By N1ntendo
Sid Meier’s Pirates, the sandbox game of the sea, has seen adaptions to consoles and portables and enjoyed critical success. Now, 5 years after the release of the Xbox version (which won countless awards for Best Adventure Game), Sid Meier’s Pirates makes its way to the Wii with added content and new features to boot. Originally developed by Firaxis Games, 2K China and Virtuos have taken the reins and they do not disappoint.
The Wii is not known for engaging strategy or simulation games, and is sorely lacking in that department. Seeing that gap filled by Sid Meier’s Pirates was a breath of fresh air. The game does not try to force “waggle” controls or motions to the player, but instead incorporating the wii remote where it would lend itself properly, namely swordfighting and one of the new features, bombardment. More on these later. The game begins with you creating your character and picking what special skill you will have, be it charming the ladies, being a scurvy dog, or a skilled captain. Difficulty governs how hard the mini-games will be for the player which is crucial as this is a choice driven game.
By choice driven, I mean that everything from the look of your ship, to the status of your ship’s crew and their possibility of mutiny, is all up to you. Throughout your adventures, you will be marrying governor’s daughters, taking down the top 10 pirates of the sea (some famous names out there, Blackbeard!), and engaging in mighty ship battles full of cannonballs and swordfights. All while intertwining itself with the simple story of a young lad on the search for his lost family.
Moving on to the minigames, this is where the player can really have some fun.
Ship battles
During your travels you have several ships also scouring the sea on their own quests. You may at any time engage in battle with them for plunder or just for revenge. Just be careful who you attack as you will be representing a specific region of the world (English, Dutch, French, Spanish) and your rank in the world depends on you following orders from your ally and destroying your enemy. These battles are fought in 1v1 battles with you shooting cannonballs towards each other as you attempt to either sink your opponent or board them, which can result your opponent giving up their good or…
Swordfighting
When boarding a ship or facing a known villanous pirate, the player will engage in a cinematic sword battle that reminds me of a fencing match. The Wii Remote is used exclusively here by configuring 4 different attacks to swinging your Wii Remote up, down, left, and right. The speaker is also used to emit the sound of clashing steel as you encounter your opponent. In a gentlemanly twist, the same Wii configuration is also used for…
Dancing
Which in this case is stricly the dance of love as you try to win the hearts of the governor’s daughters. Unlike the sword battles though, these are timed motions to the music where you must adhere to the tempo in order to show off properly to your hopeful fiancee. On to the new features.
Lock Picking & Bombardment
As of this review, I had yet to encounter lock picking in my travels but thankfully got to take part in some major bombardments on my enemies. Bombardments take place like a shooting gallery on rails, where total destruction is the name of the game. Exclusive to the Wii, players are given full target control of your ship’s cannons as you lay waste to any underdeveloped ports or small settlements around the world of your enemies. This mode was some of the most fun as you get to totally destroy the town, houses, enemies, and all as you then conquer it and appoint it to your favorite faction of choice.
Overall, I could go on forever how addicting this game is. Sid Meier’s Pirates has definitely stood the test of time since being released back in 1987. Once played on the Nintendo NES, Sid Meier’s Pirates shines beautifully on the Nintendo Wii like a Ruby Ring to a governor’s daughter. Don’t miss out on this one as there is nothing else like it as this is the best and only TRUE pirate game for Nintendo Wii fans!
