The US release of WiiWare a few months ago has yielded some interesting titles, but also a number of flops. The games are meant to be small, simple, and casual which means that if they are not spot on or they have just a few annoying features a good idea can turn into a disaster pretty quickly. With Virtual Console games you know what you are getting–the games have been released before–but with WiiWare (which does not have demos) you have to sink some money ($10 or 1000 Wii Points in this case) in order to find out if the game is any good or not.
In the case of Pirates: The Key of Dreams consumers should be prepared to be disappointed. History has taught us that it is hard to mess up anything dealing with pirates, but this title is repetitive and simplistic enough that even this golden rule is broken. The story is your run-of-the-mill Pirates of the Caribbean-type story, complete with magical coins, governors that tell everyone what to do, and a whole lot of flying cannonballs.
Back in the days before the internet, pirating meant so much more than just downloading a few songs. It was a proud tradition of crime, villainy and poor hygiene. Pirates: Key of Dreams attempts to splash a bit of cartoon colour on that way of life and present it anew.
N-Europe reports:
''Early adaptors to Nintendo's WiiWare service will be under no illusion as to what the service is capable of offering with such a small game size. Gamers who have been waiting for a slice of sea-faring naval warfare to appear on the WiiWare service can now finally breathe a sigh of relief as their prayers have been answered. Right? Or is the game destined to walk the plank?
Pirates: The Key of Dreams is the first WiiWare title from Oxygen Studios, and has you take control of a British American vessel under the guise of a pirate ship in the hope of recovering the fabled Key of Dreams from its last known possessors: the Spanish. The reason for the disguise is given at the beginning of the initial level with story laid out through the medium of static artwork and wording along the bottom of the screen. Or if you want, you can skip the whole story playing and just get on with the gaming. In order not to start a full on war between the British and the Spanish, your ship is disguised as a pirate ship so that it may go undetected. To make it more convincing, the game has the other British ships attack you as well as the Spanish ships that later appear in the game.''
Zentendo recently had the chance to sit down and preview Pirates: Duel on the High Seas which is the latest franchise to come out from Oyxgen Studios, with two games already in the franchise: Duel on the High Seas for the DS and Pirates: The Key of Dreams for the WiiWare and with this in mind they were fortunate enough to be offered an interview with David Wilshire, who is in the Development team for both titles.
