One of my favourite moments in Sea of Thieves’ new Monkey Island collaboration comes right near the start of the first episode; as you sail through the familiar pea green soup of the Sea of the Damned, approaching a distant, dimly lit island, a transformation occurs. Suddenly, the familiar Monkey Island theme begins to stir in a rumbling of steel drums, the fog parts in unison with a dramatic colour palette shift, and there it is, in a sheer blast of giddying nostalgia: the unmistakable moonlit heft of Mêlée Island, sprawled beneath searing purple skies.
It’s spine-tingling stuff, delivered with developer Rare’s typical cinematic panache, and it’s perhaps the perfect summation of a crossover that so elegantly transforms nostalgic reverence into an experience that feels both exciting and new. Rare’s pulled off something similar before, of course, in 2021’s beautifully observed Pirates of the Caribbean crossover, A Pirate’s Life – and it was here, amid the Jack Sparrows and Davy Joneses, that the seed for Sea of Thieves’ new three-episode Monkey Island Tall Tale adventure was initially sown.
Back then, after completing an optional side quest in A Pirate’s Life’s opening episode – appropriately structured to lend it a distinct point-and-click adventure vibe – players would encounter the shipwrecked remains of the Headless Monkey and the scattered journals of Monkey Island’s famed Captain Kate Capsize, all teasing a potential crossover that felt like such a perfect, immediate fit it would have been a crime if it hadn’t eventually appeared.
