Lego Pirates of the Caribbean (PS3) review

Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Batman, and Harry Potter.  If asked what all of these popular IP’s have in common, one who was in the know might well answer “Lego licensed video games!”  That person would be quite correct, in following, to point out that Pirates of the Caribbean has joined the ranks of the block people.  That person might not even be amiss in saying that the Pirates have managed to star in the best “Lego (insert license here)” video game to date.

Lego Pirates of the Caribbean follows the stories of all four movies in the series as of this writing; which is to say The Curse of the Black Pearl, Dead Man’s Chest, At World’s End, and On Stranger Tides.  If you’ve ever played a Lego (license) game before, you know the basics to expect: Adventure-platforming, mild puzzles, drop-in drop-out co-op, simple controls, and of course, collectables galore.  Why drop a perfectly good formula now when you can merely tweak it for better results?

One of these tweaks has been to simplify.  Unlike Lego Star Wars III with its three level types, Lego Pirates has only the one: standard adventure-platforming levels.  It is here that the Ships in a Bottle (Minikits) are hidden, though you won’t be able to get the vast majority of them on Story Mode.  In typical Lego style, different characters have different abilities, and you’ll need to play Free Play mode to bring in characters that can access side areas.  Aside from these levels, you also get a hub level at port.  It is here that you can unlock new characters, search for Red Hats (Power Bricks), and ride your cute little completed Ships in Bottles around in the water.

So if everything’s pretty much status quo, what makes this game particularly good in the series?  For one thing, the decision to NOT include vehicle levels; I was never really a fan of those, and a Lego game that forgoes them altogether is all right in my book.  This game also adds a helpful little feature for switching characters: in Story mode, you can hold the Triangle button down to bring up a wheel containing all of your currently available characters.  This makes switching to the one you need easier than ever before.  In Free Play mode, holding Triangle brings up the entire list of characters, so you can change to whomever you want mid-game!  It’s a relatively small touch, but much appreciated nonetheless.

The weirder the character, the better a Lego he makes. So naturally Captain Jack Sparrow is the best of the best.

Where this game shines most is really the story.  Lego game cutscenes have always focused on humorous pantomime, and there’s certainly no exception here.  The ante is raised with a cut-out art style used to represent flashbacks as they’re explained by characters.  This helps the viewer to understand the plot even though the Lego characters aren’t even saying a word, while keeping the laughs coming.

Content:

Lego Pirates of the Caribbean is rated E10+ by the ESRB for Cartoon Violence and Comic Mischief.  This basically amounts to nothing more objectionable than you’d get from a standard old-school Saturday morning cartoon, making this a game for all ages.

Conclusion:

Lego Pirates of the Caribbean sticks to the long-standing formula with mild improvements in both adding and removing features.  The visuals remain what you’d expect for a Lego game, as does the audio.  I personally found the Pirates music and scenery a nice change from some of the other environments and licenses from previous Lego games.  At the end of the day, I simply had more fun with Lego Pirates than with any other Lego game in my memory.  It’s definitely a must-play for Lego fans, Pirates fans, and anyone just looking for a fun, simple game.

Note:  This review was written based on the PS3 version of the game.  The Xbox 360, PC, and Wii versions should, to the best of my knowledge, be comparable.  The DS, 3DS, and PSP versions, on the other hand, are actually different games and this review does not stand for them.