Pirates of the Caribbean-Interactive DVD Game (2008)

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General		Extras
Category	Game	None
Rating
Year Of Production	2008
Running Time	?
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	4	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.	Starring	None Given
Case	?
RPI	$39.95	Music	None Given

    Released in good time for the Easter 2008 school holidays, Pirates of the Caribbean: The DVD Game is a reasonably entertaining game aimed (judging by the style and difficulty) at upper primary aged kids (hang on, weren't those movies rated M?).

    Like most DVD games, the core of the game is a trivia-based affair for 2 to 4 players. Each player is assigned one of Barbossa, Jack Sparrow, Elizabeth Swann or Will Turner to play as, based on a personality quiz. The players captain their ship as they play, from a nicely rendered CGI captain's quarters. The game features an added interactive twist on the basic trivia formula; Players earn cannonballs for answering some questions correctly, which can be fired at opponents who lose a turn if the aggressor scores a direct hit. The goal of the game is to be the first player to hunt down and sink the ship of the evil Cutler Becket, whose East India Trading Company has made pirating a tough affair. To track down Becket, players must collect tokens from answering certain questions correctly then sink his ship using the cannon mini-game.

    The questions are drawn from all three Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Each featuring a little video of image around which the question is based. About half the questions require remembering the actual movies (including all of the climactic questions), the other half can be derived from the supplied material.

    The game is a reasonably slow affair, which will probably put off adults who aren't as wrapped up in the whole Pirates world as their kids. Using three players, we found that the average game lasted between 1 and 2 hours - dependant heavily on both knowing your stuff and luck. Another factor in the game time was players own memories, as the game does not keep track of which questions have already been answered by a player and someone with a poor memory can choose the same question again and again for the same ultimate reward.

    There are 6 sets of questions, with each set containing different questions for each of the 4 players. Each game has 20 main questions per player and a pool of final-round questions at the end.

    The game is narrated by a reasonably piratey fellow, though it is not one of the stars of the movies. Full instructions are provided on the disc, although the explanation is a little convoluted.

    Pirates of the Caribbean: The DVD Game makes for moderate holiday fun, but don't expect too much from the game. Once you have played each of the characters in each of the games there isn't much replay value.

Video

    The game is presented in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio.

    The video is quite good. The CGI parts are well rendered and sharp. The video segments are presented in a parchment frame in the centre of the screen and are quite clear and sharp.

    There are no obvious compression artefacts or video artefacts that spoil the game

    There are no subtitles available for the narration or video segments.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The game features English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kbps) audio.

    The audio is surprisingly good for a DVD game. The video segments appear to have the original mix from the films. The CGI captains quaters features atmospheric creaking and ocean noises. The narration is loud and clear.

    The game features a few snippets of the Pirates of the Caribbean theme, but little more in the way of music.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There are no extras.

    At this stage we do not have details of a Region 1 release.

    A moderately entertaining DVD game that will have the most appeal amongst upper primary aged kids. The downside being that it's only really playable half a dozen times (or thereabouts) as that's all the number of questions there is.

    The video quality is of a high standard. The audio is surprisingly atmospheric for a trivia-based game.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall