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During Tuesday’s Nintendo Direct Mini Return to Monkey Island was finally seen in motion. The return of Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman to the series after more than 30 years has sparked much interest among fans of the classic point-and-click adventure. And sadly, where do fans go, assholes go, people leave shitty, offensive comments on his personal page, so much so that Gilbert has announced he will no longer be discussing the game online.
Among fans, a word we should probably remember is an abbreviation of “fanatic”, there are always those who have a habit of ruining everything they touch. For most normal people, the announcement is that monkey island returned and that Gilbert and Grossman were directing the project was exciting and unnerving news. A favorite ’90s show is coming back, made by the people who made it great, so we’re excited for it, but also… what if it’s less great? That’s the default answer, followed by waiting to find out.
Unfortunately, there is always a large group of others who feel a religious zeal to obliterate absolutely anything and anyone they believe has committed even the slightest blasphemy, and in the case of Return to Monkey Island, this is his artwork. By the way, I answered art with a headline that reads “Looks damn pretty”.
Appreciation of art is subjective, of course, and there were quite a few people in the comments who shared their dislike of the style. And fair does it because it didn’t work for them. I’m assuming those people didn’t leave then screeds of abuse on Gilbert’s personal page (offline at the time of writing) but unfortunately so many others have done so. Enough of what Gilbert announced (as reported by VGC) that such “personal attacks” mean he shuts down comments and that “I will not post anything more about the game. The joy of sharing was driven by me.”
What a miserable state of affairs, considering all of this everyone of the game is a few seconds of in-game footage, detached from narration, dialogue, or even sound effects.
To be perfectly clear, this isn’t about “criticism,” nor Gilbert’s failure to accept it. This is about “personal attacks” to a degree where a man who has been a brave voice in the gaming industry for over 30 years and has dealt with much criticism has been driven away by the miserable reaction of people who claim fans of his to be creation.
The Red Flag phrase this time is “company Memphis‘, a term they all heard for the first time this week and repeat with a confidence only belied by its insignificance. Or you know, comments like this:
30 years waiting for it.
Just when I was about to say whatever you do don’t make it a left multicultural gender Bs I saw this bad art style.
that can no longer be saved.
definitely won’t buy it
Or brilliant insights like,
this is the product of a person who hates what they created and is proving to all the A$$ lickers that they never wanted to make one again.
And these are the leftover varieties after the personally offending ones were circumcised.
This is of course triple stupid considering that everyone monkey island The game has seen a dramatic change in art style since the first sequel in 1991, LeChuck’s revenge. as Gilbert pointed this out a few weeks ago,
Monkey Island 1 and 2 weren’t pixel art games. They were games with the latest technology and art. Monkey Island 1 was a 16 color EGA and we jumped at the opportunity to upgrade it to 256 colors. Monkey Island 2 showcased the magical wizardry of scanned art by Peter Chan and Steve Purcell and we were keen to push it all.
the third game curse, was completely different from the first two and is justifiably revered today. I remember to hate the style change when i was 19 and an idiot, enough of that It took me decades to really appreciate what a great game it was. Then the fourth Escape, had the wonderful cartoon art of Steve Purcell, once again unlike any previous entry. The two decades since have brought us the wonderful remakes of the first two, with modern interpretations of the original pixelated graphics and a different take on Telltale Tales of Monkey Island. you get the point This is the tradition. A new style for a new game. The idea that it is a betrayal of any previous entry is bananas.
Not liking the new style is absolutely anyone’s cup of tea. People think it looks like this awful. They will be genuinely disappointed that it doesn’t live up to an expectation they had in mind for themselves. But making someone’s life so miserable that they don’t even want to talk about the game they’re making is, and stay here with me, maybe damn stupid?
“It’s an amazing game and everyone on the team is very proud of it,” Gilbert said on his blog. “Play it or don’t play it, but don’t ruin it for everyone else.”
I’ll give Gilbert the last word Blog post May (and of course we reached out to him to ask if he’d like to comment further.)
I wanted the art in Return to Monkey Island to be provocative and shocking and not what everyone was expecting. Rex [Crowle] is an amazing creative force and we have a team of incredible artists, animators, sound designers, programmers and testers who all put their soul into this game and it is beautiful to watch, play and listen to.
