Pirates: Duels on the High Seas Hands-on Preview

Those of you old enough to remember the distant past may recall a PS1 game by the name of Overboard! – a colourful arcade shooter from Pysgnosis that placed you in charge of a curiously turbo-powered pirate ship. It was a relatively straightforward shmup dressed up in exotic clothes – but given that those clothes included an eyepatch and a pair of balloon-like buccaneer pants, this was no bad thing. Now Oxygen Games’ Pirates: Duels on the High Seas is offering a similar kind of experience for the DS, in bite-sized chunks of blasty goodness.

In essence, this game does for galleons what the Desert Strike series did for helicopters. The action is viewed from a zoomed-out, above-and-behind perspective, giving the player a high vantage on the nautical carnage they wage below. While the graphics could hardly be described as eye-candy, they are sharp enough for the task at hand and feature neat little details like rippling waves along the shoreline of each level. Perhaps more importantly, your galleon is driven via a simple yet intuitive control set-up that soon becomes second nature: steering is handled by the d-pad, while the shoulder triggers send your vessel zipping forward at a rate of knots (or backwards, if you so desire). All action takes place on the upper screen, while the lower half carries a simple map – the stylus is largely just used to navigate menus.

Combat requires you to manoeuvre your boat alongside your enemies, bringing them within range of your side-mounted cannons. They, of course, are trying to do the same thing – resulting in battles where both parties circle each other like drunken dancers. It’s a break from the norm as far as standard shooter tactics go, and there’s a pleasing sense of chaos when several boats are on-screen at once. Aside from the side cannons, floating crates give you access to rockets, mines and a flamethrower; if you’re lazy or you’re simply a rubbish shot, you can also sink your opponents by ramming into them at speed. You’re probably not supposed to rely on this tactic too heavily, but it’s much fun and is therefore heartily recommended.

Pirates’ single player campaign offers some 35 levels, set across seven different backdrops. The backstory consists of some gubbins involving cursed keys, but the use of everyone’s favourite pirate clichés – including some classic “yaarh!” sound effects – makes everything a little more fun. We have yet to try out multiplayer, but on the basis of the single-player skirmish mode, it could be a lot of fun. Make no mistake: inter-boat combat is the bread and butter of this game. Against the AI it’s somewhat diverting; with three other humans competing for kills, it could be downright addictive.

Of course, multiplayer success will largely depend on whether the game sells well enough to build-up a sizeable following. Late last month Oxygen released a similar WiiWare title under the banner of Pirates: The Key of Dreams. Multiplayer proved to be the biggest draw there – but then the cost of entry was merely 1000 Wii Points. Persuading gamers to part with £25 for the DS version may prove to be a somewhat stiffer challenge.