Game Review #17: Pirate Pop Plus

The average consumer has a healthy love-hate relationship with the advancement of complexity in games. On one hand, we gravitate to games that give us more options and more systems to manage. More complex games are typically more modern and show off more of what games can do. On the other hand, sometimes you just want to kick back and have some mindless fun with a game you could play with parts of your brain removed. The industry usually does well under this duality of tastes. Games like The Witcher 3 can exist alongside games like Lethal League and the game I’m talking about today: Pirate Pop Plus. 

Pirate Pop Plus is a 2D, arcade style game about a pirate dropping anchors to pop bubbles. But, he's dropping the anchors...upward. Or is he throwing them? Ya know what, I actually don't know what's going on in this game, but essentially, you stand underneath the bubble and click the button to make an anchor go upward and pop it, creating smaller bubbles until they can't get any smaller and a new bubble spawns. If a bubble hits you, you lose a heart (of which there are standardly three, but that can change in a way that I'll get to later). Popping the smallest bubbles can also cause coins and power-ups to drop. The power-ups have a variety of different effects that all change the way you go about popping bubbles, from freezing time to making you shoot laser beams instead of anchors to simply allowing you to use your anchors twice as quickly. Also, occasionally gravity will just go ahead and change and you'll be doing all the same stuff on the walls or ceiling instead. 

Graphically, the game is designed to look like a game from the original Nintendo Gameboy by not just having a monochrome pixel art style but also by having the game be bordered by the faceplate and buttons of a system similar to a Gameboy Advance. As a nice little touch, the buttons on the digital system actually respond when you press the corresponding button on whatever controlling mechanism you're using. Unfortunately, for PC players, there's no mouse interaction, so you can't use them as actual buttons to control the game, but they're still nice to look at.

The game has two main draw-ins though: High Scores and customization. Being arcade-style, the player is competing to put their name on the leaderboard which has only five spots on it and the game comes out of the box (or out of the code I guess, seeing how it's as-of-yet only available digitally) with five brutal developer high scores to keep you coming back until only one name is on that board. 

Customization, on the other hand, is far more of a completionist matter. The game lets you use coins to purchase changes to all sorts of things in the game, including the color of the faceplate and buttons, the color of the "backlight" (effectively changing the color of the game), the music (all great tunes created by different artists), and even the statistics of the character you play the game with. With so many options to customize the game, there's a look for everyone available in the game, and enough content to unlock to keep you playing for longer. 

Pirate Pop Plus is simplistic in the right way, making the game easy to understand, but hard to properly execute. It won't take long for you to figure out how everything works, but it'll take you a while to put it into practice to the point where you're putting your initials onto the leader board even once. Knowing exactly when to launch your anchor to pop a particularly elusive bubble takes a while to get a good feel for, but once you understand it well enough (and well enough is probably the best you'll ever get to), the game becomes a fast-paced balancing act of risk and reward to stay alive as long as possible and get the best score possible. It may not seem like much. It may look behind the times compared to today's standard AAA game, but it's the kind of game that'll make you laugh and cry at least until you get your name in the top spot. So, I give Pirate Pop Plus "That Moment When A Bubble Hits You And Pops In The Process"(7)/10. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to grind coins to make my fake GBA look fabulous. It's called fashion, sweetheart. Look it up.

Second Annual Multi-Platformer Awards

Last year, I had the nerve to think my opinion mattered enough that those games I considered the best should be considered "awarded". Well, now I'm back. It certainly hasn't felt like a year, but it certainly has been. In a world forever changed by my face reveal and my overbearing Pokkén Tournament review, it's time for the second annual Multies!

DISCLAIMER: Jax Silverman is a human being who has a crap ton of other things to do. Odds are he'll never even play all the video games he owns until he's 27. Because of this, he hasn't played every game this year nor is his opinion meant as an attack on the opinions of others. In laymen's terms: Leave him alone, he's just a kid who refers to himself in the third person.

