The Good
- Fun hack 'n slash platformer with more swordplay than the film it's based on.
- Ship-to-ship battles mix up the gameplay.
- Jack's fluid movements perfectly mimic Johnny Depp's drunken performance.
- Numerous villains with creative powers.
The Bad
- Like the film, the game starts out strong then fizzles at the end.
- Gameplay gets repetitive.
- Can't save games after or between ship battles.
- Jack is the only playable character. Can't play as Will or Elizabeth.
- Story - Painfully bad dialogue. Too few still images for story interstitials.
The Story
Looks like the Captain Jack Sparrow made a deal with the devil, or rather Davy Jones, for his mortal soul, and Jones is here to collect. The only way out of it is to find his one weakness, which lies in the Dead Man's Chest. If you fail, Jack must hand over his soul or suffer in eternal agony in Davy Jones’ Locker but don’t think ‘ole Jonesy plans on letting Jack slip through his clutches. He's sent out after you an army of doomed pirates and the monstrous Krackin.Features
- Platformer hack 'n slash levels and ship-to-ship battles.
- Buy and sell upgrades to ship's equipment and weaponry.
- Pay to hear rumors that will lead you to hidden treasures.
The Game
Dead Man's Chest goes back and fourth between two gameplay styles, the majority consisting of hack 'n slash platform levels. Between these are ship battles where you pit The Black Pearl against just about any vessel that passes you by…or rams into you by accident. These two gameplay styles have good point and bad ones, but what they both share is that they get quite repetitive.
The game is split into a series of islands across a map. Each island is basically a "world" with each encounter on the island a level. You travel from port to port, using your mystical compass to guide you to the Dead Man's Chest. Ship-to-ship battles take place on journeys between the islands. Once you’ve engaged another ship the two boats duke it out with cannon fire. If victorious you board the ship, kill the crew and collect their booty. This leads into the ship platform levels, which are just like the island platform levels except they take on a ship and there is much less variety. Raiding these ships can help add to your goal and supplies.
Another key in ship travel is keeping your crew happy by providing enough supplies food and grog. Get your crew mad and they’ll mutiny, a common problem for Captain Jack. The problem of these battles is that you cannot save your game or repair the ship until you reach the next island, so even after surviving several battles, you might still loose all of your progress if you are defeated by the next passing ship.
The platform levels are typical of a GBA adventure hack ‘n slash game. You jump, climb, and leap from island and ship style platforms while using your sword to wade through British soldiers, cannibals and other various creepy crawlers. This gets a bit dull rather quickly, as after a fashion all the ships and islands begin to look the same. Halfway though the game things get a bit more exciting with the addition of Davy Jones’ undead pirate minions. There are a variety of these scallywags each with their own unique powers which include the ability to teleport, have a tentacle arms pop-up from the ground and attack you, and shedding killer crabs.
This all builds to a climax reminiscent to that of the films' – disappointing. Here you'll find not only the first boss battle of the game, but three of 'em in a row, all of which are surprisingly easy. This might be why they are tagged together with no saves in-between. First you must partake in a ship-to-ship battle with Davy Jones’ vessel, the Flying Dutchman. Once you’ve beaten The Dutchman and board it, you enter another platform, but with teleporting baddies and squid head himself, Davy Jones. After proving Jones a pushover you now must face The Krackin in a ship-to-monster battle that’s should be a lot more challenging.
Parents' Guide
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is rated E10+ Everyone 10 and older by the ESRB. The game has non-graphic violence, no blood, but it does have death and you are killing people, not just undead pirates. Additionally there is alcohol use in the game, although they have changed "Rum" to "Grog" and you never actually see any characters consume it.Trivia
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest for the GBA is the first E+10 rated game to have the word “Dead” in the title.