Pirates! (NES, 1991)
Graphics-6.5 Sound-7 Control-6.5 Challenge-6.5/7* Story-6
Level Design-7/6* Frustration-7.5/9* Fun-7/6* Originality-9
Overall Score-7
*Adventurer/Medium
+
Pirate sim/Open world RPG gameplay (very complex for its time and creates a great sense of adventure)
17th century central american setting
Character creation (nationality (english, french, dutch or spanish; affects starting resources), surname, starting proficiency (fencing, navigation, gunnery, wit and charm or medicine; basically means the difficulty will be one setting lower for gameplay related to that skill?))
Time period and difficulty options (four levels (defaults to easiest) and six periods (1560, 1600, 1620, 1640, 1660 - default/"no, thanks" choice, 1680))
Hybrid gameplay with interesting mechanics (can capture colonies/towns for your nation, basic reputation (affects how easily you can sneak into a town and the final score) and allegiances, can control a fleet of up to 8 ships at once (increases crew and carry capacity), basic diplomacy, can take famous pirates and pirate hunters as hostages (it's better to ask hunters about the silver train/treasure fleet though), dueling (pick from three different swords before each one, high and low attacks, blocking, strong and normal attack, your performance affects the morale of your and the enemy's troops), sailing with wind effects, crew morale outside of battle (affected by: gold amount per member, food, how much plundering you do, digging for treasure/searching for a family member/walking/sailing (avoid if you can), ), attack towns from sea or land and attack ships (destroy or board them and duel the captain), work for governors (missions like letter deliveries or aiding in war on another nation), insert new governors, court governor's daughters, get married (either marrying or becoming friends with a governor's daughter makes them a spy for you - helps locate wealthy towns (spanish towns affected by the silver train or treasure fleet), achieve a better rank, search for treasure (can buy pieces of treasure maps - each piece gives additional (randomized) info to the previous one until you find the current treasure OR info on a new location meaning the same treasure can change location (I think) - same with family members?), sneak into enemy towns, visit taverns for certain random events, trade (ships, goods and sugar, cannons, food)), save feature (8 slots, shows year/location/money, can only save in town)
Pretty nice animated cutscenes during encounters and events (small pics though)
Ship's log/quest log (shows who's at war with who, missions and potentially interesting findings) - a bit sparse on mission info though Can hold down the button to move all squads/parties during land battles
Side quest (reunite your scattered and kidnapped family)
Pretty good writing for the time
Living world - towns/colonies grow and shrink and/or change on their own during the course of a game (wealth, population (below 600 means they lose their governor), soldiers; towns can change governor and nationality as well, lower status colonies buy and sell at lower prices)
Basic character building (can only increase rank which affects which wife you can take and your final score)
Can manually choose when to quit/retire or advance to the next difficulty level (the higher the difficulty level the more of the cut when dividing the plunder is given to you, can cancel retirement after picking it)
Can flee from a duel (heavily affects reputation and morale though) and ship+land combat (doesn't affect reputation but usually decreases gold rewards from repeated attempts at attacking a town since its inhabitants will hide some of it)
Scrolling while sailing on the overworld in this version
Terrain effects in land battles (cover and movement speed)
Can hold one separate title per nation at once in a game (gives a higher final score)
9 ship types (different top speeds, optimal sailing angle(s), max cannons and crew, cargo space, reef avoidance level, time period in which it appears, maneuverability, gold value)
Multiple endings (minor story differences between each but there are 22 different artworks to see depending on your final rank)
+/-
Hunger mechanic
Carry capacity mechanic (max cargo space for each item is 255 so there's a point where additional ships won't matter, max gold is always 655350)
Personal health and aging mechanics (health eventually decides if you can continue playing or not after dividing the plunder, can be injured up to 9 times before age 34 before the game forces you into retirement, can't continue your career after dividing the plunder if you are 34+ years old (your health will become poor at 34 regardless of injuries), only injuries affect the final score)
Different music (pretty decent and a tavern track was added but the game is still mostly quiet)
Can't pick starting age
Can't specifically choose to recruit men at taverns (it's a random event)
Can't increase other proficiencies during the game, duels can go on for a very long time if neither character gains the upper hand by hitting the other repeatedly (there doesn't seem to be a set HP stat)
Can't play as a non-European
Easier to sneak into a town from land than from sea
The evil nobles can travel around (if the one you were searching for does you can get info on his whereabouts at the tavern)
A town changing governor has less of an effect in this version
A ship's value always stays the same as long it's undamaged (same with repair value at each damage level though costs vary depending on the ship type)
Richer spanish towns are less likely to trade with you (spanish trade law)
Can't kidnap or kill governors
Sun sight mechanic (used to determine your current coordinates but only the latitude can be measured (wait until the sun is at its highest then move the sun sight directly under the sun and move the sun sight's platform up until the sun just touches the platform) on difficulties above apprentice/easiest/default) - interesting feature but pretty much unnecessary if you use an external map
Crew number affects cannon reloading rather than number of cannons (which only affects damage per shot)
Random ship encounters while at sea (can choose to sail away immediately)
Merchants magically replenish all their money at the beginning of each month (dividing the plunder tactic: as long as you do not board your ship an unhappy or angry crew can't desert you and take money with them)
Can be rewarded with land but it's only used for the final score
You can actually find the Incan treasure four times (save and reload before searching for a family member to get a better map piece from that member and then collect the treasure before finding the next family member)
Can't lose land or titles
Can't fire crew members
Can't destroy forts?
