Devolver Digital, along with Lucasfilm Games and Ron Gilbert’s Terrible Toybox, announced a sequel to one of the most beloved classic adventure game series of all time. According to the fun little teaser trailer, Return to Monkey Island will release later this year.
Return to Monkey Island is taking the Terminator: Dark Fate approach — a threequel that ignores the later entries. It’s an obvious move, as this upcoming game is designed and written by Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman, two of the original designers of the first two games in the series (the third being Tim Schafer, head of Double Fine Productions).
After the big success of The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge in 1990 and 1991, the series continued without the original designers, producing a well-received third game, The Curse of Monkey Island, in 1997. The fourth game, Escape from Monkey Island, has the dubious honor of the final game released by the original LucasArts in 2000, a juggernaut of 1980s-90s PC gaming.
A fifth game, Tales of Monkey Island, was released by Telltale Games as an episodic adventure in 2008-2009, and involved Ron Gilbert in the early design stages.
Despite the relative sales success and reception for each game, the series has been quiet for the last decade. Each game is praised for its classic adventure game puzzle designs, fun characters and theme, and humorous writing.
Return to Monkey Island will release later this year. No platforms have yet been announced.
