; width: 100%; height: 500px; background-color: #000; }

Word Pirate Review

Rating:

Literacy ahoy! Word Pirate takes fun word games, think Text Twist, and thrusts into straight into the middle of the pirate age of the Caribbean. Thoughtful, terribly fun. Another quality release from Moonpod Games.

Additional Info

DeveloperMoonpod Games
GenreRPG, Word Game
PlatformsWindows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7
EngineUnknown
Filesize42 MB
Webpagehttp://www.moonpod.com/English/about_wordpirate.php

Full Review

Moonpod have made some fantastic games in the past so it is not surprising that they took a game that sounds like something you might find on Facebook and made it a rich, original, and irresistibly fun release. To be quite honest, when I first learned of Word Pirate I wasn't expecting much but at the time of this review I have put in a good 4 hours or so and am continually drawn back in. The game works so well because, like the comparable game Puzzle Quest, it takes a strong, central game mechanic and wraps it in a fun setting, involving story, and injects it with the character progression of a role-playing game. The combination is an easy hook.

If Puzzle Quest made Bejeweled into an RPG, then Word Pirate does the same for Text Twist. The main gameplay element is ship-to-ship combat done via a grid of nine letters that you must make into words. It is very much like Text Twist in that it does not accept proper nouns, but does accept some odd words that will have you paying a visit to dictionary.com. Modern pirate jokes make their way into the game as well, and one of your bonus attacks is fueled by typing pirate sounding words in.It's like a game of Scrabble with cannons and salty sea dogs.

As you, Captain Lucy, uncover the wicked plot to besmirch your family's name and otherwise carouse the Caribbean, annihilating any lowly bilge rats in your way, you gain levels and unlock new abilities to help you in your mission. These abilities range from locking out an opponents letter to attack bonuses. Like any proper RPG, leveling up also gets you points to apply to three stats: repair, damage, and defense. Some may cry fowl on the lack of depth in customization, but the brilliance of the system does plenty without over complicating an otherwise fundamentally simple game. To go too heavy in that direction would detract from the main showcase (the word game) and alienate a casual audience.

The story is enough to keep you engaged (though the pirate font gets wearisome), the hand drawn graphics appropriate. Each new port you find comes complete with an actual, historical description and a photograph to show you the real place. It's this kind of extra perk that shows the workmanship put into the game and sends it soaring above your expectations. Play this game now.

Posted by Derek Kamal on June 05, 2010 Comments (0)