Well, that went fast: Today, on International Talk Like a Pirate Day, Return to Monkey Island turns a year. That the game was released to near-universal praise is part of history now, and it certainly put food on the table for Mojo for almost a year and a half.
And so, a quick look back at the hubbub surrounding the game seems befitting, if only to reminisce about the days between the April 1st quasi-announcement and the game’s release.
The Timeline of Joy 🥳
April 3rd: “Monkey Island 2 Special Edition now on Prime Gaming”—Jason was not amused by Ron’s April 1st quasi-announcement, as evident in his less-than-enthused Monkey Island 2 on Prime news post. “I admit that this is almost as much a non-story as Ron’s tired schtick” was suitably bitter enough to introduce “schtick” into Mojo’s lexicon.
April 4th: “Monkey Island something-or-other announced, Jason bows his head in shame”—What’s more exciting? A new Monkey Island from Ron or the chance to shame Jason for an infinite amount of time? We weren’t sure if it was going to be Monkey Island 6 or 3a at the time of posting, but the news item kept growing throughout the day.
April 7th: “That scandalous “Return to Monkey Island”-logo incident“—Remember when the official site’s OG image (the preview picture when you link to a site) revealed an alternate logo that lived somewhere between the original and Tales-era one? Luckily, sanity prevailed, and the original-looking logo won out.
June 15th: “The Secret Character Assassination of Smilin’ Stan“—The ReMI excitement inspires Jason to write the most Mojoest article in recent memory.
June 22nd: “MajusArts adapting Monkey Island 2 into its ideal form”—Marius does what Marius does and announces a new “Flash” film. It was released on the 27th.
June 28th: “Return to Monkey Island trailer goes live“—You know, it’d be all kinds of awesome if that trailer score was released. That aside, what a triumph of a trailer.
Those #MonkeyIslandMonday videos… Yep, every Monday, a new teaser showed up on what used to be called Twitter. Here’s the compilation.
August 23rd: Official release date is announced—September 19th
September 5th: “PAX West 2022: Too much happened”—Ron, Dave, Dom, and many more hit PAX West. Ron even partook in a panel, which you can watch in the news post.
September 14th: “Return to Monkey Island press junket finds its Mojo at eleventh hour“—Just when the world thought the Ron/Dave interview bonanza was over, Mojo smacks down a gigantic talk with the two. elTee and Marius hit the hard questions, and you should probably go relive the thing right now.
September 18th: “Mojo interviews Rex Crowle“—You thought that was it? The day before release, Marius corners ReMI’s art director in an exclusive interview.
September 19th: “Mojo reviews Return to Monkey Island“—Literally, on the minute of the game’s release, Mojo publishes its review. And to make it full circle, the glowing write-up came from one Jason, who apparently was willing to forgive Ron’s schtick.
And here we are, a year later. ReMI is available on a bunch of platforms, and there’s even an OST. Not to mention that Sea of Thieves expansion that also exists.
There hasn’t been an official celebration at the time of writing, but I’m guessing there’ll be something from somewhere at some point. Keep your eyes peeled on our Mastodon or Bluesky, and you’ll find out the minute… well, hour (day)… it happens.
Finally, if you haven’t played ReMI in a while, I encourage you to give it another go. It truly is a fantastic game, full of details and, indeed, secrets.
-Remi