Captain Silver
System: SMS
Release Date: September 1989
Developer: Sega
Publisher: Sega
Genre: Action
I can’t begin to express how disappointed I would have been had I purchased Captain Silver as a child. This is an arcade port of an action game that shows promise to begin with, but falls well short of its potential as you finish it in under ten minutes. That’s right, Captain Silver’s four levels can be completed in under ten minutes.
Just because a game is short, doesn’t make it bad. However, if there’s nothing else to do in further playthroughs, even a competent game becomes bad. This is what happened here. You’re the sailor Jack Avery and you’re on the search for Captain Silver’s buried loot. You jump with Button 2 and swing your cutlass with Button 1. Your goal is to make it to the end of each stage before your time runs out. Along the way are enemies, most of which can be defeated with one swing of the sword. They drop letter tiles that spell out Captain Silver. If you collect them all, you earn a free life.
Along the way, you can find fairies that give your sword a star projectile and then upgrade them to three stars and five stars. There are also shops where you can spend your gold (points) collected along the way. Just buy the fairy if you need it, because there’s no point in buying the boots for higher jumping, potion for an extra hit point, or clock to stop the timer.
The US got hosed on this one. To keep costs down, they cut out two levels and several bosses to fit the game on a 1-Megabit cart. Europe and Japan got a more full experience. It probably wouldn’t have made it much better, though.
Graphics: 1.5
The graphics are interesting, albeit not amazing.
Sound: 1.0
I can’t say the music is very good at all. It seems like everything is done with one instrument. The death sound is stupid.
Gameplay: 1.0
The game itself plays fine, but there’s no room for depth to exist in the short span of the game.
Difficulty: 1.0
It’s a ten minute game. What else can I say?
Fun Factor: 1.0
I was starting to get into it and then it was over.
Overall Grade: 1.1
Captain Silver earns a D. Chalk this one up to what could have been. Then move on to something else.