Avast! Here be a game entitled The Pirate Tales, and ... I'm really sick of horrible pirate talk, so I'm not gonna even try anymore. The Pirate Tales is a puzzle game set in a theme of, well, pirates. Did you guess that? Yay! Cookies for everyone that did!
In The Pirates Tales, you are taken through the tale of Dewey, a young lad, who is attempting to free his love, Ruby, from jail. Your tale takes you around the seas, battling guards, pirates, octopus, enemy ships and even THE Govenor (insert bad accent here)! Oh, yeah. You also get to swab the deck — but more on that later.
There are only two modes of gameplay in The Pirate Tales; one is a timed mode, and the other is timeless. Both modes follow the story of Dewey; there is no freeform or random level play as far as I can tell. Each level you encounter is supposed to have a story and goal associated with it.
To make a move in the game is a little different than your standard three-in-a-row game of swapping tiles around; instead, you must swap a colored sphere that is attached to your mouse cursor with another sphere on the playing area. You must be lining up three (or more) spheres (horizontally or vertically), and it will cause them to disappear and shift other spheres down to take their place; afterwards, the sphere you replaced will end up on your mouse cursor.
You will always have goals, like swabbing the deck, which requires you to "clean" the back of the tiles as you play; others might require you to battle fierce pirates by eliminating all the special spheres that look like pirates, and so on. In any case, between each level, you are treated to the story of Dewey, Captain Caninbahl, Barley, Ruby and Planky the Parrot.
The story in The Pirate Tales is what should be setting it apart from most other casual games. You get 100 chapters of ... absolutely horrible dialogue. Maybe it's just me, but I was dying reading it; it was painful.. It's kind of a blur now. From the horrible pirate clichйs to the very obvious genital-size comparison chapters in which they just try to one up each other — all so you can grind out another level of the exact same thing — it really just screamed to me that they wanted to stretch out this very thin story as long as possible. Between the slang and poor dialogue in a few parts of the game, there were times I couldn't figure out the story! The rest of the time, I think it was supposed to be comedic. But, uh ... I think if I laughed while rolling my eyes, I'd probably need medical attention.
If that weren't enough, oftentimes there would be goals that popped up in the next level or tasks you are required to do that just DON'T MAKE SENSE. One minute the story is going one direction, the next you got pirates attacking — what the h***? And for some weird reason, you are constantly swabbing the decks, in a dingy? Well, fight off 50 pirates and swab the deck. ... I just don't get it.
The level design in the game was nothing spectacular — mostly standard patterns and challenges with nothing really eye-catching or unique. The timed mode can be quite challenging as you progress, if you are up for it. For people like me who end up getting up from the keys often during a game, I'm glad there is a timeless mode; reacquainting yourself with the level can eat up too much time. During the course of the game, you have the opportunity to play as some of the characters, but really all it means is their portrait is in the corner. Also, since you can't go back and play old levels, the replay value really drops. Once you finish the 100 levels, there isn't much point of going on.
The music in The Pirate Tales changes with the level and mood of the story and isn't all the bad, even good when you consider it is just a casual game. The graphics are cartoonish but not all that bad.
The Pirate Tales isn't a bad puzzle game. It tries to innovate in both a story and the gameplay. The game's story certainly did not do it for me and was quite the turn off. For the puzzle-game addict, or for people who just like to swab things (especially decks), it is a good game to pick up — just be sure your tolerance for corny pirate talk is higher than mine! If not, whatever you do, don't roll your eyes and laugh!
I am just a single guy that likes to play games when he gets home from work. I have loved computers ever since being allowed to play and mess around with our first 8086 computer. During my younger years I went through the console phase, with Atari, NES, Sega, and then I pretty much got bored of the typical console games by the time the SNES generation was finished. I greatly enjoy the
>potential uniqueness, challenges, and flexibility you are given in computer games, and anything that breaks the stereotypes and molds of the genres I often greatly enjoy. On the other hand a game that just copies another's success with no real innovation, or real effort put into that game severely disappoints me.
I currently work at a company soon to be mine, wearing many hats from management, purchasing, non-destructive testing, and even general labour when I need to get things done. I enjoy that I can be creative, and design what I need to get problems solved. As in games, if I can not be creative, if I can't construct and manage
things in game, I tend not to be happy.
Having recently bought my first house, In the future, I'll sure to be having less time for games, unfortunately.