Best Game I haven't played: Battlefield 1

It's hard to imagine someone who hasn't played this beast of an FPS unless you're me in which case it's only a little difficult to imagine. But it's true: I haven't played Battlefield 1. I tend to exercise caution when considering new first-person shooters as I've been burned before (not naming names, but I've met some unfriendly GHOSTS). So that's why I haven't been too hasty about checking it out myself, but from what I've heard, it's hitting a lot of the right notes for some people, so it doesn't seem right not to mention it. 

And before you ask, no, I still haven't played Rocket League...

Best Game I Discovered This Year: Fire Emblem: Awakening

If I remember correctly, this time last year, I assumed that I didn't like Fire Emblem whatsoever. Now, after discovering the franchise at its peak (possibly second to Fates, but who's counting), I can honestly say I've never been more wrong. 

Best Wii U exclusive: Pokkén Tournament

Despite being a little overcomplicated compared to what we expected, Pokkén Tournament certainly fulfilled the niche it was meant for, finally allowing long-time fans to play out battles with a little more action than ever before.

Best Remake/Remaster: Doom

It's certainly not a remaster, and most wouldn't exactly consider it a remake, but Doom(2016) definitely retreads the ground of the original Doom. Returning to the fast-paced, "no room for subtlety" gameplay of an era long ago, Doom is a great way to introduce new players to old gameplay and old players to new gameplay. And the multiplayer is...there.

Presenting our next award, we go to our resident Xbox correspondent, Crate-Pusher Jim:

•Thanks Jax. If you're looking to get the Xbox One over the PlayStation 4, then you should consider buying Gears of War 4. Gears of War is probably the best exclusive out right now. It has a fun campaign, classic hoard mode and a multiplayer that is the best it has ever been. Plus, all future maps and game modes are 100% free so there is no reason not to buy it. And yes, while the microtransaction system in this game may cause concern, it is purely cosmetic items that can be obtained in loot crates.

Thanks for the insight, Jim.

Character of the Year: Spider-Man

Technically, most of this character's achievements haven't been in gaming this year, but the little bugger (pun intended) has had quite a year. With Captain America: Civil War behind us, and Spider-Man: Homecoming dead ahead, one would imagine Peter Parker wouldn't have time to be swinging onto the PlayStation 4 next year, but one would be dead wrong.

Biggest "Fuck You": Sean Murray

I guess this kind of goes to everyone at Hello Games, but if we're being honest, there isn't a single one of us who would blame the ship instead of the captain. The company is under investigation for false advertisement due to Murray's false statements; the company failed to communicate with their audience when they cried out about the game's issues; and this man did it all with that goofy smile on his face. Fuck you, Sean Murray. Fuck you.

"We Salute You" Award: Nintendo Wii U

With the Nintendo Switch prepped to cannibalize whatever market was left for the Wii U this march, it's about time to start looking back at Nintendo's quirky misstep in the modern market. Despite failing to provide the same value as today's PlayStations and Xboxes, the Wii U brought plenty of great games to the world. Even on its deathbed, it kept producing lovable games for those loyal enough to stick around. We salute you, Wii U. We salute you.

Best PS4 Exclusive: Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

Was there ever any doubt that this was the best exclusive Sony had to offer this year? This game is the quintessential Uncharted experience. Years of refining their engine and their story-telling skills has payed off in full to Naughty Dog. 

Most 2017 Hype: Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

It's been a long time. It's been a wild ride. But we're almost there. From Zelda Wii U to Zelda NX to Breath of the Wild, we've been following this game from the beginning and now, in the final stretch before our dedication pays off, it's already clear that we're going to love what we get. Unless I jinx it again. Fu-

Game of the Year: Overwatch

In essence, Overwatch is a case study in how to combine the old and the new into something that's far greater than the sum of its parts. I honestly can't believe I ever doubted Overwatch for a second. There's nothing quite like the action-heavy spectacle of running around a room full of good guys, like real super-heroes! Despite its understandable criticisms, Overwatch is the type of game everyone should play and keep playing for a long, long time. Ya know, the world could always use more games like Overwatch...

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go think of more ways to make Crate-Pusher Jim do stuff. He's an intern, so I can do that. And his name isn't really Jim. And come to think of it, I don't even know if he's ever actually pushed any crates. I wonder if I can make interns push crates...