Return to Monkey Island, let’s talk about it among pirates

I would like to keep it short and not take more with me 10 mins (ok, maybe 8) to read this article. Hold your breath and start reading, there are no spoilers, there is nothing to ruin the gaming experience, in fact I hope you can love it even more.

Ron Gilbert sat in lukewarm silence for years under mental pressure from fans who wanted a sequel or at least a new chapter or at least something with the name monkey island.
Ron Gilbert knew in his heart that fans definitely wanted something that was at least still in pixel art, and purists probably did too ground floor.
Ron Gilbert stuck with repeating the last part of the lead for years this song by Rage Against The Machine. Then one fine day, when everything was as it should be, Ron went to work without telling anyone.

Then, on another fine day, you’ll get the news you weren’t expecting.

For all of us it was the best surprise in the world, comparable to the things that suddenly turn your day upside down like “Dear customers, we’re open until 4 p.m.!”
Only that could change our lives…

However…

But certain things, you know, are better left where they are. A bit like the doors of some prisons or those of Moria, which should not be opened and perhaps not even used too much light to examine its interior, as it often does not bring the desired results. Some memories are only beautiful in our minds, seen with the eyes when the high definition was at its maximum 640×350 and so that it goes well 16 colors.

So here arises the first controversy about this new episode of monkey island, on its graphic aspect. Linked to an Ottobittic portrayal, we find it difficult to imagine anything else, although the episodes that follow the first two have attempted to portray it Guybrush (which no, that’s not what Guy.brush says after the speech) and his companions are always different and up to date. Monkey Island followed the then current state of the art in terms of graphics. Before pixel art at its best, then hand drawings, scanned and put back on video, then a style cartoon Super animated to look like the best feature film and using the infinite capacity of film CD-ROMthen a nice graphic purely 3D riding the wave dictated by the power of new consoles and blazing 3D video cards on PC. The remaining chapters have grown thanks to the success of Telltale Games titles, fueled by an unconditional love for their titles. Today we are in a time where nothing outweighs the other.
photorealism? 3d? Virtual reality? pixel art? full motion video? If we look at today’s market, we find that human creativity can be best expressed in every respect without necessarily being associated with technology, which is no longer an obstacle, but not even a way to force its users to be creative close.
Far from the days when you had to be imaginative to fit a few more colors on screen or scale the sprites according to their distance.

These endless possibilities don’t seem to have proved to be an obstacle to the artistic direction of the game, which dictates and follows its rules. The game offers us an alternation of actions and reactions worthy of the best point and click, all embellished with small cutscenes that we immediately want to see again because where they are they are absolutely perfect.

If the graphic aspect is capable of reinventing, reinventing and revealing itself, so is the audio part. It’s like fishing an old copied cassette from the bottom of an old suitcase and buying the CD to make amends and hear it with new ears, rediscovering songs and instruments lost in the copy of the copy of the copy went …
The game’s tracks are all new and original, but many rightly resume those that our brains have been buzzing for years when we want to sleep or when it doesn’t want us to sleep while our adventurous brains continue to ponder how to steal the key from ship from LeChuck.

In this way, the music also plays its part, riding the wave of memories and continuing to accompany the player by the hand, without distinction or prejudice about how they grew up when PC speakers, sound blaster, Roland, Paula… We will familiarize ourselves with something we have already heard, something that can warm our hearts like the guard’s eternally burning pyre on the cold hill melee.

Then when you realize that creating this game must have been like picking up the pieces to create a voodoo doll, you realize that it all adds up, that even the gameplay is entrusted to a very universal control system (mouse, joypad , touch, do what you do like just play) is of course for those who have played any of the previous titles, but also for those who have never seen a three-headed monkey in their life. (NDR: I have to exclude myself from the previous titles Escape from Monkey Island has the controls that should be banned in the three-island area).

In short, this voodoo doll works, it has become good and you can feel its power and use it as you wish, even if we know that you will always carry it in your heart so that it can accompany you in this new adventure .

And so, at the end of this journey, you find yourself in search of the mystery of Monkey Island, and in the process discovering that the journey is really what you do as you play, explore and find yourself.

As you continue the puzzles and uncover new locations, you’ll dust off the shelf of your memories. Your mind returns to the mouse with two buttons and a very heavy ball, which you can slide to move the cross pointer around the screen. A world without light RGB, from gray and anonymous computers with a speaker unable to regulate the volume that fired all its crackling power as soon as you started the game. But for you it was the most beautiful sound in the world, as was that of the luxurious 4-channel stereo system Amigabefore or from the sound blaster, Then. Digital sound pleasures that, thanks to the ingenious system, can form according to our adventure iMuse. I’ve been talking for too long and I don’t know if you’re still holding your breath, but when feelings come into play it’s hard to write the last word, so I’ll just tell you…