2o2p Game Review | Scurvy Scallywags

Ron Gilbert (Maniac Mansion, DeathSpank and The Cave) and Clayton Kouzlaric (Voodoo Vince and DeathSpank) teamed up to bring a new dose of their signature humourous gameplay magic to gamers in the form of the iOS game Scurvy Scallywags (an Android version will soon follow). As the name implies, there are pirates involved....and goblins, and skeletons, and giant crab monsters and any number of other elements that illustrate that this game is a beast unto its own.

 

First Impressions

At first glance the game appears to be nothing more than another Bejeweled clone with some collection elements added to support the story of the production of a pirate-themed play. However, Messrs. Gilbert and Kouzlaric aren’t known for developing straightforward games that are easy to categorize. Here they take bits of fruit from several genres of games and blend them all together into a refreshing smoothie. Unfortunately their blender seems to be on the fritz, because this smoothie has quite a few lumps. The game is far from bad, it just suffers from the same problems as most of the match three/collection games, with a few new ones all its own thrown in for good measure.



Gameplay

You play the star of an opening night play telling the story of two pirates vying for possession of the ultimate pirate sea shanty. As you sail from port to port, solving multiple puzzles in each, you collect pieces of the shanty. To beat the puzzles, you must eliminate groups of cutlasses to increase your character’s attack power so you can defeat the enemies that appear on the puzzle field. Throughout the game you are also given side quests to collect items needed for the play (rolls of tickets, bandages, etc.) and reward you with experience points and attribute buffing gear. Collecting items is accomplished by moving your character across the puzzle. Each puzzle mixes together elements of puzzle solving, item collecting, RPG character management and battle strategy. It just becomes too much in the later levels. You find yourself desperately trying to steer your character to a quest item while avoiding the three enemies on the puzzle field because their attacks are all still twenty points higher than yours and there are no power-up matches available. You begin to find yourself having less fun while looking for a good reason to keep playing, and that is the sign that a game has lost you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1NkxsNJ3xQ

 

Final Verdict

While the game is entertaining, and very funny at times (as is expected considering it’s creators), it just didn’t hold up for me after the first several levels. It felt like I was being given busy work to keep me occupied, and that isn’t what I look for in a game experience. Your experience may differ, especially if you are more of a puzzle fan than I am, but the novelty just seems to wear off a little too soon to hold attention through to the game’s end.

 

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