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Pirates of the Caribbean : At World’s End

The Summer of 2006 was in full swing, with movies like Superman Returns, Pirates of the Caribbean : Dead Man’s Chest and… well… and more out. Basically, however, Pirates was one of (if not the) big movie ruling the box office when I… oh, wait, a year passed and we’re back again.

Pirates of the Caribbean : At World‘s End came and went… and here we are. Pirates of the Caribbean : At World‘s End and it‘s tie-in game for all consoles… including, yes, the PSP.

Regardless of our present feelings towards the Disney and their mouse, it cannot be denied that Pirates 2 did well in the box office… then Pirates 3 did well… then suddenly out of nowhere this game came and someone was missing. Last year‘s Buena Vista Games people weren‘t present (or not directly mentioned on the game) when this year‘s Pirates hit (noted to Disney Interactive instead of BVG). Was that a good or bad thing? Who can say. But it‘s done, so let‘s deal with it.

Oh, you weren’t fooled into believing Disney’s earlier tirad promise about limiting the franchise to two movies prior to the release of Pirates of the Caribbean 1, right? No? Didn’t think so. Now let’s just hope that Pirates 3 really is the end of it all that it’s supposed to be.

So let’s get to this game, after all it’s not like we’re going to not be making this trip again next year since Pirates : At World’s End (guest starring Chow Yun Fat as an asian pirate if I remember right) hits with it’s plague of video game versions… oh, wait… (flips to end of book) … so far so good, no Pirates 4 yet on the ending.

If you haven’t been contributing to Disney’s kitty by being one of the ? ? ? million dollars or so that went to the Bank of Walt via theatrical box offices for this 3rd outing , and you haven’t been making investments in Walt Inc by tossing down money for Pirates tie-in merchandise including M&Ms, last year’s Pirate cereal that was put back on shelves for some reason, and whatever else they could slap the Pirates images on, then you probably have seen the flock of video games coming out, and it all started with a level in a game that was not Pirates of the Caribbean : Kingdom Hearts II and Pirates of the Caribbean : Dead Man‘s Chest slash Legend of Jack Sparrow.

In Pirates of the Caribbean : At World’s End (based, yes, on the new movie) you play as Captain Jack Sparrow… who NOW does seem like Captain Jack Sparrow since he apparently went to AA between this game and the last one for the PSP where he came off as The Dread Pirate Arthur (and by that I don’t mean the Clive Owen King Arthur from that Jerry Bruckheimer fiasco some years ago as I do the even older visage of the not so funny drunken fop Arthur, played by Dudley Moore in two movies called, if I am not mistaken, Arthur and Arthur 2 : On The Rocks or something like that).

Captain Sparrow is on the rocks, rehabing from his keg splattered swinger last time for a more sober approach in this game, no longer walking in a stumble wobbling and weaving as if he’s on his 30th keger in this one he really seems sober enough to actually be in this game. Maybe the drunken Captain was the reason BVG wasn‘t invited to make this year‘s Pirates game, especially since they went back to the drawing board and made you replay Dead Man‘s Chest in the first half of the game in this game.

Platforming is gone, replaced by the hack and slash sword swinging of Legend of Jack Sparrow. This is an improvement over Dead Man’s Hand, but it also means the entire franchise is abit stale from this cookie cutter rehash of the same game over and over (the Wii version that I also reviewed is the same game as this version) with only the PS3 and XBox360 versions actually being “different” than the rest of the versions of this game. Maybe I didn’t like the platforming aspect so much but at least (if nothing else) it made the PSP version of the game abit different than it’s console version, this is… well… only the Extras version is different between Wii and PSP. The Wii has “Challenges” extras while the PSP has a full on Pirates Gaming section with Pirates Poker (basically Texas Hold ‘Em with Pirates) and Pirates Dice (borrrrriiiinnnngggg) which is an improvement over the Wii version because, well, it gives you a game that’ll make you forget there was ever a “Stacked” Texas Hold Em’ game on the PSP.

Yes, Ye gamblers buy a copy of Pirates of the Caribbean : At World’s End… it has the best Texas Hold Em’ game simulator I’ve seen on the PSP to date.

Of course combat is handled in the same hack and slash way as it was before, only now there are far more “side quests” to undertake (and fill your time with) so there’s more to each level than there was before which was rather light on overall content. Still, even with all that it is still the same kind of cookie cutter so-so game that Dead Man’s Chest was, just abit more of it. It’ll still play for about a dozen hours or so, like Dead Man’s Chest. It’ll still be mostly a button masher, like Dead Man’s Chest. And it still won’t be the best movie to game conversion you ever played, like Dead Man’s Chest. Still if you want to play the game but don’t want the arm strainer that was the Wii version (and don’t have a PS3 to play that version) then this is probably the best version you can own.

As for the voice acting? Once again you are not buying this game because your favorite actors have stopped in to take the time to be in this game. Unlike last year’s Legend of Jack Sparrow (which featured Johnny Depp) this came once again has none of the talents that made the movie worth seeing. You can once again bet your bottom cursed dubloon that this game does NOT feature the talents of either Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom or Keira Knightly (it seems even in Spider-Man 3 the main female starlet of the movie ducked out of being in the video game version, what gives with female starlets not wanting to be in the video game versions of the movies they were in?)

Captain’s “wit” becomes repetitive (and slow witted) quickly, though not as rambling as it was in Dead Man’s Chest. The Captain is SOBER and you can play as Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) or Elizabeth (Keira Knightly) though non of the actors/actresses reprised their roles for the game.

Add to that short levels (a dozen or so) and a rather short gameplay and you have an average game amongst many many average movie to game conversions that have rolled out this year. Sigh. Somehow I don’t think Transformers the Game will be any different than the rest of the average (or below average) games based on movies to date, and I’m not hoping for something different out of it.

So that’s it. Nuff said. No more Pirates games please, though we won’t be so lucky since Sid Meyer’s Pirates on the PSP is out this year and I still have to review that. Whatever. Otherwise Pirates of the Caribbean : At World’s End ends with a not so world shattering score of 3 MIA Johnny Depp’s out of 5.

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PSP Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End Reviews

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