Pirate Blast

It’s pretty hard for me to recommend games other than the popular ones you already know (Wii Sports Resort, Just Dance 2, etc.) for kids or for partygoers. Then I thought I’d try out Pirate Blast, a light-gun shooter published by Zoo Games. The game can be interesting the first two chapters or so, but ultimately lacks the content and gameplay that might’ve actually made this game satisfactory for those types of crowds. Though that is the case, I can’t really fault the game for its low $20 price point, though.

Pirate Blast is set in the Vile Isle Amusement Park. A major problem occurs in which the pirate robots’ functions go awry as soon as you enter the facility. The robot, Captain Greasebeard, thinks he is really a great pirate and has started re-programming other robots to add to his cause. As such, the other robots are attacked by Greasebeard’s robot pirate army, and it’s up to you to stop them from taking over the entire island. Your only way to combat the Greasebeard threat is with your water gun, since the robots malfunction when they get hit by water. You aim with the Wii remote and fire by pressing the B button (same for reloading water tank, only that you do so off-screen), press A button to throw water bombs, and both A and B buttons to interact with the environment/grab objects. If playing with the Wii remote and/or nunchuk isn’t doing it for you, playing with the Wii Zapper can actually be a bit more fun than the latter, so it can’t hurt to try.

Other than the enemy robot pirates standing in your way, there are also special enemy robots you can hit for extra points. Health packs can be picked up randomly or via vending machines scattered throughout the various levels; there are other collectibles to uncover such as caged colonial robots to rescue, treasure chests for unlocking Bonus Rooms, and park tokens. You’ll also engage in soak bot mini-games between levels in which you have to shoot as many robots as you can. The more robots you shoot, the more bombs rewarded to the player.

Doing all of the above determines how many points you will have at the end of each chapter. Grabbing tons of loot and eliminating as many enemy robot pirates as you can obviously give you more points, though hitting or failing to save friendly ones will cost you. Losing all your health will automatically take you back to the start of each level, which can be occasionally frustrating especially after already accruing so many points. The penalties aren’t that severe so it’s not a big deal if you die or accidently hit an ally, though it’s still pretty important to always keep a sharp eye on your surroundings.

You’ll play through a total of 8 chapters in the main campaign, which takes you to different locations within Vile Isle such as the Cove and Greasebeard’s ship itself. You can choose to play it solo or cooperatively with a friend, which means the game gets slightly more chaotic than normal. It’s a short game that you can breeze through in an hour or so, though after finishing it once, the game loops back to the beginning and basically tells you that you must play it a few more times to stop Greasebeard for good.

For all the game’s encouraging of replayability, I can’t really fault how short you can get through all the chapters at least once. It’s unfortunately not much fun to play it again a second time. At first, Pirate Blast has actually got an interesting premise and seems like it has a lot of charm, but it quickly loses all of those traits once you play through it halfway. The game doesn’t really have much intensity nor does it get more challenging no matter what difficulty setting you choose, and can get boring after a while. It probably would have helped if there were better control schemes like faster water spray or if the enemies took a shorter time to get rid of, better bomb aiming mechanics, checkpoints, and probably a melee option when enemies get too close. As mentioned earlier, you can find treasure chests hidden in many of the game’s levels to unlock a total of 3 Bonus Rooms (Smuggler’s Run, Beach Defend, and Fruit Shoot), but even these aren’t enough to add more fun to the table. Not even playing the game with a buddy can help stave it off.

Visually though, Pirate Blast essentially looks decent. It’s got a fairly nice feel to the setting, greatly supported by detailed backgrounds and well-done animations. I also can’t fault the game for its jaunty music either. Also, the game doesn’t have to be fully voiced, though I would’ve preferred it if there was more variety in the sound effects other than the robots’ squeals, the sound of explosions, and spraying of water.

Simplicity isn’t a terrible thing, but Pirate Blast could’ve been better if the presentation was stepped up a notch or there was actually more content in store. Because it heavily lacks in those sections, Pirate Blast rapidly loses its enjoyment, and is sadly not worth much after finishing what little it has to offer.

David Gabriel, NoobFeed.