December 6, 2025

Few days ago, this game came to my mind. I played it a lot when I was a kid, and I thought it deserved a little investigation.

Monkey Island is one of the most iconic adventure-game series ever created. Its story begins at Lucasfilm Games (later LucasArts) in the late 1980s, when designer Ron Gilbert, joined by Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman, set out to reinvent the point-and-click genre. Gilbert wanted an adventure game that avoided dead ends and punishing failures, focusing instead on humor, character, and storytelling.

Inspired loosely by the Disney ride Pirates of the Caribbean and the book On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers, the team created The Secret of Monkey Island, released in 1990. The game follows Guybrush Threepwood, a naïve young man who dreams of becoming a mighty pirate. Through witty dialogue, absurd puzzles, and memorable characters—like the ghost pirate LeChuck and the sharp-witted governor Elaine Marley—the game established a distinctive comedic tone that set it apart from other adventures of the era.

The sequel, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge (1991), expanded the world and introduced a darker, stranger atmosphere, ending with a famously ambiguous twist that sparked decades of fan speculation.

After Gilbert left LucasArts, the company continued the franchise with The Curse of Monkey Island (1997), known for its hand-drawn cartoon aesthetic and musical flair, and Escape from Monkey Island (2000), which adopted early 3D graphics. In 2009, Telltale Games revived the series with Tales of Monkey Island, bringing episodic storytelling and modernized gameplay to the franchise.

In 2022, Ron Gilbert returned with Return to Monkey Island, a direct continuation of the first two games and a long-awaited answer—of sorts—to the mystery of the “Secret.” The game blended nostalgia with contemporary design, reuniting original cast members and recapturing the playful spirit that defined the series.