Whenever I talk to my neighbour about my job and the fact that I write about Retro Games, she always talks to me about Monkey Island. This game had such an effect on kids born in the 80s who were into gaming when the title first dropped in 1990. I was born in 1990 and came to it a little later once I had honed my button-mashing skills on the SNES, but like all of you out there (and my neighbour Debs), it holds a special place in my heart to this day. So when I discovered the news that a group of avid Monkey Island fans have worked to create a fan-made game paying homage to the series, I had to jump in and check it out.
When LucasFilm Games made the first game ‘The Secret of Monkey Island’, gamers went crazy for the point-and-click adventure format. It was very much in keeping with the games the company was coming out with at the time, but there was and very much still is something about pirates, secret islands, and finding buried treasure that appeals to the inner scurvy sea dog in all of us. It’s the reason I saw the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie at the cinema 7 times!
Return to Monkey Island dropped in 2022 and saw original writer Ron Gilbert heading up the project, returning back to where it all began with the 8th game in the series 32 years after we first set foot on Monkey Island. With no plans to make any more games in the series (official ones at any rate), fans are racing to play The Booze of Monkey Island. I guess it’s aptly titled, because if there’s one thing that we know about Pirates, it’s that they love their liquor.
So what’s this game all about? Well, it’s come from a small studio called the Bean Adventure Agency. Players take control of Guybrush Threepwood for point-and-click adventures once more for a shorter game compared to the original titles, but one that is appreciated nonetheless. Check out a full playthrough of the game below (but be prepared to see some spoilers!).
As reported by GameSpot, Guybrush finds himself on Booty Island, a location some of you might remember from 2010’s Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge. LeChuck is back to terrorise Guybrush once more, which means you’ll need to find a way off Booty Island before you get kicked in the booty yourself!
Here’s the best bit too – the game is currently free to download in Early Access from the Bean Adventure Agency website, so I advise you to take a look at it sooner rather than later just in case Disney sends Captain Jack Sparrow to the agency to steal all of their computers before throwing them off the side of the Black Pearl. While it’s not a finished game, it plays brilliantly, and members of the community are commenting all the time to add their opinions into the mix about features that they would like to see.
Hopefully, Ron Gilbert will be proud of what the team comes up with, and who knows, it might spark more official titles from the series in the future. Or perhaps we’ll wait another 12 years for a title to come out like we did the last time… let’s hope it’s the first option!
