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Half-filled chest

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 22 / 24
Date: July 06, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I've got to admit that I generally have low expectations of movie-adapted video games. They're often associated with rushed deadlines, broken gameplay, and a waste of time. So, when I received this copy of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest for the DS, I was dragging my fingers as I pushed the "on" trigger on my DS Lite. Five minutes into it, however, I was thinking, ok, this isn't as bad as I expected.

Yes, Pirates isn't a fantastic game. It's not even close to that. However, for a platform that's so lacking in a solid hack-and-slash action adventure (the last good one was Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrows), Pirates comes very close to filling that gap. It has all the ingredients for a classic: a smooth-frame-rate 3D engine; a reasonable menu of combos to execute; a host of weapons to use and enemies to defeat; three playable characters; and even a two player multiplayer feature. Unfortunately, the game's emphasis on having the player repeatedly fight through a wave of enemies, only to be greeted with another wave, ultimately makes the playing experience a little less enjoyable.

As mentioned, you'll get to play as three characters in this game, namely Jack Sparrow, Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann. If you've watched the Pirates of the Caribbean movie, these characters won't be strangers to you. The game (supposedly) takes you through the Dead Man's Chest movie story, as you control different characters through various levels. You won't feel much of a difference though, since the rather linear levels are mostly confined to repetitive hack-and-slash sequences, and the controls for each character are basically the same.

To its credit, the game does provide some alternatives in an attempt to reduce the boredom of mere button-mashing. Basic combo moves can be executed from the onset. As you progress, you'll pick up pieces of gems that will eventually unlock an advanced combo. Some of these special combos may include the ability to perform a powerful downward swipe, an audacious upper cut, and even a cheeky "punch `em in the eye" move. Some gems are easy to find, while others may take more effort, but that's why the word "exploration" was invented. Apart from these combos, each character also has a signature move that works like a "magical attack" in a RPG. These moves require the use of the character's "Savvy", which is like a typical "MP meter" that deteriorates once you perform such a move. You can, of course, replenish lost Savvy when you fight enemies. Although the execution of these moves can be quite awkward, it's really not a bad idea.

The game also throws in a fair amount of weapons for your disposal. You'll always have a primary weapon, but defeated enemies sometimes drop weapons (some very powerful) that you can pick up for use. Strangely, the game doesn't include an opportunity for you to wield two weapons at one time. Instead, this temporary weapon has a health bar that decreases as you use it. Once its "health" depletes, you'll automatically switch back to your primary weapon again. The concept is a little silly, since it feels rather restrictive when you can't wield your primary weapon once you pick up a secondary one. A Prince of Persia-style double-weapon combos would definitely increase the playability of this game. Nevertheless, the game does allow you to interact with the environment when fighting. This is usually done in the form of throwing, and the game has a lot of "throwable" items. These include crates, bottles, coconuts and even chickens (!). Throwing aside, you can even fire a cannon and watch the minions scream in pain - without doubt, one of my favorite moments of the game.

Pirates plays over two screen, but the main action happens actually on the top screen. The touch screen is used sparingly, usually to depict your quest's information like your gold and gems count. The touch screen also shows the on-screen dialogue when required, but seriously, I'd take a voice-over any day. It's a pity, really, because the sound effects of this game are quite good, and even includes some utterances of corny one-liners from the characters. I'm not entirely sure whether these are voiced by the respective artistes, but I think not. The tracks are a little weak in comparison, and comprise mostly of predictable action-style music that feels tired and recycled. The graphics, however, are a great advertisement for the DS, especially when blasted with the brightness of the DS Lite.

Like many games in the market now, Pirates boasts a wireless multiplayer mode. By "multi", I actually mean up to two (duh!) players. This feature allows the players to play through the entire story campaign as a team. The game also has three mini-games that have a very arcade feel to them. You can kind of expect what they're about, especially when one of them is titled "Shoot the Monkey". These mini-games are also available to play in the two-player mode. However, the game doesn't have a single card support, which means that, to play the co-op and challenge modes, both players must own a copy of the game. This may turn off some potential players.

