Plunder! Review

Living the pirate life certainly seems to have its benefits. Gathering treasures and sailing the high seas has been glamorized and the game Plunder! adds to the so-called glamorous pirate life. Players set sail in their little pirate ship to take down enemy ships and recover any gold they may have on board. It’s all fun and games until the Royal Navy comes to spoil the party.

The object of the game is to sail in a pirate ship through a board that is loaded with mines and other obstacles. The ship is set out on a grid and only sails in one direction. The ship isn’t alone on its voyage and is joined by other merchant ships that are positioned between the obstacles on the grid. These ships carry treasure chests that the pirates desperately crave. To activate the mines, players will need to tap them, which will cause them to fire a cannon ball. The types of mines can vary and can shoot in one to all four directions. The mines on the grid can be used to blow up the other ships and remove any obstacles the help the pirate ship sail on. These mines can be both a blessing and a curse. Strategy is the name of the game when activating the mines and if they aren’t activated in the correct order, players may be left with an obstacle in front of them. If the ship is left on the grid with an obstacle in front of it and no mines to deploy, the enemy’s Royal Navy will come and capture the ship.

This was the first time I had played Plunder! but apparently it was available once before and then removed from the App Store. It’s since be revamped and upgraded with new graphics and sounds that are very well done. The new version also did away with many in-app purchases. The game is now free to try but does require a one-time, in-app purchase of $1.99 to continue past the first map. This seems like a fair price to pay for all the additional maps that get added in after the purchase is made. The free portion is generous and gives players a good idea of what to expect from the full version.

Fans of the original arcade game will find even more to love with the updated version of Plunder!. I enjoyed playing it and I think it has a lot to offer with its strategic gameplay that can be played for short or long periods of time.