Puzzle Pirates Review

Developer: SEGA
Price: Free
Version: 2.0.2
App Reviewed on: iPad 2

Graphics / Sound Rating:
Gameplay Rating:
Playtime Rating:
Replay Value Rating:

Overall Rating:

When looking at the MMO space, there seems to be a drastic underrepresentation of pirates. Sure, there may already be a Pirates of the Caribbean MMO on the market, but that didn’t burst onto the scene until 2007. Long before that, way back in 2003, a game named Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates was released as a java powered, browser based game. Sega has since purchased the company that created the title and set out to retrofit this puzzling universe to iOS. Can this free-to-play experience collect the proverbial booty, or will it end up walking the plank?

Porting a ten year old game to iOS couldn’t have been an easy undertaking. Everything from interface layout to user interaction must be streamlined in order to best fit the needs of the platform. In most respects, the renamed Puzzle Pirates does a fairly acceptable job catering to iOS gamers. That said, players should be prepared to wade through what seems like an excessive volume of menus in order to accomplish even the most mundane of tasks. After all, don’t forget that this is an MMO. It isn’t allowed to be too fun all at once. It must be earned.

The general swashbuckling aspect of Puzzle Pirates takes the form of over twenty different types of puzzle mini-games. In order to accomplish tasks tied to a specific mission, players are tasked with jobs like tending to holes in the floor of the ship, manning the helm, and even bailing water. Regardless of the job, there is quite a bit of fun to be found in competing missions along with other online participants. Amazingly enough, there is a rather comprehensive coop component to each mission that is as deep as any player would ever be willing to explore.

When a game has managed to survive for this long on its own as a PC-only experience, there will be more than enough gameplay to keep the iOS masses entertained for eons to come. Eventually the puzzle variety in Puzzle Pirates may probably become tired, but when the game exists in the free-to-play world, there is no excuse not to give it a fair shake. It may not shiver your timbers, but it never hurts to dip a toe it, just to see what all the hype is about.

[gallery ids="183714,183708,183713,183712,183711,183710,183709" orderby="rand"]