N-Philes

One Piece: Pirates' Carnival

Posted November 5th 2006 by Ben Wood.

Anchors away! Ever since Mario popularized the genre in the late 90's, many other popular characters have taken a stab at the party scene. And in that time, nobody has been able to topple Mario Party as the leading board game series. This time around, it's up to Monkey D. Luffy and company to shake up the board game formula with One Piece Pirates' Carnival. Though they can be proud of their first foray into the genre, the Straw Hat crew has a few shortcomings that keep them from taking the jewelled party game crown.

After you and up to three friends select from seven Straw Hat pirates and a board on which to play, you find that you're quickly thrown into the game. There are no dice or items to worry about, just a board that is played like a loose game of Reversi. Things kick off with a random minigame, the winner of which not only gets to start, but he or she gets the center square without any lame Whoopi Goldberg jokes. Each square presents a four-way minigame, a three-on-one captain game, or an event that messes with the board in some form. The winner of the minigame gets the square (or two squares if it's a captain game) and any opponent's squares that lie directly between the newly acquired square and any other square owned by the winner. This adds a healthy dose of strategy that compliments the relatively random outcomes of the minigames. The ultimate goal is to earn the most money by adding pirates to your crew, which is done by winning individual squares on the board.

Pirates' Carnival contains over 30 minigames, all of which are based on the One Piece universe. Because there's no story to the game at all, it's hard for One Piece newbies to appreciate all that the game offers. I know as much about One Piece as I do about gynaecology, but I can tell that the entire game pays homage to the anime. Once you get past wondering why there are men dressed in panda suits and why that sea creature with a superiority complex calls everyone pewman, there's lots of fun to be had beating friends at these minigames and trying to dominate the game board. Playing alone, like all multiplayer games, gets old fast.

The minigames themselves are diverse, yet they all fit into the overall pirate theme. One minute you'll be battling underwater while plundering sunken treasure chests, the next you'll be boat racing through whirlpools and cannon fire, and the next you'll be trying to land on a ship with an octopus parachute! Compared to Mario Party or Wario Ware, the games have relatively complex controls and require some strategy to win. Some games will take a few tries to understand exactly how they're played; there isn't any way to run a practice round before minigame starts, but the game does go through the controls and the objectives in a clear manner to help you out.

Pirates' Carnival has loading times. While they aren't long per se, they do feel lengthy given the style of the game. With a party game, you want to be playing the minigames instantly, and every second of loading time can feel like an eternity. Because of this, the game's minigame mode, where you play the unlocked minigames without a game board, is almost unplayable for long periods of time.

The major drawback to Pirates' Carnival has to be how the minigames are divided. Each character has their own minigame that is played during "Davy Back" challenges, where one player has to defend one of their squares from everyone else. These games are probably the most fun, but they don't come up very often. The three-on-one-style captain minigames aren't overly common either, yet they account for the largest percentage of games available. Then there are only a dozen or so 4-way challenges that get replayed over and over. Pirates' Concentration, like the card game of the same name, is fun every once in a while, but you just want to walk the plank after the 18th time it comes up. There are only three two-on-two games, but they only come up once per round.

One of my pet peeves with the Mario Party franchise is that it's more bland and generic than white bread. Fortunately, Pirates' Carnival captures a flair and style of its own. The opening sequence is incorporates anime scenes and in-game engine work to make it feel like an anime intro. The One Piece characters are transformed into bigheaded, small-bodied models. The fairly detailed cel-shaded environments look and play very smooth. Between the minigames, the characters are drawn to look like their anime counterparts, complete with voice acting.

These dialogue snippets between gameplay are perhaps the most impressive aspect of the game's presentation. All fully voiced, each character says a plethora of different things, depending on which game is played, what kind of event is taking place, and who they are talking to, be it another player or non-playing character. While fans of the series will get a big kick out of hearing banter between Nami and Sanji, these scenes ultimately slow the pace of the game, and are usually skipped to expedite the game. The in-game music is forgettable, but it does nicely blend into the game what with its upbeat and majestic piratesque flavor.

Fans of One Piece will thoroughly enjoy what Pirates' Carnival has to offer. There are some unlockables in the form of virtual trading cards and voice and music sound bites. Those who know nothing about the series won't lose anything by playing, but those who do will certainly pull more away from the experience. There is definitely fun to be had, but only with friends and only a round or two at a time.

Slight Pulse - A mighty pirate, brought down by a touch of scurvy.

Individually, each of One Piece Pirates' Carnival's minigames is fun to play. Collectively, the minigames are deep and diverse, fitting into Luffy's universe like leather gloves to OJ Simpson's left hand. The game's presentation and style are amazing: the graphics are smooth, the environments are colorful, the controls are spot-on, and you jump quickly jump into the game without any of the typical board game gimmicks. The only reason that Pirates' Carnival does not merit N-Philes' green steady beat ranking is because it doesn't offer enough four-way minigames to keep each round as exciting as they could be. Of the thirty-plus minigames available, only a dozen make up Pirates' Carnival's most commonly occurring set. Because of this one drawback, the game isn't fun to play for more than a round or two at a time. If Namco Bandai fixes the slightly long load times and adds more minigames, One Piece could be a seriously fun contender in the party game genre.

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