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“Return to Monkey Island” is out today
- wojtczyk 4y agoOh, this was not on my radar. What a pleasant surprise. I don't care for the last decades of 3D shooters, but this is a game I will finally check out again.
- paulryanrogers 4y agoRumor has it Space Venture will be released soon too. What a time to be a 40 something, nostalgic, adventure gamer!
- nope96 4y agoAlready released to Kickstarter backers a couple days ago! (by the makers of Space Quest, for those who don't know what this is)
- eps 4y agoWoah... 9 years since the KS, and the release was set for September 16! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spaceventure/two-guys-spaceventure-by-the-creators-of-space-que/posts/3610230 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spaceventure/two-guys-s...
- tpoacher 4y agoSteam ... Let's hope they bring it out on GoG too, soon. Looking forward to playing, but there's no way in hell I'm buying this with DRM. Especially not a monkey island game. This I want to own properly, and show my kids one day. Not "rent with disclaimers".
- huhtenberg 4y agoOnly Steam [1] and Nintendo [2] releases so far, both are $25. [1] https://store.steampowered.com/app/2060130/Return_to_Monkey_Island/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/2060130/Return_to_Monkey_... [2] https://www.nintendo.com/store/products/return-to-monkey-island-switch/ https://www.nintendo.com/store/products/return-to-monkey-isl...
- smcl 4y agoVery good price actually
- mzs 4y agoShould be available in physical form sometime in the future as well: https://twitter.com/grumpygamer/status/1566807750767947776 https://twitter.com/grumpygamer/status/1566807750767947776
- Rant423 4y agoNever pay more than $44.37 bucks for a computer game. https://fineleatherjackets.net/monkeyinflation https://fineleatherjackets.net/monkeyinflation
- lelandfe 4y agoExtremely positive reviews so far from the reviewers I trust the most. I will be buying.
- udp 4y agoCouple of hours in already and it’s everything I’d hoped for!
- threatripper 4y agoPeople have been complaining about the non-pixel graphics but I think that's alright. It's different but it looks nice.
- g051051 4y agoI pre-ordered and paid full price, which is something I rarely do. Last time I did it was for Psychonauts 2.
- lelandfe 4y agoGosh, the writing in that game. So good. It and Disco Elysium make me yearn for better writing in other video games. It is so rare for me to feel that way – Dragon Age: Origins is another one.
- eloisant 4y agoDid anyone try it on Steam Deck?
- goosedragons 4y agoThe Ars Technica reviewer said he played about half the game on the Steam Deck and it works well.
- pavon 4y agoSam Machkovech, the reviewer at Ars Technica played half the game on the Deck, and said it worked well: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/09/review-return-to-monkey-island-is-must-play-point-and-click-brilliance/?comments=1&post=41237637 https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/09/review-return-to-monk... There are is little more detail in that article about how playing with a controller works.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- tjungblut 4y agoThey just opened up the tech support forum [1]. Several people are complaining about it taking too much CPU, but luckily you can turn the wattage down and limit the FPS to alleviate that problem. [1] https://steamcommunity.com/app/2060130/discussions/1/5241649843395547702/ https://steamcommunity.com/app/2060130/discussions/1/5241649...
- seba_dos1 4y agoIt took me an hour of switching between OS releases and Proton versions, but eventually it started to work on my Deck (initially the game ran but only showed a black screen).
- btschaegg 4y agoNow that's how you do a promotion page! > "What did you sell?" > "Nothing! Nothing fungible, anyway…" Well, they obviously lost nothing in the humor department xD
- GavinMcG 4y agoCurious if playing any/all of the earlier releases is worthwhile before diving into this.
- RajT88 4y agoTo understand where the plot picks up, you should (re)play MI1 and MI2. A few things I understand were borrowed from Curse of MI, but you don't need to know them beforehand. They were borrowed because they are charming and funny, not because they add something to the canon (cannon?).
