Pirates!
System: NES
Release Date: October 1991
Developer: Rare
Publisher: Ultra Games
Genre: Simulation
Conquer the Spanish Main and live a life of plundering and pillaging in Pirates! You take the role of a young pirate captain and choose from one of several time periods with which to sail around the Caribbean. There are many ways to make your riches. Whether through treasure hunting, trade, or working for the aristocracy, you only have so long to live. How will you earn your fortune?
Begin by choosing the time period you want to begin in. Earlier time periods are much more difficult to earn your living legitimately. The default is the later set Buccaneer Heroes scenario. Next, choose your nationality from the English, French, Dutch, and Spanish. This will set immediate friendly and enemy ports and is an important choice. Then, give your family name. You must also set your difficulty level. This governs how hard it is to do anything, but also gives extra shares of the treasure at the end of a campaign. Finally, you give yourself a talent which makes one element of the game a slightly easier difficulty.
You’re not just given a ship, but must earn it in sword combat. Begin by choosing your weapon from a rapier, long sword, or cutlass. These options trade speed for power. I stuck with the cutlass through my pirating career. There are two things to pay attention to here. The first is attacking and defending high, medium, or low. There are two attacks, a weak thrust with the A Button and a strong swing with the B Button. The smart tactic is to get them to defend one spot with a thrust and then target their opening with a swing. The second thing to watch is the morale. This is the health meter of both fighters. A Strong or Wild! morale is close to victory, while a Shaken or Panic morale is close to defeat. Losing a sword duel opens you to injury and capture, which wastes some months of your life.
Winning this duel puts you at the helm of a ship and its crew. You must sail the Spanish Main, which sounds easier than it is. It’s not easy to just sail where you want to go. Like in reality, you are at the mercy of the prevailing winds. Sure, you can move in any direction, but the speed at which you move is dependent on that wind. You’ll occasionally come across another ship on your travels. You can see the flag they sail under and then decide if you want to get some news, sail on your way, or battle. Battles consist of the enemy trying to get away from you, while you try to board them. Wind speed, direction, and ship type are all important factors at play. There are some battles that you will not be able to win. You can try to disable the enemy with a well placed cannon blast, but they are looking to do the same to you. Boarding them sends you to a sword battle, unless they throw up the white flag. Then you get to plunder them and take control of their ship, or send it to Davy Jones’ locker.
In order to sell your plunder, you need to find friendly ports. This can be easier said than done. Spanish ports, which are the vast majority of towns throughout the ages, will only trade with ships whose captain has ranks of nobility with the Spanish crown. Typically, this means making friends with one of the other countries and hoping they have some ports that are doing well. If you are feeling extra froggy, you can attack the cities either by ship or by land and try to install a governor of a different country. Again, making your way into the city in either of these modes will put you into a sword fight. If you have a friendly port with a governor, doing missions for them will open up their daughter to your advances. If you are well decorated, they may be a spy for you, or even agree to matrimony. If they spy for you, they will give you information on the Spanish Silver Train and Treasure Fleet. These are sources of massive amounts of gold.
Taverns in town will give you access to more crew, information on different ports in the Caribbean, or even a chance to buy map pieces. The map pieces are to buried treasure. You might be able to figure out where it is with just one piece, but more likely, you’ll need several in order to find out where to go. There are also maps to find your long lost family members. To get these, you need to capture pirates and turn them in to the proper authorities. You can’t just sail around forever, though, as your crew will get more unhappy and even turn mutinous. This means you need to head to port, sell everything you’ve got, and divvy up the plunder. The higher the difficulty, the more you get for your own personal stash. When you’re old enough or when you’re tired of the buccaneering lifestyle, you can retire and be given a score of how good of a pirate you are.
Graphics: 2.0
I can tell what everything is, but that doesn’t mean it looks good.
Sound: 1.5
Mostly wind sounds and cannon blasts, but the occasional tune is good enough.
Gameplay: 3.0
There are a lot of different things to do while you play, but they mostly all boil down to sword fights, so I hope you’re good at those.
Difficulty: 3.5
Turn up the difficulty if you want, but otherwise earn a smaller share of your booty.
Fun Factor: 3.5
I lost several hours to conquering the Caribbean and I’ll do it again!
Overall Rating: 2.7
Pirates! earns a B-. I totally recommend playing this if you can. It’s solid and worth your time.