I'm weirdly nostalgic for movie tie in games. At the time, everyone hated them. Yet, I can't help but feel a bit of happiness when I see a random movie tie in game from previous consoles. Pirates of the Carribean, only one on the console thankfully, is a quite decent action adventure game. You play as Amber heard's ex husband on an adventure through parts of the movie? To be honest, I haven't seen the movie, BUT the game does look nice. The areas are all detailed, colourful and varied, and I really enjoyed exploring them. Gameplay is a mix between hack and slash, platforming and some elements of puzzle soliving, with a few collectables thrown in there. The gameplay is simple but varied and the levels do feel realistic. The game also has quite a nice plot with some great cutscenes. Did they get Legolas to do the voice lines? No idea. But the story was interesting and didn't feel tacked on. There is a quite unique duel system to the game, in which you sword fight one on one which was enjoyable and worked well. I also like the variety with different weapons and enemy types. Overall it's a game which appeals to both adults and chilren and will keep you entertained through it's short campaign. It's nothing incredible, but we rarely see games like this nowadays and I do miss them.

Played the Wii, Xbox 360 and DS versions.

Wii: 3/10. Awful combat design, lip-syncing and boss fights.
Xbox: 6/10. Bizarre design choices and bad level design combined with some moments of awesome.
DS: 5/10. Tinny music and bad story (including drowning if entering any water source), but good minigames.

{REVIEW OF THE SD VERSION}

There are two very different ways for me to look at this.

I can either say it's an interesting alternate telling of my favorite entry in my favorite series of movies ever with some very unique ideas, changes to how certain setpieces play out and a fun way to intergrate POTC into an action game with Jack Sparrow's shenanigans via QTE's and a decently good soundtrack of which some of the tracks went on to be used in the much better Pirates game that came afterwards.

Or a bland, dull, run of the mill licensed kids game with simple and repetitive combat, subpar visuals, reused assets that are more noticeable than my lack of a life and hit or miss voice acting that is on par with something like the Shark Tale game on the same console in terms of quality.

And frankly I don't know which one to pick, but fuck it. I like Pirates of the Caribbean and they gave me Pirates of the Caribbean for a coupla hours so I see it as a win in my book.