- nottorp 4y ago> To understand where the plot picks up, you should (re)play MI1 and MI2. Actually you should just play them because they're bloody brilliant, as jonplackett said. There are remakes for modern ish systems available: https://store.steampowered.com/app/32360/The_Secret_of_Monkey_Island_Special_Edition/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/32360/The_Secret_of_Monke... https://store.steampowered.com/app/32460/Monkey_Island_2_Special_Edition_LeChucks_Revenge/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/32460/Monkey_Island_2_Spe... 3 4 and the Telltalle series... you won't miss much. But 1 and 2 are why this game launch made it even to HN.
- udp 4y ago> 3 4 and the Telltalle series... you won't miss much. Fair enough about the others, but that’s a controversial opinion about 3, which is critically acclaimed and a classic for anyone played it as a kid in the late 90s. It only gets criticised because Ron Gilbert wasn’t involved. The voice acting cast from it are nearly all in Return, along with lots of references, so it’s canon for Gilbert purists now too!
- nottorp 4y agoI'm not criticizing it, I just don't remember the plot which says something. Was it the one with monkey combat? And time travel? Or time travel was in 4...
- germandiago 4y agoYou made my day. I did not even know about this. This is one of the series I enjoyed the most in my whole gaming life. And there has been quite a bit of that. On top of that... I own a Switch!!!! :D
- thesuperbigfrog 4y agoIt is not a coincidence that they released it on International Talk Like a Pirate Day: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Talk_Like_a_Pirate_Day https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Talk_Like_a_Pira... Talk like a Pirate, but don't fight like a dairy farmer.
- mondi 4y agoRon Gilbert and Dave Grossman both involved, I'm not sure I care for the art style but looking forward to being a kid again!
- dudul 4y agoIn life, you should always be yourself. Unless you can be a pirate, then be a pirate.
- gpderetta 4y agoI don't really like the new art direction. I will still be buying this today! Edit: I realized my steam deck will be arriving in the next couple of days. Now I know what I'll be playing in it first.
- _joel 4y agoThey never inteded it to be pixel art at the start, they just couldn't do anything else.
- gpderetta 4y agoOf course, I wasn't expecting pixel art. I played the remakes with the new modern art and I liked them a lot. But this angular art is a bit too abstract for me. Hopefully it will grow on me or at least it won't detract from the game.
- CobrastanJorji 4y agoAbout an hour in, and I'm pretty happy with the art. Doesn't detract at all from the game. I liked the art style of Monkey Island 3 the most, but this is also good.
- jccalhoun 4y agoAgreed. I really don't like the art style. I've never played the original games though so I would like to get around to playing them before I play this though anyway.
- murat124 4y agoHow do you feed the duck?
- murat124 4y agoFigured it out. Check their basket, while the guy starts talking go pick up bread.
- tuxone 4y agoOn MacOS, is it crashing only for me while going to the right of the race track? Stuck eating Scurvydog
- _joel 4y agofine here
- FireInsight 4y agoDo yourself a favor and watch this wonderful video essay historique on The Monkey Island series from Ahoy; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F9ahZQ7oP0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F9ahZQ7oP0
- ortusdux 4y agoGreat reviews so far - https://opencritic.com/game/13681/return-to-monkey-island https://opencritic.com/game/13681/return-to-monkey-island
- ggregoire 4y agoMeta: interesting how video game release posts usually get flagged on HN but this one seems to stick.
- larrik 4y agoI think it's because there have been a lot of posts about it leading up to this that otherwise fit the HN criteria.
- KindAndFriendly 4y agoDoes it run on Apple M1s? The GPU requirements for the macOS version on Steam do not explicitly mention support for M1 chipsets.
- astrange 4y agoDoesn’t everything run on M1s?
- alana314 4y agoI would imagine yes since that's the majority of apple chips these days
- capableweb 4y agoMajority of Apple chips unlikely to be M1/M2. Apple started shipping M1 not until late 2020, so just two years of people being able to purchase them, compared to what, ~13 years of being able to buy Intel machines. Surely there are more Intel Macs out there still.
- _joel 4y agoI'm running it on my M2 right now
- jamesfmilne 4y agoPerfectly
- johnchristopher 4y agoCooool ! I like the fact it was announced only 6 months ago or something top and now it's in people's hands !