The wind has much more of an effect on journeyman/easy and above (makes your ship change course suddenly and severely – the effect is caused by the clouds but their area of effect is huge and they tend to come clumped together making them hard to avoid)
Treasure is sometimes placed in the same spot twice during one game
Increasing your crew size quickly makes your crew angry on medium difficulty
-
Can't leave one or more ships at a friendly town
Too frustrating on Adventurer/medium and above (the wind blows from the east too much (realistic but annoying) and takes away control from the ship too much (only on Swashbuckler/hard if you picked Navigation proficiency but you can't change when switching difficulty level), the crew is too hard to please as well (not even finding the incan treasure makes an angry crew happy), quest info is often outdated once you get to the relevant location due to sailing taking so long)
Can't buy ships at any town
No world map (not even in the manual) and the cities menu doesn't show coordinates (you do get some directions early on at least)
Trial & error (a governor who you've received a mission from automatically fails you if you return without having completed it, you only get to keep the highest listed ship in your fleet and some crew+food after dividing the plunder and choosing to continue playing (goods and sugar are lost), kidnapped hunters have a chance of escaping every time you visit a colony, despite what the governor says you don't have to capture the colony for the governor's nation during a rescue mission, can't ask what about the details of a governor's mission before accepting or declining, having attacked a town and won doesn't mean you can walk into that town from land or sail into it normally, if you attempt to sail into an enemy town your ship either sinks immediately or you lose some crew members from their attacks (at least you wash ashore instead of dying if all ships are lost), you'll need a manual or guide to play it properly, confusing land battles)
Some control/interface issues (no "take all" or "take max" option when plundering, can't see your current ship speed outside of battle, need the manual for ship stats and some aren't even shown there, the quest log is limited to 23 entries only, a rescued governor's son won't show up on the Party Status menu, auto-disembark the ship if you move close to land, can't immediately see the carry capacity effect of selling a ship - need to go into the wares menu, sometimes inconsistent menu controls, menus are a bit slow and don't wrap around, very sluggish duel controls, very slow sailing (a bit slower than on Amiga, no fast travel) and sea battles, slow movement on land and in land battles, usually can't turn your ship around quickly)
Very time consuming in general
Some cheap random events (evil noble locations are randomized and can end up far away and/or at a well defended colony - save before taking a mission to prevent this, falling asleep/becoming a drunk from visiting a tavern too much and losing your crew+fleet+wasting several months and then restarting at a random colony/town)
Pretty much impossible to complete some quests without scouring the entire map
Somewhat ugly duel and land battle graphics and sometimes odd color choices for artwork pics and certain menus
No "command a famous expedition" option in this version
Can't pick sword type at the beginning of the game in this version
Less varied overworld graphics than on Amiga
Gunnery isn't very useful in this version
Annoying how you end up with the crew on land right outside of town after attacking by sea and winning
A bit repetitive
Can't capture a town without a mission to do so or if it's <600 pop? (end up with the crew on land right outside of town after attacking by sea and winning, attacking from land and draining the town of all defenses then dragging out the sword duel until there's just one guy doesn't seem to work either)
Your father looks the same as your uncle and your sisters looks the same as your mother
Can’t play peacefully because your crew gets pissed if you don’t loot
Bugs:
-It should be noted that it is sometimes possible to receive a Letter of Marque from a nation you have never had contact with if you happen to fight against a nation they are at war with. This is likely a glitch.
-Can't lose crew when choosing to march into town in this version.
-Morale Glitch: If your captain manages to make it to 40 years of age, your crew will always be "Happy".
-The notification that the Treasure Fleet is in Florida Channel serves no purpose in the NES version – and in some other versions. In some versions of the game it is possible to capture the Treasure Fleet in a random ship encounter in the area between the Bahamas and the East coast of Florida, at the appropriate time.
