Return to Monkey Island is a point-and-click adventure that continues the story of pirate Guybrush Threepwood, picking up the long-running rivalry with the ghost pirate LeChuck. It keeps the series' mix of item-based puzzles, dialogue-driven humor, and absurd pirate-world logic that the franchise is known for.

Exploration takes players across new and familiar Caribbean-inspired locations, with puzzles that often hinge on clever dialogue choices as much as inventory combinations. Its hand-drawn art style and comic writing carry forward the tone that made the earlier Monkey Island games classics.