- ricardo81 4y agoI hope there's an in-game character that can continue the woodchuck chucking conversation. Will be buying, and thanks for putting it up here.
- ggambetta 4y agoAny way to run this on Linux? Can't wait to get my hands on it!
- zumzumzum 4y agohttps://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/xihk79/return_to_monkey_island_is_working_on_steam_deck/ https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/xihk79/return_to... Appears to work on Deck, although the Steam Store page doesn't list any compatibility information yet and protondb doesn't have any entries. But I'd say your chances are good that it runs on linux without issue.
- seba_dos1 4y agoMany people have troubles with it launching to a black screen on GNU/Linux (including Deck). Switching the renderer from Vulkan to DirectX 12 in config file seems to sometimes help.
- boudin 4y agoWorks for me straight away (AMD gpu with amdgpu/radv)
- scruti 4y agoSame here. Endeavour OS with AMD Ryzen CPU and AMD Radeon GPU. Worked straight away from steam.
- account42 4y agoNative Linux version should be coming soon: https://twitter.com/grumpygamer/status/1570852960024031233 https://twitter.com/grumpygamer/status/1570852960024031233
- nomel 4y agoI'm genuinely surprised this isn't also a mobile release. These games are great on an iPad.
- nine_zeros 4y agoAre there any recommendations for similar games? I've been craving such games (on mobile and on PC) but I haven't found too many. Grim Fandango from the past was one of my favorites.
- bondant 4y agoI really liked this old one: Sam and max hit the road.
- _joel 4y agoMy gateway drug was Simon the Sourcerer, with Chris Barry (Rimmer from Red Dwarf) doing the narration. edit: Oh and Indiana Jones!
- paulryanrogers 4y agoFate of Atlantis, original or fan made deluxe
- adolfojp 4y agoDay of the Tentacle and Full Throttle
- i_no_can_eat 4y agoThe Broken Sword series is a must. I also enjoyed the Myst series a great deal, but it's a very different style.
- bzzzt 4y agohttps://adventuregamers.com https://adventuregamers.com keeps track of new releases in the genre. I also like this blog where volunteers replay classic adventure games: https://advgamer.blogspot.com https://advgamer.blogspot.com (there's a lot of content in the archives)
- thirdsun 4y agoI think as a more modern option, albeit with strong rpg influences, you might consider the fantastic Disco Elysium as an adventure game: https://store.steampowered.com/app/632470/Disco_Elysium__The_Final_Cut/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/632470/Disco_Elysium__The... Very different tone though.
- wodenokoto 4y agoI was thinking maybe I should finish monkey island 2 before buying this one. I got it on my iPhone a long time ago. Well, tough luck. Disney bought Lucas Art and removed it from the App Store - no redownloads for anyone! https://www.pocketgamer.com/secret-of-monkey-island-special-edition-for-ipad/look-behind-you-monkey-island-1-and-2-have-disappeared-from-the-app-store/ https://www.pocketgamer.com/secret-of-monkey-island-special-...
- verst 4y agoMonkey Island 1 & 2 on iOS broke several iOS releases ago anyway and never were patched again unfortunately.
- musicale 4y agoSuch a drag that Apple doesn't care at all about app compatibility and happily breaks iOS games every year, offloading a maintenance burden on developers, who have to keep updating their games/apps for every new iOS release just to keep them working at all. The 32-bit apocalypse didn't help and I think it might have been what specifically killed the Monkey Island games on iOS. Then Apple went to macOS and broke the 32-bit game libraries on Steam and the Mac App store...
- bzzzt 4y agoMacOS would need a Tb of disk space to store all the emulators and libraries if every CPU architecture would have to be supported indefinitely. And Macs would be more expensive than they already are.
- egypturnash 4y agoIt's probably easiest to just say "yo ho" and find a pirate copy to use with ScummVM at this point, I did that with MI1/2 around the time the rereleases came out and it was super easy to find a good copy of both.
