Ron Gilbert returns to Monkey Island! New game coming this year!
The original creator of Monkey Island 1 & 2 makes his triumphant return to the series.
Ron Gilbert — the legendary developer and game designer who created the SCUMM adventure game system for Lucas Arts, along with creating the first two Monkey Island games and Maniac Mansion — has returned to the Monkey Island franchise after over 30 years.
The first two games (1990’s “The Secret of Monkey Island” and 1991’s “Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge”) were the only ones created by Gilbert. The remaining 3 games in the franchise had no involvement from the original creator or his team.
Gilbert just announced that his new game, “Return to Monkey Island”, will be a direct sequel to Monkey Island 2… and has released a little teaser trailer:
So much to note in here:
Dave Grossman, developer and co-writer of the first two games, is back!
Dominic Armato, who voiced the Guybrush Threepwood (the main character) in 1997’s “Curse of Monkey Island” and the 2009 remakes of the original two games, is returning.
Michael Land, Peter McConnell and Clint Bajakian will all be returning to compose the music.
This is amazing. Land composed the original MIDI soundtrack for Monkey Island 1, joined by McConnell and Bajakian for Monkey Island 2. The score for these two games are absolutely fantastic and truly iconic.
This is a classic adventure gaming nerd’s dream come true.
No word on the firm release date, other than sometime during 2022.
Some additional notes provided by Gilbert via his Twitter account:
While this is a direct sequel to Monkey Island 2… the original Monkey Island 3 (“Curse of Monkey Island”) is still canon. "MI3 doesn't go out of canon. We were very careful about that. Murray is in this game.”
Murray is a demonic skeleton that first appeared in 1997’s Curse of Monkey Island. He lost his body… except for his head. Murray became a bit of a fan favorite of the later series.
Art design is being overseen by Rex Crowle, who previously worked on LittleBigPlanet.
I am truly excited for this game. While I would have loved to see the art direction stick to the 256 color, VGA style of the VGA versions of the first two games (that was always my favorite)… the art design on display does look excellent. And this crew is absolutely legendary… so I trust ‘em!
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