So there's a Monkey Island easter egg in Sea of Thieves now.
With Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm granting them power over the nigh-infinite mainstream appeal of Star Wars, so too did Monkey Island get swept up in the whirlwind of plundered properties. It's a strange and bittersweet feeling to know that the fate of a beloved childhood adventure series now rests squarely in the hands of one of the biggest corporations on the planet, especially one that already has a franchise at its command that is arguably much bigger and better in terms of moneymaking potential.
They already have one swashbuckling adventure series smashing box offices wide open on the regular - Hell, Pirates of the Caribbean and Monkey Island were even inspired by the same theme park ride! What purpose could Disney possibly have in revitalizing a series that competes with its own product? Why waste time getting a big expensive development team together to whip up Monkey Island 7 or whatever number we're on now, when they can just as easily push another Pirates film out onto the big screens and call it a payday?
That's why it feels so... Surreal? It feels surreal to hear the old familiar Monkey Island theme fade in over that darkened little beach, its echoing steel drums immediately dragging me kicking and screaming back in time to that glorious moment when Curse of Monkey Island first blessed us with a full, Non-MIDI rendition of that opening motif. It feels otherworldly to be hearing it in an expansion pack for which the main selling point is the beloved Captain Jack Sparrow himself, as though it were some kind of grand gesture that Guybrush truly is on par with Captain Jack, that they truly could fill the same space together and coexist in harmony rather than cut-throat competition. It tugs at my heart as the journals scattered around the environment reference moments from LeChuck's Revenge, as it shows us a map of the Tri-Island area from Escape from Monkey Island, as it tickles us with implications that Guybrush Threepwood himself might be making an appearance in the Sea of Thieves...
...All accompanied by the painful thought that one little cameo appearance in this nautical free-for-all might be all that's left of Guybrush, now.
Of course, I can't know that for certain. We have no information, no data, and no way of beaming our consciousnesses into the minds of the wretched execs of the Walt Disney corporation. For as likely as it is that Guybrush's life under his new mouse-eared overlords will begin and end with his appearance in this completely unrelated videogame, so too is it as likely that Disney will one day blindside us (or should I say broadside us?) with an entirely new installment in the series - perhaps one that'll tie up the loose ends left by the episodic Telltale venture, or perhaps one that'll fill in the gap between Tales and Escape? Hell, give me a Disney-quality remake of Curse and I'd be satisfied for another ten years of deathly silence!
Perhaps this is the cheapest, easiest way to milk a few pennies out of the nostalgic 90's crowd they've inadvertently dragged up from the deep as they reeled in the rest of LucasArts. Perhaps Guybrush will appear in his own Sea of Thieves expansion... and this time, he won't even be voiced by Dominic Armato.
The fact they've given us as much as they have in this hardly-hidden little alcove of the game world proves, if nothing else, that they have not forgotten about our favorite wannabe pirate...
But the behavior of all corporations - not just Disney - reminds us time and time again that the path of least resistance and the path of most profit often converge.
And that's why it hurts, that's why this reappearance of a familiar old shipwreck leaves me with spots in my eyes and a taste of metal in my mouth; Not because what I'm hearing is the proverbial atonal singing of a metaphorical curly-coiffed no-name landlubber that wandered into my allegorical seaside barber shop and began picking up items of dubious use like he owned the place, no no...!
What I'm hearing is the voice of a friend I haven't seen in years. I hear an echoing, almost haunting rendition of a song written before I was even born, one that made me feel giddy with joy at the mere sound of the piratical bungling that was about to ensue. I hear Dominic Armato's voice, the only person on God's green earth that could truly do this lovably inept puzzle-pirate justice...
And all I want is to be able to hear it just one more time.
With Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm granting them power over the nigh-infinite mainstream appeal of Star Wars, so too did Monkey Island get swept up in the whirlwind of plundered properties. It's a strange and bittersweet feeling to know that the fate of a beloved childhood adventure series now rests squarely in the hands of one of the biggest corporations on the planet, especially one that already has a franchise at its command that is arguably much bigger and better in terms of moneymaking potential.
