Review: Pirate Ship Battles

[the_dead_man]

Pirate Ship Battles

Mobile Game Review

Title: Pirate Ship Battles
Developer: Sumea in co-op with Kuuasema Ltd
Publisher: Digital Chocolate
Release Date: January, 2009
Format: J2ME
Game Features: Interesting Campaign Mode.
Reviewed on: Nokia 5300
References used: Wikipedia

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Summary

What’s the best way to make a board game interesting? Add a campaign mode to it and give it an interesting storyline. You are a pirate prince and it’s up to you to save your pirate princess who has been captured by the most dreaded undead pirate in the Caribbean, Blackbeard. Defeat other pirates and convince them to join you in your quest and find the missing pieces of the map that will lead you to the elusive hideout of Blackbeard.

Review

Since you all know I’ve damaged my phone, I’ve had to put MotoGP on hold. Yes it’s really bad my phone got damaged, in fact I’ve been talking about it to all my friends. However enough about me, this time it’s Pirate Ship Battles.

Basically the game is an adaptation of the popular board game Battleships. I’ll tell you a bit about the game because it forms the main foundation of the gameplay. The game is played on four square grids, two for each player. The grids are typically square – usually 10 × 10 – and the individual squares in the grid are identified by letter and number. On one grid the player arranges ships and records the shots by the opponent. On the other grid the player records their own shots. Before play begins, each player arranges a number of ships secretly on the grid for that player. Each ship occupies a number of consecutive squares on the grid, arranged either horizontally or vertically. The number of squares for each ship is determined by the type of the ship. The ships cannot overlap (i.e., at most one ship can occupy any given square in the grid). The types and numbers of ships allowed are the same for each player. These may vary depending on the rules. After the ships have been positioned, the game proceeds in a series of rounds. In each round, each player's turn consists of announcing a target square in the opponents' grid which is to be shot at. If a ship occupies the square, then it takes a hit. The player's opponent announces whether or not the shot hit one of his or her ships and then takes a turn. When all of the squares of a ship have been hit, the ship is sunk. After all of one player's ships have been sunk, the game ends and the other player wins.

Thus your main objective is to battle pirates and sink their enemy ships in this manner before they sink yours. Go on the campaign and add more pirates to your crew. Use the money plundered from ships and cities on buying new ships when you lose them. Gamble at towns to win extra money, but bet wisely or you may lose. Use your special weapons wisely. Digital Chocolate makes battleships more interesting by adding special weapons in the game so you don’t just win battles by attacking just one square on the grid at a time. The Fat Lady is a special weapon which lets you fire at five squares simultaneously, and the Fire Ship, which fires in a straight line right across the grid. Special weapons can only be used when the weapon bar gets filled up, so it should be used wisely. The campaign is played on a large map consisting of a grid. It’s scattered with lighthouses, storms, islands, secret areas, pirate ships and trader ships. You take turns guiding your ships to battle and finding the lost pieces of a torn map. All in all the game has good gameplay.

Graphics are quite decent, colourful and makes the game visually appealing. The scenery and surroundings are well sketched and it’s pretty good. Sound is simply great, the sound of ships getting bombed and ships sinking are quite realistic. Besides this, the main menu music has an eerie effect which suits the theme of the game so it is quite excellent.


Conclusion

The game is definitely a success and Digital Chocolate does well in making a board game interesting by adding some innovations in it. In short Pirate Ship Battles is a game for everyone and it's a game worth playing.

Screenshots

pirate-ship-battles-ss1.jpgdchoc_pirate_ship_battles_Screenshot_03.jpgPirate-Ship-Battles.jpgpirate-ship-battles-ss2.jpgpirate-ship-battles-ss3.jpgpirate-ship-battles-ss4.jpg

Scores

Graphics: 8.2/10
Colourful and appealing.

Sound: 9/10
Excellent, suits the game.

Gameplay: 8.5/10
Innovations spice up the gameplay.

Story: 7.5/10
Not bad.

Overall Score: 8.5 out of 10

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[Noxide]

Oo-er

Nice medal...

[the_dead_man]

Oo-er

Nice medal...

must be your first post in this section and the medal's credits go to you ofcourse should i put it up there?

[Noxide]

must be your first post in this section and the medal's credits go to you ofcourse should i put it up there?

No it's fine thanks

[the_dead_man]

No it's fine thanks

I think i will, when i'm on again

[Yuros]

The review is great,i would only change overal score to 9.5

[t-mac2008]

game seems kinda good,I'll try it
and nice review

[Ghost]

Great review as always

[Vivian]

Great review as always

Indeed. Excellent review as always.

[the_dead_man]

Next Review: Nitro Street Racing 2
Will be up in a week i hope.