LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean

Genre: 3D Action-Platformer

Players: 1, StreetPass Supported

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Review:

LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean is a family-friendly 3D Action-Platformer released in 2011 on the PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360, and Wii, with versions also released on Nintendo DS and on Nintendo 3DS in 2011. This game brings us levels and characters from the first four Pirates of the Caribbean games, all filtered through LEGO’s unique blocky style and quirky sense of humor.

As the second LEGO game on Nintendo 3DS, LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean isn’t quite as much of a showpiece as its predecessor, with its 3D visuals scaling back on the nice lighting and shadow (mostly limited to moonlit scenes now) and not having as much happening on-screen at any given time. The sounds once again feature mostly non-linguistic grunts and yelps along with sword swishes and cannon booms, all backed by music from the films. On this last note I feel extremely conflicted – I love the Pirates of the Caribbean films’ musical score, but having its central themes looped endlessly really detracted from my enthusiasm for them.

And when it comes to the gameplay, you once again have the standard Traveller’s Tales’ LEGO game formula mostly unchanged here, though now it’s joined by extra elements – there are sections where you must bring a dog a bone to control the animal and have it dig up or fetch something the human characters can’t get to, there are new sword duels that play like “Quick Time Event” sequences where you tap buttons when it tells you to, and there are underwater sequences where you have to manage your air while you explore. I do not believe that any of these new elements brings anything particularly great to the table, and in fact these are mostly more of an annoyance than a fun change of pace.

At the very least, the Nintendo 3DS version of the game once again lets players quickly swap characters by tapping L&R, and unlike console games in the series, this just transforms your character rather than having these other characters trailing behind you in the environment (a setup I find to be preferable). However, on the downside the Nintendo 3DS version once again has some issues with the camera, issues aiming ranged weapons, and the biggest issue, a lack of the LEGO franchise’s central multiplayer gameplay.

I feel like the elements that were added in LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean came across as Traveller’s Tales understanding that their LEGO formula was getting a bit long in the tooth by this point, but not really knowing what else to do with it. As a result, they’re flailing around with a bunch of new gameplay elements that detract from the fun more than they add to the experience, and with the Nintendo 3DS version once again lacking the heart and soul of the series. As a result, this feels like a misstep in the series at a time when it needed to right the ship. It’s still an enjoyable game, but it’s far from the heights the series once was.

tl;dr – LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean adds a few new elements to the well-worn Traveller’s Tales family-friendly LEGO game formula, but these elements fail to add anything of value to the franchise, and meanwhile the lack of multiplayer in this version makes for even more disappointment. There’s still an enjoyable game underneath the growing list of issues here, but this feels like a misstep in the series.

Grade: C-

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