In a nutshell, Pirates feels like a lost opportunity. It has several elements that can make a game great, but it doesn't explore these elements well enough. Nevertheless, it's still one of the better movie-adapted games out there right now. It doesn't exactly provide a swashbuckling experience, but it's adequate enough for a play through because an old-fashioned beat-`em-up is just so hard to find on the DS.

Fun for multiplayer

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: December 30, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Me and my brother got this game for christmas. We started playing and thought the game was really fun. The game is more fun if you play the multiplayer mode. The game starts out with the playable characters being Jack, Elizabeth, and Will, but as you collect gold coins and statues you can unlock playable characters such as the voodo doll, captain pirate, Norrington, Jack as tribal cheif, and many others. The best of these in my opinion is the captain pirate(He waddles like a penguin, but can beat a guy in 2 hits). The game takes less than 5 hours to beat ON NORMAL SETTING.The game follows the storyline of the movie pretty well but skips a few parts like how Will gets the key. I dont understand why they didnt make the Flying Dutchman a level . It would have made the game longer. You start out with a cutlass but as you collect coins you can buy weapons. The best weapon you can buy is the native blade.

Great game!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 8
Date: January 07, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I got this game at the end of October for my birthday and on a normal day-to-day bacis of school, homework (Way too much of it!), and other video games I have, I finished at the end of November. The graphics were really good and I liked being able to buy new weapons and characters and that sort of thing. But the fact is the game is way too short! You might as well just use the characters they give you on the level because you'll never use the characters. At least I didn't. I only bought one weapon which is the Native Blade and well that's all I needed. The boss levels were extremly easy, though I was playing Normal Level. The Mini Games were good but the only one I'd play again and agian is "Shoot the Money." Out of many fighting games there's no guts, blood, cussing (from what I remember but I seriously doubt there is any!) or anything sexual which is a Plus! Overall I liked it and I think you should get.

Not a Bad Game, but....

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: December 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game because I thought the movie was filled with the type of kick-butt action and adventure that I am usually drawn to. The game did incorporate this element fairly well, and I can not deny that I enjoyed it. However, I found that it was much too easy - I beat it in a mere two days. And while it follows the storyline of the movie quite well, I found that it left some areas in the gray, and also, it ended way too abruptly. So while it was fun, I did not really feel I got my money's worth out of it. You are much better off buying the PS2 or XBox version.

Very Fun but....

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 6
Date: July 18, 2006
Author: Amazon User

the game is a very fun game with some humor in the dialogues i love how you can unlock weapons,characters and pictures not to menton the music from the game and sounds from it the game itself is quite short but thats what i expect "nightmare" the ultimate diffulcultie (have to unlock) is for. i have seen the movie the game does have some parts from the movie that werent there (like the wheel scene i wanted to do that part) and the part where will and bootstrap play agianst davy jones in liar dice but overall i thought it was a pretty fun game

Some Treasures Aren't as Valuable as Others

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: July 20, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Movie tie-in video games have a little curse of their own. They're almost never all that great. Every now and then you come across some really good ones. Often, however, you come across mediocre games. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is right up that alley. In reality, the game shows true potential, but like a lot of movie tie-in games it doesn't quite go the distance it's capable of going. In the end, Dead Man's Chest comes off as a watered down hack and slash game, and that's really sad considering the potential this game really had.

As far as the story goes, the game really follows the movie quite well. Most of it plays out through storyboards however. One has to wonder that with the power of the Nintendo DS why voice acting could not be a part of these storyboards. Or even why some scenes couldn't be at least computer animated at most. It's a minor complaint, but again, this is what some movie tie-ins suffer from. This game doesn't make use of its full potential.

You play as one of three characters through Dead Man's Chest. Fighting Davy Jones crew, the cannibals and in some instances, the British. You'll either be Elizabeth Swann, Will Turner or Jack Sparrow (of course you'll be Jack Sparrow!). Each character plays similarly the same, but they each have their own special attacks. Elizabeth pulls out two swords, Will throws a series of Axes and Jack fires a shot from his pistol (a single powerful shot, mind you). However, these special abilities can only be used so many times. In the end what it really boils down to is another basic hack and slash game. The game takes a few measures of inserting instances and moments that weren't in the movie, and of course it's so there's more of a game to go around. As you play you'll have access to more powerful combos and attacks, but it really boils down to is that you won't really need them at all. As the formula for just about every hack and slash goes, you only need to hit the attack button. There's really not that much variety to the game. If the characters didn't have special attacks... they'd pretty much be the same. They might have a few sounds they make during battle, but again, it's disappointing that they didn't have any voices at all.

