it will be on), a 2013 blog post also from Gilbert’s website details a few potential ideas he discussed.
These included “a retro game that harkened back to Monkey Island 1 and 2” that would ignore the events of every game in the series after the second; “a hardcore adventure game” with no tutorials, hints, or “paansy-assed puzzles or catering to the mass-market or modernizing.”; and he wanted retro art but powered by modern hardware, among others.
Thee are only a few of the possibilities, but time will tell what is in store for Return to Monkey Island once it launches sometime in 2022.