Approximately 27 years ago, I played a game called “The Secret of Monkey Island” with my brothers and sisters. I was eight years old. The game was funny, fun, and an enduring source of delight in my family.

Although Monkey Island was an incredibly enchanted piece of my childhood, I thought it was just another game. Turns out it was apparently a brilliant adventure game and a watershed.

Ron Gilbert, the creator, has made a new game via Kickstarter: it’s called Thimbleweed Park.

I bought and started playing Thimbleweed Park as a Christmas treat. So far, it’s hilarious and fun.

Feeling nostalgic, I re-played all of Monkey Island (the first one) with my son. He was interested the whole time I let him watch.

Amazingly, I remembered about 50% of the puzzles all these years later. In addition to the nostalgia, I also genuinely laughed out loud, crushed on Elaine, and felt joy and sehnsucht.

Ron Gilbert also runs a blog that is delightfully grumpy. It’s called grumpy gamer. I even posted a comment on his wall.

Moral of the story: Gilbert’s a genius and Monkey Island is not just “good when I was a child” good but actually good. And I recommend checking out Thimbleweed Park if you want a few hours to kill!