In addition to the hack and slash you'll also find plenty of weapons in crates. While your default cutlass is good enough, it's nice that there are a variety in weapons. They don't last long, though. Each time you grab a weapon you've got a gauge that shows you how "worn" the weapon is becoming. You can also pick up skulls and other objects and hurl them at your enemies. Still, you're probably better off mashing on the Y button.

As you go on your adventure you'll get gold that'll allow you to buy concept art, characters and costumes for your characters. There's not much else it's used for, and were it better spent on doing things like powering up weapons, or even buying better weapons, it might've added some variety to a game that feels dry a lot of the time.

There are also a couple of mini-games. It seems that every Nintendo DS game that comes out has to have some kind of use for the touch screen. Some games use it really well. Others it seems like a tag on. With Dead Man's Chest the touch screen use definitely feels tacked on. You'll use it to play a memory game where Jack walks the plank, or when Jack needs to shoot at the undead monkey, but avoid shooting and wounding fellow pirates. After a while these mini-games just become downright stale.

What really urks me about movie tie-in games is that a lot of the time the developers always stint out on the graphics to get the game out by the time the movie is released. A lot of movie tie-in games are full of bugs or the graphics are choppy. With Dead Man's Chest it's the latter of the two. There are a couple of bugs, but nothing too noticeable. Really, though, the graphics just look choppy and not nearly as detailed as the DS is capable of making them.

It often feels like the game was rushed to meet the release date of the film. The sword fighting grows repetative real fast, and there just isn't enough of a variety to the game. The biggest hit it takes is in gameplay, respectably. It starts off being a fun game to play, but in the end it does what a lot of movie tie-in games do: It fails to hold up to already fantastic games. Simply put, it's got nothing to differentiate itself from other hack and slash games just like it. It also fails to hold up competition to original DS titles that are grand. If you really enjoyed the movie, you might want to check this game out. Otherwise, it's nothing particularly special.

The Good
+You can play as Jack Sparrow

The Bad
-The gameplay gets repetative fast
-There's not a lot of variety to the gameplay
-Mini-games aren't fun
-The game doesn't use the full power and potential of the Nintendo DS... no voice acting or cutscenes... choppy graphics and that sort of thing

AWESOME MOVIE, HORRIBLE GAME!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 12
Date: November 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I am sorry for all the Dead Mans Chest fans that wasted money on this game. It has gameboy color graphics and if you like violence games, this is not one to get.I am only ten and it is not violent enough! The minigames are boring! And thats not all! During the entire gameplay you only play as Jack, Elizabeth, and Will. There are parts of the game that were not even in the movie! Make sure you see the movie before playing the game because the game would be a horrible first impression. I beg of you, no matter what the media says, do not fall into the same trap as me!

Sincerely,
Parker 100.

Hated the Movie, But the Game Isn't Bad!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: March 03, 2008
Author: Amazon User

It was fun to play. It is NOT the greatest game in the world, but I am not looking for breathtaking games. Just something to entertain me in my daily 10 minutes of free time.

The graphics are good, and the plotline makes sense.

In all, it is worth it for the price.

THE GAME EVERYONES WAITING FOR

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 16
Date: July 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN DEAD MANS CHEST ON DS is awesome. i never played these kind of games on the ds. i dont mean the ds games suck its just a change. on the ds this game is the best. the grafics are a bit sort then the psp grafics but they look pretty much the same. when i looked at it when i bot it i though this game look ok but when i played it it was awesome .when you see the picture of jack sparo on the box it doesnt mean you only play him you play william on the lord of the rings that was leguilis and the girl that was inloved with willam and i dont know who else because i just got it. if you like the movie get this and dont get the psp kind my friend had it and i got bored the ds kind is fun.

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