That’s the art style Gilbert wanted to achieve in the new Monkey Island.

Gilbert, one of the leading creators of Monkey Island, expressed in a blog post how “sad” he is that the internet community has not given a very positive response to the art style of Return to Monkey Island due to the discrepancy between the original episodes and the upcoming instalment. He wrote, “It’s ironic that the people who don’t want me to make the game I want to make are some of the hardcore Monkey Island fans. And that is what makes me sad about all the comments. Return to Monkey Island may not be the art style you wanted or were expecting, but it’s the art style I wanted.”

Rex Crowle is the art director for Return to Monkey Island. He was previously an artist and designer for LittleBigPlanet, Tearaway and Knights and Bikes and confirmed on Twitter that he is indeed working with Gilbert now. And Gilbert was quick to praise Crowle in his blog post: “Rex is an amazing creative force, and we have a team of incredible artists, animators, sound designers, programmers, and testers all pouring their souls into this game and it’s beautiful to see, play, and listen to.”

Gilbert’s latest game came out of his studio, Terrible Toybox, back in 2017. It was Thimbleweed Park, and before that, he worked at Double Fine, where he released The Cave in 2013. So it’s not often that the veteran dev comes out with a game. It’s fair to say he is, having worked at LucasArts until 1995. Before that, he created the first two episodes of Monkey Island in 1990 and 1991, and the company went on to make three more without him (The Curse of Monkey Island (1997), Escape from Monkey Island (2000) and Tales of Monkey Island (2009)).

It’s an adventure game, so you should expect a classic style for Return to Monkey Island, which is supposed to be released this year, but it remains to be seen where it will be available outside of PC (and the release date is also unknown).

Source: VGC