Monkey Pirates

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6.5 Overall Score
Gameplay: 8/10
Graphics: 6/10
Sound : 7/10

Good Multiplayer Fun | Nice Character Design

Lacking Single-Player Experience | No Online

Game Info

GAME NAME: Monkey Pirates

DEVELOPER(S): Henchmen Studio

PUBLISHER(S): Henchmen Studio

PLATFORM(S): Nintendo Wii U

GENRE(S): Party

RELEASE DATE(S): June 26th, 2014

In keeping the tradition of bring local multiplayer games to the Wii U (I wish they would get online already), Henchmen Studios brings a frantic 4 player party game to the eShop in the form of Monkey Pirates.  While other multiplayer games like Bombing Bastards and Spin the Bottle were pretty fun affairs, does Monkey Pirates hold up or is it left adrift.

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There is no real back story or single player mode to Monkey Pirates.  The single player experience is done through a tutorial to show you the ropes of controlling your ship and what the power-ups do and also through challenges to help refine your craft.  The tutorial looks super overwhelming at first but as you start actually controlling the ship it isn’t as bad as it looks.  I like the different Monkey captain characters you can choose from.  They have a nice cel-shaded art style and look like they would belong in a cartoon you would watch on TV.

Controls of the ship are very basic.  You use the left thumbstick to steer the ship left or right and the wind will determine your speed.  There is a small circle around your ship that ranges in color (red means stop, green means go) that will determine how fast you will go depending on which direction you are currently facing.  The B button turns your ship on a pivot and the A will fire your cannons or any other weapon power-ups you have collected.

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Multiplayer is really what Monkey Pirates is build around.  There are three different modes of multiplayer that can be played.  The first, Classic Deathmatch, is exactly what it sounds like.  Up to four players can battle it out on 9 different maps to see who destroys the most opponents and gets destroyed the least.  There are prematch loadouts that can be added to your ship, such as the ability to bypass mines, extra powerful shots and many other similar abilities.  Also power-ups can be collected through out the match that will change weapon types, armor bonuses and effect the map.  My favorite my effect was the coconut drink which made the controls backwards and made you feel drunk!

The second mode is similar to a a capture the flag mode but is called Jolly Roger.  The person who controls the Jolly Roger is basically the person with the flag and must try to remain alive as the other competitors try to take him out and become the Jolly Roger themselves.  As the Jolly Roger you can not pick up power-ups which adds to the difficulty.  In the final mode, Banana Race, you must race around the levels to pick up barrels of bananas.  These modes are really only fun if you have 4 players battling it out and thankfully you can add bots to make sure there are never fewer then 4.

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The gamepad can be added as a 5th player, but this player is more like a God Mode and can change up the environments on the fly, but doesn’t actually get to join in on the fun.  There is also Off-screen play, but that is pretty standard at this point.

Graphically, Monkey Pirates has a nice toon-like feel, almost similar to Wind Waker but not as detailed.  It looks good in HD.  The sound track is very fitting for the type of game it is with island and pirate like themes.

The Recommendation

I would only recommend Monkey Pirates if you are going to be focused on playing the multiplayer aspects of the game.  The single player has very little content and is more of a tutorial for the multiplayer.  The lack of online really sets the game back from achieving a better recommendation as you will only be able to play it local.  It is very fun though when you do have 4 people in your living room blasting away at each other, to the point where you will lose track of time.  I look forward to see what Henchmen Studios comes up with next.

 

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Author: Anthony DeVirgilis View all posts by
Managing Partner / Editor for Sony/Nintendo I prefer Indies to AAA titles... unless it's Nintendo or Sony Google+ Author

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