Pirate Pop Plus

Pirate Pop Plus is a game where fans of the classics will likely enjoy it, especially fans of Pang and Buster Bros.  If you’re not normally fan of arcade-style games, you might want to check out Pang first, then decide if five dollars is worth spending on a game that resembles Pang with a couple of other mechanics thrown in.

Pirate Pop Plus has a fantastic soundtrack, which is reminiscent of Super Mario Land. The chiptune composition is outstanding, and the numerous unlockable tracks are all different, but equally fun. The tunes are all light and upbeat, which suits the lighter arcade game perfectly.

Pirate Pop Plus is the kind of game I see myself going back to for a brief five or ten-minute session, and whilst this style of game is quite fittingly more appropriate for a mobile/portable system, I can see it occupying some dead time within my desktop experience as well. You might think it lacks variety or depth, but then I would put forward the argument that this isn’t what the game is trying to do. Give it a try; for the price I think it’s well worth a shot at the very least!

You don't often see new games that borrow gameplay from the arcade classic Buster Bros. Pirate Pop Plus does so unashamedly yet it has a cool new spin on the formula that makes it feel like a fresh experience.

Video games are packed with various features to compare and argue about that largely surpasses any other form of entertainment. The sounds, visuals, gameplay, and story, amongst other things, are all up for discussion. It’s pretty self-explanatory that, over the years, visuals and sound effects have become more “realistic” in video games (whether story-telling has improved is a whole different topic). But what happens when we have a modern game that mirrors features present in an old-school Game Boy? Well, things can go in either polar opposite direction.

It may not be anywhere near as fun as 13AM’s first published game with their in-house developed Runbow, but Pirate Pop Plus can still provide a good bit of fun anyways.

Pirate Pop Plus feels more like something you’d have found near the release of the Game Boy than something that should be asking for money in 2016 considering there are full-length Game Boy games with a plethora of content available on the eShop for less money, and tons of even cheaper mobile games that put this to shame. If you don’t care about unlocking all the customizations, achievements, high scores, or the few characters that hardly change the gameplay, then you’ll probably get bored of this within 20 minutes. Even at a lower price, I wouldn’t recommend it. Pop your money elsewhere.