Pirates: The Key of Dreams
A WiiWare shoot 'em up prequel set in the Caribbean.
Pirates: The Key of Dreams is a shoot 'em up video game developed by Oxygen Games for WiiWare. It serves as a prequel to the Nintendo DS title Pirates: Duels on the High Seas. The game was released in Europe on July 18, 2008 and in North America on July 21, 2008.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Oxygen Studios
- Publisher
- Oxygen Games
- Genre
- Shoot 'em up
- Modes
- Single-player, Multiplayer
- Platforms
- Wii (WiiWare)
Facts from the source article.
Overview
Players assume the role of a navy captain sent undercover in the Caribbean to retrieve an artifact called "The Key of Dreams" from the pirate Blackbeard. The story mode contains 10 levels. The player directly controls a sailing ship from an overhead view. Crew members such as navigators and master gunners can be recruited to upgrade the ship's abilities, and weapons include cannons, mines, and rockets. A single-player skirmish mode and an offline multiplayer battle mode for up to four players are also included, with 35 skirmish and multiplayer battle maps and bonus ships not available in story mode.
Reception
WiiWare World rated the game 5 out of 10, describing it as a "mixed bag" and finding the single-player mode repetitive and short with little challenge. They noted a general lack of music and frequent pop-up messages that disrupt gameplay, but considered the multiplayer battle mode "relatively decent," though they thought it would have benefited from online play. IGN gave it a 4.7 out of 10, stating the game "looks good and holds promise" but suggesting rushed development and sloppy design; they agreed the single player was boring and unchallenging, and found the multiplayer mode a "waste of time" with fewer than four players. Eurogamer gave it a 6 out of 10, calling the game "a bit shallow" with a counter-intuitive control system and a "very finite shelf life." N-Europe criticized the game as short and overpriced, but noted some extra life in multiplayer, awarding it a 5 out of 10.
More in Wii Game Library of the 2000s
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