Slice ‘n’ dice your way through hordes of (you guessed it) pirates in Mika Mobile’s madcap mash-up of videogame genres and historical eras. A side-scrolling brawler cum RPG, OMG Pirates successfully fuses tongue in cheek ultra violence with Cartoon Network-esque visuals, and boasts a veritable treasure trove of great ideas, fun gameplay, and peerless presentation.
Playing as a ninja, the aim of the game is to slaughter every last pirate in one area before moving onto the next, unlocking new moves and leveling up as you go. Combat is fast paced and gets quite frantic, so thankfully the game’s controls are well implemented and fluid; a ninja-star shaped d-pad handling movement, while red and green buttons execute jumps, parrying, and attacks.
The only noticable flaw here is that sometimes your ninja is a bit slow to react to directional button presses and will occasionally continue to dash in the wrong direction in the heat of battle. Otherwise though, action is more than up to scratch. Combos can be racked up and tapping the blue icon (see top left) unleashes an a eye-popping special move, while the RPG elements add extra depth to the proceedings.
Graphics are bright and crisp. There’s good variety between the levels on offer- fights take in burning villages, bar-room brawls, and even on top of a volcano- and boss battles (the rousing music in these sections deserves a special mention) are suitably epic. On top of all this brilliance, there’s replayability aplenty also, thanks to the ranking system and an unlockable bonus survival mode.
Overall this title is an absolute joy, and it’s most definately a swashbuckling adventure worthy of your pieces of eight (read $1.99).
iFanzine Verdict: OMG Pirates? OMG Brilliant!
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