- otachack 4y ago
- mancerayder 4y agoI can't wait to get home to play it. Secret of Monkey Island 2 was my first PC game on a 486SX and VGA monitor. The sound came out of the PC speakers... One day I got an Adlib card and was blown away. Go ahead and download the remake on steam and notice something that kind of doesn't exist in any game (that I know): when you enter the scene on Scabb Island, the relaxed reggae beat changes ever so subtly depending on the bridge, the carpenter shop, the mapmaker, the bar, etc. For example, you enter the mapmaker and the Wally music comes on, which is the same reggae bagdrop to a clarinet or oboe, the music is a little deeper in the carpenter shop, there's an evil background tone when Largo LaGrande shows up and a more subtle one in the hotel, etc. With gorgeous hand painted digitized art. They don't make games like that anymore. Can't wait to see if they actually did.
- Simon_O_Rourke 4y agoThe music was great - I used to have the LeChuck theme as an 8-bit chiptune on my old cellphone and it still rocked.
- thaumasiotes 4y agoI used to have LeChuck's PC speaker theme as my cell phone ring. But the concept of a ringing phone has evolved. Originally, the ringing of a phone was supposed to attract your attention, even if you were far away. You wanted a piercing, obtrusive sound. Today phones are carried around with you while you hang out with a lot of other people who are also carrying their own phones. Rings and alerts need to be unobtrusive, which makes older-style rings inappropriate. :/
- utucuro 4y agoQuite true, and yet I'm saddened by it. Currently have my smartwatch at the repair center, so I'm actually relying on ringtones again after years of silence and vibrations, and it kind of annoys me that I can't just blast the tetris soundtrack as a ringtone anymore...
- Braini 4y ago
- dang 4y agoRelated: Return to Monkey Island trailer [video] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31911065 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31911065 - June 2022 (128 comments) When I made another Monkey Island - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31246530 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31246530 - May 2022 (211 comments) Return to Monkey Island, Coming 2022 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30957917 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30957917 - April 2022 (84 comments) If I Made Another Monkey Island (2013) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30908723 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30908723 - April 2022 (4 comments) Return to Monkey Island - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30908395 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30908395 - April 2022 (60 comments) Return to Monkey Island, follow-up to Monkey Island 2 [video] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30907723 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30907723 - April 2022 (1 comment) If I Made Another Monkey Island (2013) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15004266 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15004266 - Aug 2017 (86 comments) If I Made Another Monkey Island... - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5557443 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5557443 - April 2013 (83 comments) also: Monkey Island Director Will No Longer Post About the Game Due to Online Abuse - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31939339 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31939339 - June 2022 (21 comments) Ron Gilbert won’t post about Return to Monkey Island following online abuse - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31937333 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31937333 - June 2022 (6 comments)
- exDM69 4y agoTwo hours in and I'm enjoying it. So far the puzzles have been fun, but not very difficult. The plot is a bit heavy with references to the story of the earlier games, but perhaps not too much (my partner enjoyed it too, having only played The Curse of Monkey Island, but not the others). The "new" art style is a bit odd at first but it's nice and consistent and it has a style of its own. All the earlier games had a different art style to each other too, partly because the early installments had technical limitations they had to cope with (and then there was that thing with the 3d graphics). The sound track is very nice with some tunes you'll probably know. I'll rate it four monkeys and a pegleg.
- pier25 4y agoI played the prologue. The new engine is great although I'm still not convinced by the art style. It's not horrible by any means but I don't find it as charming as MI2 and MI3.
- pier25 4y agoAnyone knows what game engine it's using? Is this Unity?
- Garvey 4y agoCustom engine called Dinky I believe I saw in the credits, as I started it earlier.
- kleiba 4y agoFantastic art style (although I'm not digging the character faces especially). The trailer is superb, makes you (me, that is) really excited for the game... something that cannot be said about a lot of game trailers these days.
- classified 4y agoGood news, I always wanted to visit Brrr Muda!
