Videogamer writes: "With WiiWare being the next big thing in digital distribution we caught up with Oxygen Studios Project Manager Phil Merricks to talk about the studio's two upcoming Nintendo platform titles: Pirates: Duels on the High Seas on DS and Pirates: The Key of Dreams on WiiWare. Read on for info on what it's like to develop for WiiWare and the size of team needed.
VideoGamer.com: You've got two Pirate games due out very close to each other. How do they relate?
Phil Merricks: Our DS title, 'Pirates: Duels on the High Seas', was created first using our internal technology 'Ozone'. In this game you take on the role of a Pirate looking to solve the mystery of seven cursed keys, hidden throughout the seven seas. The curse must be broken in seven days or legend has it 'your life will be forefeit'. The game features 35 single-player levels and 35 multiplayer levels across 7 environments.
Our WiiWare title, 'Pirates: The Key of Dreams' followed this, and from a technical point of view was our first title to use Ozone on the WiiWare platform. The plot relates to the DS game, too. It is a prequel to the DS title, telling the story of one of the first keys from that game, 'The Key of Dreams'.
There are 10 levels in the single-player game and the fact the game is on Wii allows those levels to be much larger than their DS counterparts. It also features a unique multiplayer mode with 35 multiplayer arenas across 7 environments."
Worthplaying writes: "Apparently, Pirates: Duels on the High Seas is actually a sequel to a WiiWare title that I hadn't heard of until I sat down to play the DS version. After playing the game for a bit, I could easily see why it slipped under my radar, since Pirates: Duels on the High Seas is very unremarkable. There aren't any real technical shortcomings surrounding the gameplay, but it's extremely bland, and I can't see any appeal in spending more than a few hours with it, even at a budget price."
ZeroTolerance writes: Pirates are one of the lesser explored areas of interest in games anymore, which means when a game pops up that uses these swashbuckling evil-doers, people generally take notice. Pirates: Duel on the High Seas is a title that was released last year on both WiiWare and Nintendo DS in Europe. Now Oxygen Games has deemed it fit to bring the adventure to the US for Nintendo's touch-happy handheld. While it does possess quite a bit of charm, the repetition of mindlessly sailing from point A to point B collecting crates and shooting other ships wears out its welcome far too early. Still if you enjoy the life of a pirate there may be enough here to justify spending your booty.
RealGamer writes: "When you think of pirates you imagine sailing on the open seas, pillaging villages, attacking and boarding ships filled with gold, following treasure maps and digging up chests full of gold pieces and the smell of salt, gunpowder and blood in your nostrils.
Pirates: Duel on the High Seas on the DS decides against this expected life of adventure, and instead the single player story mode leads you on a disappointingly short quest to find 7 magical keys that will lead you to great riches, but of course the keys are cursed and you must fight your way towards the key and then fight your way out with the key with enemy vessels trying to stop you. The home of each key is in a different sea, so you must travel the globe quickly to break the curse and collect your treasure. Each sea consists of several smaller levels which involve you gaining the key and escaping. The levels are very short and are not mentally challenging, taking at most 10 minutes to complete."
