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Sid Meier's Pirates Wii Review

Peter Blood

Privateer
Remember the good ole' days before we discovered POTC and AOP? When the only pirate game we knew and could trust was Sid Meier's Pirates? I can still remember the first time I played back in '07, trying to decide which ship I liked better, the Royal Sloop or the Fast Galleon. I remember trying to decide between which lass I should marry and which town I should sack next. And even my restless crew and me trying to avoid the dividing of the plunder, what every good captain hates. After the huge success of Sid Meier's pirates which was released a year and a half after the 21st century pirate craze began which was ignited by a certain Disney movie we all know and love. But if there is one pirate who is better known and loved more than a Captain Sparrow it is...........you. Shortly after the game became game of the year, an X-Box version was released, and then a PSP. And now pirates has even reached the shores of the Nintendo Empire with its port to the Wii console. This isn't a game you will find in a wii aisle at Best Buy or any computer or appliance store, it is something you may only find at a Gamestop or Online. After getting my hands on a copy for my friend as a Christmas present, I decided to buy one for myself last week, and it is the most addicting game for Wii I have ever played.

So, the game starts off like always, the Marquis, your family, character creation, mutiny; all that stuff. The game is stacked high with new features that were not in any previous editions, the first occurring shortly following the opening cutscene, face customization, yes CUSTOMIZATION! Aside from the default character assigned to you by the game, you can now change hair styles, skin colour, and even choose between four different beards. Another new feature involves customizing your ship by adding different coloured sails, flags, emblems, hull types, decorations, etc. Also, I'm sure all of you remember the mysterious traveller who sold you all items that you could never really use, well, now you have the options to give your character different hats, clothes, shoes, and even random misc. objects like glasses and fake beards. Yes, this is one big step from the original character development from previous versions, but, what of the new mini-games? This game has two brand new mini-games as advertised on the box, but these games aren't, per-say, new. What they really are are replacements. Instead of the turn based game with the regiments when you sack a town, it has been replaced by an action sequence where you must attack the town fort by sea by aiming the cannons at the turrets. Sneaking out of jail has also been replaced by a nearly impossible lock picking game where you must use your skeleton key to break out of jail. Even though these new features are original and exciting, I think we can all agree that the classic ones seemed more open ended.

Personally, I loved the Wii adaption, but it had major flaws that were made up for by the customization features. For instance, the dancing mini-game is more fun for the way with the motion censor, but is nearly impossible the first few times done because of the lousy timing. Plus, you don't really know what they mean by the arrows flashing in different directions and how they actually want you to flick the wiimote and how hard you must do it. It really gets irritating in the beginning of the game when you still haven't figured out the timing and you think you nailed the move but you just stumble, especially if it is a beautiful French girl in a blue dress. The sword fighting is better than the PC version over all because of the motion, but every time you swing it, it automatically generates a random move for you and even though there are buttons for jump, duck, and parry, it is hard to remember which is which and by the time you think you have figured it out, you are already down to fifteen crewmen. I just thought I'd say something else here about the world map sailing; no worries, it is the exact same thing, with the same annoying glitch involving the wind always going west. Sadly, you are unable to go to land in this adaption, and to find treasures and cities you must use your telescope and you know you are near a treasure spot when the loud suspenseful music plays that played whenever you were caught sneaking around town in previous versions. The game says 2 player on the case, but the two player really isn't anything special. All it is, is player two assisting player one in mini-games like sieges where they can shoot a musket at the enemy soldiers and in the dance room where they can play the music (I like to call this Violin Hero). In the sailing, all they do is speed up the ship and in the duels.....get this, they have to be a parrot helping the player kill the enemy captain, but all the parrot does is distract and annoy him. This completely ruins the following joke

A pirate walks into a bar and approaching the bar tender "Where's yer' parrot?" he asks.

Also, the graphics are still 2005 and unchanged at all.



Sid Meier's Pirates for the wii, I do admit was a great game, nothing new, but great nonetheless. It was mostly meant for people who have never played the game for the PC or the X-Box. The game was extremely cliched and repetitive and had many niches that made it fairly boring at times, and even a bit annoying, but what I did like were the lack of wild goose chases because it was always easy to find Raymondo. Even though this game may seem like old news, I strongly recommend for Wii owners to buy this game whether they do or don't have the PC version, but people who don't have a Wii, don't go out and buy one just to play this, you should save your money, but even after I retired my pirate this morning, I still felt compelled to create a different pirate in a different era with a different look, and I hope you would too.
 
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