Level Design-7/6* Frustration-7.5/9* Fun-7/6* Originality-9
Overall Score-7
*Adventurer/Medium
+
Pirate sim/Open world RPG gameplay (very complex for its time and creates a great sense of adventure)
17th century central american setting
Character creation (nationality (english, french, dutch or spanish; affects starting resources), surname, starting proficiency (fencing, navigation, gunnery, wit and charm or medicine; basically means the difficulty will be one setting lower for gameplay related to that skill?))
Time period and difficulty options (four levels (defaults to easiest) and six periods (1560, 1600, 1620, 1640, 1660 - default/"no, thanks" choice, 1680))
Hybrid gameplay with interesting mechanics (can capture colonies/towns for your nation, basic reputation (affects how easily you can sneak into a town and the final score) and allegiances, can control a fleet of up to 8 ships at once (increases crew and carry capacity), basic diplomacy, can take famous pirates and pirate hunters as hostages (it's better to ask hunters about the silver train/treasure fleet though), dueling (pick from three different swords before each one, high and low attacks, blocking, strong and normal attack, your performance affects the morale of your and the enemy's troops), sailing with wind effects, crew morale outside of battle (affected by: gold amount per member, food, how much plundering you do, digging for treasure/searching for a family member/walking/sailing (avoid if you can), ), attack towns from sea or land and attack ships (destroy or board them and duel the captain), work for governors (missions like letter deliveries or aiding in war on another nation), insert new governors, court governor's daughters, get married (either marrying or becoming friends with a governor's daughter makes them a spy for you - helps locate wealthy towns (spanish towns affected by the silver train or treasure fleet), achieve a better rank, search for treasure (can buy pieces of treasure maps - each piece gives additional (randomized) info to the previous one until you find the current treasure OR info on a new location meaning the same treasure can change location (I think) - same with family members?), sneak into enemy towns, visit taverns for certain random events, trade (ships, goods and sugar, cannons, food)), save feature (8 slots, shows year/location/money, can only save in town)
Pretty nice animated cutscenes during encounters and events (small pics though)
Ship's log/quest log (shows who's at war with who, missions and potentially interesting findings) - a bit sparse on mission info though Can hold down the button to move all squads/parties during land battles
Side quest (reunite your scattered and kidnapped family)
Pretty good writing for the time
Living world - towns/colonies grow and shrink and/or change on their own during the course of a game (wealth, population (below 600 means they lose their governor), soldiers; towns can change governor and nationality as well, lower status colonies buy and sell at lower prices)
Basic character building (can only increase rank which affects which wife you can take and your final score)
Can manually choose when to quit/retire or advance to the next difficulty level (the higher the difficulty level the more of the cut when dividing the plunder is given to you, can cancel retirement after picking it)
Can flee from a duel (heavily affects reputation and morale though) and ship+land combat (doesn't affect reputation but usually decreases gold rewards from repeated attempts at attacking a town since its inhabitants will hide some of it)
Scrolling while sailing on the overworld in this version
Terrain effects in land battles (cover and movement speed)
Can hold one separate title per nation at once in a game (gives a higher final score)
9 ship types (different top speeds, optimal sailing angle(s), max cannons and crew, cargo space, reef avoidance level, time period in which it appears, maneuverability, gold value)
Multiple endings (minor story differences between each but there are 22 different artworks to see depending on your final rank)
+/-
Hunger mechanic
Carry capacity mechanic (max cargo space for each item is 255 so there's a point where additional ships won't matter, max gold is always 655350)
Personal health and aging mechanics (health eventually decides if you can continue playing or not after dividing the plunder, can be injured up to 9 times before age 34 before the game forces you into retirement, can't continue your career after dividing the plunder if you are 34+ years old (your health will become poor at 34 regardless of injuries), only injuries affect the final score)
Different music (pretty decent and a tavern track was added but the game is still mostly quiet)
Can't pick starting age
Can't specifically choose to recruit men at taverns (it's a random event)
Can't increase other proficiencies during the game, duels can go on for a very long time if neither character gains the upper hand by hitting the other repeatedly (there doesn't seem to be a set HP stat)
Can't play as a non-European
Easier to sneak into a town from land than from sea
The evil nobles can travel around (if the one you were searching for does you can get info on his whereabouts at the tavern)
A town changing governor has less of an effect in this version
A ship's value always stays the same as long it's undamaged (same with repair value at each damage level though costs vary depending on the ship type)
Richer spanish towns are less likely to trade with you (spanish trade law)
Can't kidnap or kill governors
Sun sight mechanic (used to determine your current coordinates but only the latitude can be measured (wait until the sun is at its highest then move the sun sight directly under the sun and move the sun sight's platform up until the sun just touches the platform) on difficulties above apprentice/easiest/default) - interesting feature but pretty much unnecessary if you use an external map
Crew number affects cannon reloading rather than number of cannons (which only affects damage per shot)
Random ship encounters while at sea (can choose to sail away immediately)
Merchants magically replenish all their money at the beginning of each month (dividing the plunder tactic: as long as you do not board your ship an unhappy or angry crew can't desert you and take money with them)
Can be rewarded with land but it's only used for the final score
You can actually find the Incan treasure four times (save and reload before searching for a family member to get a better map piece from that member and then collect the treasure before finding the next family member)
Can't lose land or titles
Can't fire crew members
Can't destroy forts?
