The Plunderland iPhone game ($2.99) demands that you sail a haunted pirate ship through the seas, shooting your cannon at stuff that gets in your way, such as a strange oil-derrick-looking thing, as well as other ships piloted by red-coated, white-haired soldier-types. Toss treasure spilled from other ships into your own.
When you begin, you’ve got to toss your pirates onto your ship and if you’re not careful, you’ll accidentally toss them into the sea, where they flounder around a bit until you grab them. If you don’t, they drown. I guess pirates can’t swim.
Navigating the ship is a little hard. You tilt the iPhone to make the ship go forward. If you tip too quickly, you crash into things and by the time you get your ship centered properly so that you can effectively shoot cannons at the obstacle, you’ve taken a couple hits.
I suppose that’s the way it is on the high seas.
I haven’t been very successful at this game; I’ve been playing it for a few days and I can’t seem to get past the third stage. My pirates keep falling off their ship and then my ship gets sunk. Controlling the direction of your cannonballs is a little wonky.
That said, it’s got potential. It might be a very fun game once I’ve mastered the controls. I asked my 13-year-old son to play it, because kids these days seem to figure stuff out right away. He gave up after a few minutes. So impatient.
The developers are promising bug fixes and additional content.
