The Battle of Pirate Bay: Avast!
Written: Oct 01 '09
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Product Rating:
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Pros: simple, neat graphics, touch controls, challenging, commitment to update
Cons: not much depth, minimal sound, limited replay value
The Bottom Line: A simple game that's fun to play.
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| kjell1979's Full Review: The Battle of Pirate Bay for iPhone |
September 19th was National Talk Like A Pirate Day. So matey I found out that The Battle of Pirate Bay iPhone game was a free download that day. A game that normally sells for 99 cents, this move stretched my stinginess to new bounds, but who can argue with free?
Gameplay
The Battle of Pirate Bay is a game that is very similar to the iPhone smash hit Flight Control (also 99 cents in the App Store). The object of the game is to protect your base from attacking pirate ships. You must move your ships to intercept the attacking pirate ships. Your ships have a wide variety of armament in terms of range, power, and storage. Some ships have a large firing radius, but not a lot of cannonball capacity. This is opposed to your other two ships which have a shorter ranges and capacities respectively. There are different types of enemy attacking ships. Some move very fast, others move very slowly but can take multiple hits from your smaller defending ships. Your base can also fire an emergency weapon once which can protect itself from an attacking ship that has slipped past your defenses. Finally, certain enemy ships can drop power ups from speed ups to speed downs and increased rates of fire.
Much of the strategy involved with The Battle of Pirate Bay has to do with positioning your ships such that they can conserve their ammunition while also protecting the base. On future levels this becomes much harder as the access points to your base are much more plentiful and harder to navigate around islands and other obstacles. Also the enemy can throw some challenging waves of enemies your way such that you're forced to reposition your defenses in new ways you didn't previously imagine. While this game is often compared to Flight Control, it also shares a lot of strategy and gameplay elements from the classic Missile Command game.
Each level you complete on a given map, you're given a rank of S, A, B, C, D, or F. The better you perform the more likely you are to unlock additional maps. In all there are three different maps including the first one which is unlocked at the beginning. The other maps are much more challenging and offer new wrinkles to the game itself.
Controls
The controls in The Battle of Pirate Bay are really clever. You use the touch screen of your iPhone or iPod Touch to direct the path of your ships. The game responds rather well, though there are some hiccups when it doesn't recognize your finger. My fingers are so large compared to the touch screen, it can be somewhat challenging to make sure I'm accurately selecting or directing the ship. The good part is this recognition is competent for the most part. Finally, you can also redirect ships on the fly so you're not committed to the path you've set once you're done. Overall, it's a simple scheme with a few technical hiccups, but the controls really rarely affect the gameplay but rather enhance it.
Graphics
The graphics are really clean and neat. The scheme is that of a sprite based cartoon cutout graphics. These are similar graphics you would see in a Paper Mario game and are really well received here. Clouds float by to strategically impact your view, while the ships leave nice looking ripples. The animations are also simple but effective. The Battle of Pirate Bay really has a high framerate and while there's nothing really flashy graphically, it fits in well with the system.
Sound
The sound effects are nice. They are ambient in that you can hear the ripples of the waves and the sound of the cannonball fire. But also the sound effects are useful in alerting you to health ships which replenish your ammunition or the health of your base.
The music is one of the weaker points of The Battle of Pirate Bay. There's a nice pirate like theme song during the opening menus, but there's no music during normal gameplay except for a short tribal like drum solo at the end of each level.
Replay Value
Sadly there isn't much replay value at the moment aside from trying to break your current record for number of enemy ships sunk. The gameplay is somewhat simple which makes this game a nice diversion for a little while. Still there isn't much going on beyond the normal gameplay tactics. It's a simple casual game, but not one that should be mistaken for other games likely to take up dozens of hours of your time.
One redeeming aspect to The Battle of Pirate Bat's replay value is the game is very much in active development. This isn't because it's buggy, but rather they're looking to improve on the features that it offers. There are periodic updates which are dictated by an in-game voting mechanism. This is a great feature that can really help with the upside of the game's future replay value.
Overall, this is a game worthy of its 99 cent price tag. Sure you can hold out until next September 19th to see if the price is lowered again, but why wait? Any fan of Flight Control or Missile Command should check this game out. If you're looking for a game to satisfy your hardcore gaming cravings, then you should save your pennies and pick up something else.
Recommended:
Yes
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kjell1979
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Location: Oxford, Mass
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Smack! Smack! Sugar Smacks! Give me a smack and I'll smack ya back!
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