The wind has much more of an effect on journeyman/easy and above (makes your ship change course suddenly and severely – the effect is caused by the clouds but their area of effect is huge and they tend to come clumped together making them hard to avoid)
Treasure is sometimes placed in the same spot twice during one game
Increasing your crew size quickly makes your crew angry on medium difficulty
-
Can't leave one or more ships at a friendly town
Too frustrating on Adventurer/medium and above (the wind blows from the east too much (realistic but annoying) and takes away control from the ship too much (only on Swashbuckler/hard if you picked Navigation proficiency but you can't change when switching difficulty level), the crew is too hard to please as well (not even finding the incan treasure makes an angry crew happy), quest info is often outdated once you get to the relevant location due to sailing taking so long)
Can't buy ships at any town
No world map (not even in the manual) and the cities menu doesn't show coordinates (you do get some directions early on at least)
Trial & error (a governor who you've received a mission from automatically fails you if you return without having completed it, you only get to keep the highest listed ship in your fleet and some crew+food after dividing the plunder and choosing to continue playing (goods and sugar are lost), kidnapped hunters have a chance of escaping every time you visit a colony, despite what the governor says you don't have to capture the colony for the governor's nation during a rescue mission, can't ask what about the details of a governor's mission before accepting or declining, having attacked a town and won doesn't mean you can walk into that town from land or sail into it normally, if you attempt to sail into an enemy town your ship either sinks immediately or you lose some crew members from their attacks (at least you wash ashore instead of dying if all ships are lost), you'll need a manual or guide to play it properly, confusing land battles)
Some control/interface issues (no "take all" or "take max" option when plundering, can't see your current ship speed outside of battle, need the manual for ship stats and some aren't even shown there, the quest log is limited to 23 entries only, a rescued governor's son won't show up on the Party Status menu, auto-disembark the ship if you move close to land, can't immediately see the carry capacity effect of selling a ship - need to go into the wares menu, sometimes inconsistent menu controls, menus are a bit slow and don't wrap around, very sluggish duel controls, very slow sailing (a bit slower than on Amiga, no fast travel) and sea battles, slow movement on land and in land battles, usually can't turn your ship around quickly)
Very time consuming in general
Some cheap random events (evil noble locations are randomized and can end up far away and/or at a well defended colony - save before taking a mission to prevent this, falling asleep/becoming a drunk from visiting a tavern too much and losing your crew+fleet+wasting several months and then restarting at a random colony/town)
Pretty much impossible to complete some quests without scouring the entire map
Somewhat ugly duel and land battle graphics and sometimes odd color choices for artwork pics and certain menus
No "command a famous expedition" option in this version
Can't pick sword type at the beginning of the game in this version
Less varied overworld graphics than on Amiga
Gunnery isn't very useful in this version
Annoying how you end up with the crew on land right outside of town after attacking by sea and winning
A bit repetitive
Can't capture a town without a mission to do so or if it's <600 pop? (end up with the crew on land right outside of town after attacking by sea and winning, attacking from land and draining the town of all defenses then dragging out the sword duel until there's just one guy doesn't seem to work either)
Your father looks the same as your uncle and your sisters looks the same as your mother
Can’t play peacefully because your crew gets pissed if you don’t loot
Bugs:
-It should be noted that it is sometimes possible to receive a Letter of Marque from a nation you have never had contact with if you happen to fight against a nation they are at war with. This is likely a glitch.
-Can't lose crew when choosing to march into town in this version.
-Morale Glitch: If your captain manages to make it to 40 years of age, your crew will always be "Happy".
-The notification that the Treasure Fleet is in Florida Channel serves no purpose in the NES version – and in some other versions. In some versions of the game it is possible to capture the Treasure Fleet in a random ship encounter in the area between the Bahamas and the East coast of Florida, at the appropriate time.