I’ve spent hours pretending to be a Pirate, eating bananas in a peculiar fashion, smiling until I cried, and getting drunk to the point of dizziness — all with the help of an Xbox controller.

The studio has been stuck making Kinect games for Microsoft’s discontinued Xbox accessory in recent years, and Sea of Thieves is an impressive return to form.

It’s an experience I’ve enjoyed playing both during the beta and a visit to Rare, all while blasting rival pirate ships with cannon balls and digging up secret treasure chests from islands.

You’re thrown into a pub on a safe harbor island with your fellow teammates, where you can get drunk (a process that will literally make you feel physically and virtually dizzy) or set sail aboard a ship.

You could stumble across a shipwreck and dive into the ocean to find supplies for your ship or treasure chests that can be exchanged for gold coins and reputation at one of the non-playable characters at dedicated outpost islands.

Even the islands are full of little Easter eggs, including Polygon founding editor Griffin McElroy’s skeleton after eating a banana in a really odd way .

“The dream here is that a couple of weeks after launch, the first person to get to the hideout becomes a celebrity in the Sea of Thieves community,” explains Mike Chapman, lead designer at Rare.