IF you can overlook the monotonously difficult levels, the dreadful camera angle, and your new long-term arm pains...
Being a die-hard fan of the movies and the ride, I am always looking into grabbing some cool new pirates merchandise. And after having gotten my Wii, I decided to snag a copy of '[Wii] Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End' from my local Gamespot. I figured it was a steal, pre-owned, at 17.99.
It actually did turn out to be a fairly enjoyable game, if you're into the movies like I am. The game follows the story lines of both POTC 2 and 3, and the scenes and conversations are always fun to follow because they do not follow the movie script word for word. Everything is completely new and somewhat unpredictable, even if you have seen the movies and you probably already know what they are getting at.
To play the game, you use the Wii remote as your sword (more on this later) and the nunchuk to move around. If you are going to play this game, mostly all you will be doing is sword fighting. Actually, whole game is virtually just that. A good old fashioned swashbuckling beat-um-up game. You mostly play as [Captain] Jack Sparrow, but sometimes you take over as Will Turner or Elizabeth. But the characters don't have any special abilities or anything, so they're basically just avatars rather than new characters to play with. You can unlock new weapons and characters, but you can't even use them in your one player game, They are simply for the two-player duel mode. Which is kind of cool, but still.
Anyway, there are a few other cool aspects, such as minor puzzles, in-game mini-games, such as Liars Dice and Pirates Poker (also playable from the main menu), and this cool thing they call "Jackanism";
Jackanism (I believe this is the term they use?) is sort of an interactive movie in which you 'perform' some of the actions using either the Wiimote or the nunchuk. Randomly throughout the levels, you will all of the sudden find yourself watching a clip of the game characters doing something, like a small fight sequence, for instance. However, you can't just sit back and relax while watching this mini-movie; you must stay on your toes, because you never know when you will need to take action. When you see a small icon in the bottom left corner of the screen, you must quickly react according to what it's telling you to do. For example, the movie might show Jack about to kick over a barrel. Then, a little icon will appear that shows a nunchuk quickly moving forward. That's your cue to thrust your nunchuk forward. It's actually a very engaging way to play and I think it's an awesome idea to get some cool scenes in the game without boring you to death by making you feel like you're watching T.V. The only problem is that they only give you like 1 second to respond, and sometimes the game doesn't even register your movements even though you were doing it correctly. If you mess up, it bumps you right out of the Jackanism and you continue with your one-player game. Which is very frusterating, indeed, because they don't even give you a second chance. And the worst part is, you can't replay the Jackanisms from the main menu, the only way to retry is to play that whole level over again up to that point. Not cool. Not cool AT ALL. Anyway. Moving on.
The overall gameplay really seems like it's not half bad. The camera angle IS pretty lousy, considering it shows you a view from like, the upper right hand corner of the room or something, so kind of all you see is the tops of everyones heads. And you can't even adjust it yourself, resulting in lousy views of what's going on and unrealistic eye of all the action. But it's not thaaat bad.
The real problem is the Wii remote. Not really what I would expect from a Wii game. You would think that the revolutionary Wiimote is the one thing that would make every game better. But I guess any game that's designed poorly enough can make even the Wii remote look bad.
When you hear of a title that's new to the Wii, you might automatically assume, "Hey cool, they have it on Wii, I bet they've got some awesomely creative things to take advantage of the motion sensor." That's what I generally say to myself. And it is a fairly clever idea. You use your Wii remote as if it's your sword. Sounds pretty fun, right? You slash up British soldiers and evil fish people by swinging around your remote like crazy. Eheh yeah. Not as fun as it sounds.
Within the first five minutes of playing, your arm will be killing you. And I mean KILLING you. Your entire shoulder, as well as the corresponding side of your upper back, will just be THROBBING. Sure, it may make you feel like you're actually that crazy pirate on the screen who's hackin' up bad guys. And it may very well get you up and moving. But the game just has too much sword fighting to keep it interesting. And swinging your remote around just gets too tiring WAY too fast.
You'll probably get very frustrated very quickly because even as you unlock new combos, they really don't work all that great, and by the end of the game, you'll still find yourself swinging around like some maniac when trying to kill people. The worst part is that some of the levels are so hard and as you get tired and the bad guys come piling on, your performance begins to decrease. And you don't have a whole lot of life, so if you die, you have to start over from that room. Sometimes there are seriously, like 15 waves of bad guys throughout the same area. And you manage to get through 14 of them, but you couldn't manage to get to that health boost when on the last wave. So you die. Your arm is about to fall off. And now you have to start over from the BEGINNING OF THE ROOM! That's right, after all your hard work, you now have to start at the beginning of the 15 waves. And by now, you're so dang fed up that you are not going to accept defeat from a stupid CD. And even if you do turn the game off at this point, you'll have to redo the whole beginning of the level that you already passed. So. Dang. FRUSTERATING!! AARRGGH!! AAAUUGGGGHHHHUUGGHH!! Mhm. Ahem. aaaanyway. Moving on...
Sooo after having said all that, I will say that this is a fairly fun game. For sure, do not make this your first or only Wii game. Perhaps if you've already mastered Zelda TP, Okami, and Super Mario Galaxy, and Petz Dogz 2 is not really your thing (tee hee), then you may want to try this game. Maybe just as a change of scenery.
However, I wouldn't suggest adding it to your library. I purchased mine used from Gamespot, and after having played it for like 3-5 hours every flippin day until like 2.00 in the morning, I finally beat it in like 6 days due to mere frustrated dedication and possibly slight obsession. Then, I took it back to Gamespot and traded it for Raving Rabbids. (A much better investment.) If you're into pirates, or you think it sounds cool, I'd definitely suggest that you rent it. Or at least, buy it used at Gamespot like I did. They give you 7 days to play it. Should you decide you don't like it within that period of time, you can trade it in for store credit, which can be used toward another used game.
But. Don't get me wrong. I did enjoy the game, if only a little. And I am planning on purchasing another copy eventually, once I finish Zelda TP and after snagging Okami and Zack and Wiki for myself. It is a unique game and it's fun to play with friends (when you can take turns, ouch!). But look on the bright side, it is a great arm workout!
One thing I must say, however, DO NOT get this game if you do not have a wireless nunchuck (or a wireless nunchuck adapter). When you play, you use the nunchuk joystick to move around and the swing the remote as a sword. Most often, you are doing both at the same time. IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A WIRELESS NUNCHUK, YOU WILL FREQUENTLY GET SMACKED IN THE FACE WITH THE CABLE!! If those horrible arm-pains aren't enough, you'll get like, major whiplash or something from that dang Nunchuk chord smacking your arms and/or face. And trust me, you'll get smacked A LOT. If you want to try this game, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A WIRELESS NUNCHUK! Ahem. Sorry to shout. But I cannot stress this enough. I use the Wii Nunchuk Cord Free Wireless Adaptor by Nyko, it works really great and you can use it with your existing Nunchuk:
http://www.amazon.com/Nunchuk-Cord-Free-Wireless-Adaptor/dp/B0013LWEJ0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1215576434&sr=1-2
All in all, it's a fun game. But very tiring. You may get frusterated trying to beat some of the levels, and your arm will hate you for it. But if you love the movies, this game is worth a try. As long as you rent it, or buy it used so you can take it back, I'd say it's worth playing!! Just get that Icy-Hot patch ready xP Thanks for reading all. Ahem.