Return to Monkey Island announced, and it will release this year

The Monkey Island franchise is set to make a surprise return this year with the reveal of a new entry. Devolver Digital just announced Return to Monkey Island, a follow-up to the older games in the pirate-themed adventure franchise such as The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge.

The teaser trailer for Return to Monkey Island doesn’t give away any story details. However, it does reveal that Terrible Toybox, the developer behind Thimbleweed Park, is working on the game alongside Lucasfilm Games and Devolver Digital. Return to Monkey Island will release later this year.

The team came back together for Monkey Island

Ron Gilbert, one of the creators behind Monkey Island, wrote a blog post on April Fools’ Day that mentioned his plans to create a new game in the franchise. Understandably, many took this as a joke, but it turns out that it was a clever trick to surprise fans. Gilbert wrote, “For 18 years the Grumpy Gamer blog has been April Fools’ Day free because it’s a stupid tradition. So, to mix things up a little I’m taking this opportunity to announce I’ve decided to make another Monkey Island.”

Gilbert is leading the development of the new game with fellow co-creator, Dave Grossman. Grossman worked as a programmer and writer for the series. Dominic Armato is reprising his role as the iconic Guybrush Threepwood. Rex Crowle, responsible for working on games such as LittleBigPlanet, is leading the art direction on Return to Monkey Island. And lastly, the music is being done by Michael Land, Peter Mcconnel, and Clint Bajakian.

In a post on Twitter, Gilbert revealed that he has been working on the game “for the past 2 years in complete secrecy.” With a promising team coming together we can hope that Return to Monkey Island lives up to expectations. In the meantime though, it might be worth checking out a blog post Gilbert made in 2013 titled “If I Made Another Monkey Island.”