Plunderland
Shiver me Timbers, This Game Is Amazing!
Posted August 18, 2010
Ahoy Matey! Are you ready to take to the water and plunder ships for their booty? As one of the most original titles I’ve played on my iPhone in a while, Plunderland puts the player into the role of a group of pirates sailing through levels blasting soldiers and natives with your cannons. The presentation is phenomenal, namely due to the artistic style and cartoonish depiction of colonial times built for the iPhone 4’s Retina display.
The game is essentially a side scroller. Tilting the iPhone left or right tilts the game world and sends the ship forward or backward. Touching the ship’s canon (or canons in the latter stages of the game) lines up a continually changing trajectory for firing on enemies. Think of a firing system similar to the Angry Birds app, but with the physics of being on the ocean. With your fingers, you also have the ability to pick up pirates, soldiers, natives and coins similar to the Godfinger application. It’s pretty hilarious tossing British naval officers into the air or into the boat to get slaughtered.
There’s also a ton of secrets to find in Plunderland, much of which is rewarded for experimenting with the controls. Tapping native totems on island will make it rain coins. Hitting an enemy blimp while it’s hovering over an enemy ship can cause a chain reaction in destruction and result in more coin. The loot that you plunder can be redeemed in the shipyard between levels for upgrades to the ship in terms of offense, defense and special abilities. You can purchase multiple cannons, a crow’s nest, and a mast head that allows for automatically collecting coin or even an entirely new ship.
You can also grind out some of the previous levels to earn more coin early on to score that new ship. Oddly enough, it’s actually just as fun to replay the levels. There are currently 17 levels to get through on the three main campaigns as well as three levels in survival mode to play after finishing the campaigns. The developer has promised future updates as well, but it’s actually pretty entertaining to go through all the levels again to unlock all the gold and find all the secret booty.
I haven’t had this much fun with an iPhone title in a while. The exceptional gameplay and fantastic visual style makes Plunderland a joy to play all the way to the final level. If you are a fan of side scrollers, platformers or anything that exudes originality, check out Plunderland on the Apple app store. It’s a steal at the current price of $2.99.
The game is essentially a side scroller. Tilting the iPhone left or right tilts the game world and sends the ship forward or backward. Touching the ship’s canon (or canons in the latter stages of the game) lines up a continually changing trajectory for firing on enemies. Think of a firing system similar to the Angry Birds app, but with the physics of being on the ocean. With your fingers, you also have the ability to pick up pirates, soldiers, natives and coins similar to the Godfinger application. It’s pretty hilarious tossing British naval officers into the air or into the boat to get slaughtered.
There’s also a ton of secrets to find in Plunderland, much of which is rewarded for experimenting with the controls. Tapping native totems on island will make it rain coins. Hitting an enemy blimp while it’s hovering over an enemy ship can cause a chain reaction in destruction and result in more coin. The loot that you plunder can be redeemed in the shipyard between levels for upgrades to the ship in terms of offense, defense and special abilities. You can purchase multiple cannons, a crow’s nest, and a mast head that allows for automatically collecting coin or even an entirely new ship.
You can also grind out some of the previous levels to earn more coin early on to score that new ship. Oddly enough, it’s actually just as fun to replay the levels. There are currently 17 levels to get through on the three main campaigns as well as three levels in survival mode to play after finishing the campaigns. The developer has promised future updates as well, but it’s actually pretty entertaining to go through all the levels again to unlock all the gold and find all the secret booty.
Graphics
- In short, gorgeous. The iPhone 4’s Retina display makes the visuals look tremendously detailed and rife with bright colors. The artist for this title really did an amazing job polishing the animations, character / ship models, background designs, monsters from the deep, etc... The cartoonish pirate world is brought to life by the artwork and it’s quite possibly my favorite iPhone title of 2010 in terms of visual design.
- My only nitpick with the visuals is an occasionally wonky camera. It zooms out when you get near an enemy ship, but sliding back away from the enemy will change the view again. It’s difficult to line up a great shot without being in range of enemy fire.
Audio
- There’s plenty of pirate style sound effects and a light melody that plays during your journey. The musical cues are set when on the high seas, in different types of weather and when the ship hits land populated by natives. There are no voiceovers to speak of, but this isn’t the type of game that needs them.
Conclusion
I haven’t had this much fun with an iPhone title in a while. The exceptional gameplay and fantastic visual style makes Plunderland a joy to play all the way to the final level. If you are a fan of side scrollers, platformers or anything that exudes originality, check out Plunderland on the Apple app store. It’s a steal at the current price of $2.99.