Pirate's Mind - Review - Florence Sontoort

Puzzle games are a great fit for mobile gaming. They're playable in short bursts and appeal to a wide audience. They're as well very like shooting fish in a barrel to create, as every seemingly Indie developer and his blood brother has at least a couple of the Market place. Programmer M80 games' Pirate's Listen manages to stand up out from the oversupply thanks to its unique game play and high-quality presentation.

Pirates are a greedy sort, spending much of their time thinking about treasure. Then a pirate themed puzzle game must naturally revolve effectually collecting money. In Pirate'south Listen, the playing field consists of 30 coins. Every coin'south back looks identical, simply there are actually 3 kinds of coins to friction match: bronze, silverish, and gold. Matching coins works kind of similar the card game Retention in that after flipping two coins, if they aren't a match, those two coins will still be in the same place. So yous can flip a new, random money and endeavour to lucifer it with the ones you've already seen.

Larn more of Pirate's Heed's secrets after the bound.

Pirate's chains

In Pirate's Heed, you lot're not trying to just lucifer pairs. You lot can continue matching more of the same coin until you flip 1 that doesn't match. Thus it's possible to make chains of 8 or more than, earning huge score bonuses. After a chain ends, new coins fall in to supervene upon the quondam ones. The game is even generous plenty to give a quick peek at the new coins, steering the thespian in the right direction for the adjacent motion.

Information technology's Pirate Time

The challenge in Pirate'southward Listen comes not simply from noticing and remembering coin locations, but also from fourth dimension. The timer starts counting down from three minutes. If the player flips two coins and fails brand a match, two seconds vanish from the timer. A unmarried green coin too rests on the playfield, not hidden like the others. Flipping this money subtracts five seconds from the timer but briefly reveals the identities of every other money in play. Clearly there are plenty ways to lose fourth dimension, but the reverse also holds true. Matching silver and gold coins not simply adds points to the score, it besides adds to the timer. Thus information technology's possible (and extremely likely) to play for way longer than the initial three minutes you start with. Y'all can continue pretty much forever if you're practiced at finding precious silvery and gold.

Ship-shape presentation

Pirate's Listen looks almost as skillful as a PopCap puzzle game. The professional-looking logo and championship screen instill confidence from the start. During game play, the coins in the foreground look abrupt. Backside them, animated fish swim around in an ocean backdrop. Earning combos feels special thanks to well-called sound and visual effects. There are two dissimilar tunes - one for the title screen and another during game play - and both raise the experience rather than detract from it.

Pirate'southward curse

The merely surface area where Pirate's Listen really needs comeback is game modes. While the basic gameplay is both simple and fun, there really needs to be a split up mode with a short fourth dimension limit and no fashion to earn more time. That would work meliorate as a mobile experience, since currently games tin run pretty long. It would as well create a ameliorate sense of tension and add some variety. All the best pirates know that variety is almost as effective at warding off scurvy equally Vitamin C. Thankfully, a new mode is coming in a future update.

Pirate versus pirate… It'due south only a thing of time

Pirate's Mind is a score-based game, and then naturally it's got a local leaderboard. Here's the part where I wish for an online leaderboard. Wish! The practiced news is M80 Games plans to add together online features when Scoreloop launches on Windows Phone 7 later this year. This will give the game online leaderboards and access to a friends list, which will really inspire competition.

Overall impression

Pirate's Mind is a very promising puzzle game for Windows Phone 7. The cantankerous betwixt a Bejeweled-fashion puzzler and a memory carte game works surprisingly well. The attractive presentation and pirate theme make the game stand out also. The hope of OpenFeint back up (and hopefully another game play mode or 2) will give Pirate's Mind some long sea legs.

Pirate's Mind costs 99 cents on the Marketplace. There is no trial, arrrrr. Scoop information technology up here (Zune link) on the Market.

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