- Razengan 4y agoAt the core of nostalgia it isn’t just about an specific object or event that we cherish, but also the ERA during which it occurred, and the special people from that age: My uncle who introduced me to computers, his eccentric genius friend who built a DIY amplifier for me, my aunt who walked in and smiled as I was humming the game’s tune while paddling across the swamp in Monkey Island 2… my other uncle who helped me read my first novel, The Hobbit, fanning my interest in the weird and whimsy, and passed away just before Rings of Power aired… Mortality’s a bitch. I’m grateful for these little time machines, and I wonder what long-awaited sequel or remake will come out after I’m gone.. :)
- tannhaeuser 4y agoHere's hoping for a release on iPad around Xmas.
- BuckRogers 4y agoAnyone that doesn't like the art style, why? There's a controversy around it, and I don't see an issue with the art. The EGA era was my favorite era of PC gaming, but I like anything except obviously-3D games. Think King's Quest 8. They don't age well, and are awkward for games with a staged isometric viewpoint.
- gruturo 4y agoYeah hate it. But love the game anyway.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- Lorin 4y agoSuch a neat website design
- armitron 4y agoHaving played and enjoyed the originals (1,2), this is a disappointment to me. Not because it's terrible, but because we've seen it all before. It feels empty and a rehash of the past without reaching the same heights. A hollow cash grab if you will (those who played thimbleweed park will maybe understand what I mean). But then again, Monkey Island was never really my favorite LucasArts series or even top 3. Day of the tentacle and Fate of Atlantis are for me the absolute pinnacle of the genre and the best of Lucas with Loom and Grim Fandango close behind.
- musicale 4y agoThe people who downvoted you must think you weren't actually disappointed by it.
- standardUser 4y agoI never enjoyed these types of games as a kid, and I never beat them. I'm thinking specifically of Myst, its sequel, and Monkey Island. I'm not an idiot, but whatever particular type of problem-solving skill is required to enjoy these games, I just don't have it. I can enjoy the most complicated and convoluted strategy games or RPGs, but somehow those skills don't translate to knowing which thing to click on with which other thing. I can't be the only one, right? A reasonably smart person who outright fails at point-and-click puzzle games?
- barbs 4y agoI feel similarly, although I always felt the gameplay system itself was flawed, rather than blaming my own ineptitude. It felt like quite often I'd be stuck trying every combo of items with elements in the environment until some arcane combination unlocked the next bit pf story/gameplay. It seemed like such a shame because the design and scriptwriting were so good.
- danielheath 4y agoIt’s a distinct art form, with it’s own cultural norms (eg “use A on B”, where neither has any obvious relationship to the problem at hand). As far as I can tell, exhaustive search tends to be the solution.
- rodgerd 4y agoI never got them either - but they seem to be to be like cryptic crosswords, where the logic of the puzzles is a thing that exists divorced from the (apparent) context, and it's about understanding a bunch of conventions specific to the puzzle designer and the subculture around them.
- musicale 4y ago> cryptic crosswords I still remember the magic of discovering cryptic crosswords. Regular crossword puzzles are fine but cryptics are their own sort of fun.
- 4y ago
- onemoresoop 4y agoOh boy, this brings back distant memories, I remember playing Monkey Island and Day of the tentacles from Lucasarts. Too bad I don't have time to give this one a try but I will definitely watch some youtubers play it.
- amelius 4y agoGraphics style looks like: https://www.16personalities.com/ https://www.16personalities.com/
- lastdong 4y agoCan’t wait to play it! Anyone has a spare copy of the Dial A Pirate wheel?
- Razengan 4y agoStill at the beginning, but the new engine feels a lot less “active” than the over 30 years old SCUMM of Monkey Island 1: Where’s the guy spinning on the chandelier in the Scumm Bar, the cook walking around delivering drinks? The people walking around is the force? Everything feels a lot “stationary” in comparison, so far. But I love how they masterfully ret-conned the ending of Curse of Monkey Island!
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- bzzzt 4y agoI found it quite the opposite: every leaf, foliage etc is moving. Seeing it in motion really brings the game world to life. Maybe the spinning pirate's perpetual motion machine was broken ;)
- Razengan 4y agoCorrection: The people walking around in the forest (that you could get into sword fights with)
- pharaohgeek 4y agoAnyone know if a late-2018 Mac Mini will run this game? My son would love it!
- lawgimenez 4y agoAnyone knows the minimum requirements of the game?