ATTITUDES: VIDEO GAME REVIEW: Cartoon-based 'Pirates' better than buried treasure

By William Schiffmann

Associated Press Writer

Fans of swashbuckling tales of pirate adventure will have their swashes convincingly buckled by The Pirates of Dark Water.

Pirates ($59.99 for Super Nintendo by Sunsoft, Genesis version also available), for one or two players, follows the cartoon version sort of faithfully.

It tells the tale of Prince Ren, heir to the throne of Octopon, whose quest is to find the fabled Treasures of Rule and destroy the killer juice called "Dark Water," which could destroy the planet Mer.

You play as one of three characters, each with his or her own special attributes. Ren's abilities are equally divided between strength and agility. Tula is very agile but not too strong, while Ioz, a brutish former pirate, is as strong as Superman and as agile as Mount Rushmore.

Difficulty is adjustable, as are the number of lives and continues available (each up to five).

You face a bizarre (and repetitious) collection of sleazeballs who work for a buccaneer Mr. Big called Lord Bloth. Bloth seems to have an unending supply of look-alike fat pirates, female pirates, sickle-wielding pirates, tattooed pirates, etc.

This is a pretty standard hack-and-slash game. As you scroll from left to right, enemies pop up from all corners. You can punch them, chop them with a sword or knife, toss them, kick them or use a special fighting skill, like Tula's electrical energy field, to defeat them.

Use those special kills sparingly, though. Each use eats into your hero's life energy.

There are some neat touches. For instance, there are pits of icky black stuff and spikes and flames that pop out of the ground to add to your trouble. However, they also can damage the pirates, so try and knock them into the pits or spikes and watch their lives twinkle out.

At the end of each level there's a boss to beat. Complete that task and you receive one of the Treasures. Collect them all and you are well on your way to saving Mer.

Although you've seen most of this before in a variety of fighting games, Pirates is a solid rendition. Your characters follow the controls precisely, graphics are varied (even if the enemies aren't) and colorful and the sound is acceptable.

No new ground is being broken here, but if you enjoy battling a nonstop horde of disreputable types, if you love to perform those impossible moves, if you love hand-to-sword combat, you'll probably be quite fond of Pirates of Dark Water.