Pirate Pop Plus

Genre: Arcade

Players: 1

.

Review:

Pirate Pop Plus is an Arcade-style game originally released on the PC, 3DS and Wii U in 2016 and ported to the Nintendo Switch in 2018. This is a game that takes the gameplay of the classic Buster Bros./Pang series, adds a gravity-defying twist, and gives everything a retro presentation styled to look like a game on the original Game Boy.

The presentation here may not appeal to everyone, but I give it credit for diving head-first into what it attempts to do here. This game’s four-color pixel art visuals and chiptune soundtrack perfectly capture that old-school Game Boy feel, and the game even uses a frame that imitates the look of a Game Boy-style device, complete with D-Pad and “Action” button that move in response to your inputs. What’s more, players can unlock different skins for each of these elements – different face plates, buttons, screen colors, and so on. For what amounts to a very simple game with a very simple presentation, this is a fun way to add in variety while remaining true to that simplicity.

As for that gameplay… well, like I said, this is pretty simple. Like the old Buster Bros. games I mentioned before, you’re moving a character around a single screen, dodging bubbles and busting them with a grappling hook. This game throws in a few unique elements such as shifting gravity and various power-ups, but at its heart it’s a pretty simple and straightforward experience. For $5, this is a little on the high end of what you might expect to pay for a game this simplistic, but it’s not to the point I’d call it overpriced.

There’s really not too much to say about Pirate Pop Plus beyond that. It doesn’t really set its sights too high in terms of presentation or gameplay, but what it aims to do, it does well. If you’re looking for a fun, simple, Arcade-style game with a retro presentation, Pirate Pop Plus should satisfy you. Just don’t expect it to satisfy for especially long, as it’s repetitive and… well, simple. Still, for what it is, this is a solid distraction.

tl;dr – Pirate Pop Plus is a Buster Bros/Pang-style Arcade game with a retro Game Boy-style presentation. It’s simple and repetitive, but a fun distraction for a little while.

Grade: C+

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}