Simple 2000 Series Vol. 96 The Pirate

» Options in the game allow for toggling Sound (Mono/Stereo), Vibration (On/Off), and Tilt Effect (On/Off). The tilt effect refers to the motion of the ship when you're fighting on it.

» The game starts off with a view of a sea chart where players move a little ship around. As you enter new waters, other ships will appear and either attack or ignore you.

» Once a boarding commences, the hero is shown on the deck of the enemy ship as it tilts to and fro. Press "START" to pause the game and to check out a map of the ship. After moving around a bit, skeletons magically appear and attack en masse.

» Game Controls

SQUARE / Slash Attack
X-BUTTON / Jump
TRIANGLE / Special Slash Attack
L-ANALOG / Move
R-ANALOG / Dodge and roll
L1-TRIGGER / Center camera
R1-TRIGGER / Shoot

» Pressing the SQUARE button twice in quick succession instructs the Pirate to slash out a forward attack followed by a pirouette slash attack. There were times when pressing SQUARE twice made Pirate slash and then shoot but this doesn't happen all the time. NCS is unsure why. When skeletons are attacked, they'll fall back and shatter into bone pieces and a little pink soul leaves the crushed mass.

» Pirate may perform a jumping slash attack where he leaps over a crowd and strikes downward thrice with his standard slash attack. He may also leap over enemies and then perform his special slash attack to ignite a wave of fiery force at foes.

» The game is overly generous with bonus blue potions which are revealed when barrels and trunks are busted open. Grabbing a potion replenishes about 1/3 of the pirate's health meter.

» When attacking skeletons, little white orbs waft from their bodies. We're guessing that they represent bone fragments. Skeleton warriors are accompanied by a red-colored skeleton boss who throws out a red orb projectile which knocks a player back and chops off some health. At the end of the first skeleton boat, a big skeleton boss waits in the back of the ship. He's a wimp however since it takes a few seconds to draw back its sword before launching an attack which allows Pirate to shift out of the way.

» Some ships contain zombies which lumber around with sabers. Like the skeletons, zombie groups also have a mini boss with them who is taller but hardly smarter. The undead sailors shuffle around and drag their right foot while the left foot plods forward. The sound effect that plays when Pirate attacks zombies is exactly the same as the one that D3P used for the skeletons - as in bone crunching sounds that snap, crackle, and pop. NCS was hoping for squishy sounds akin to the gushy murmur when a loaf of Spam plops out of the can and onto a dish.