By Brad Cook

Drinkin.’ Sword-fightin.’ Pillagin.’ Aye, the pirate’s life be full of adventure, and now ye can partake in it when ye play Three Rings’ Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates.

It be a good game, but there be a catch, as it were: ye must be good at puzzle games, ones like Bejeweled & Alchemy and Super Collapse! 3. And if ye ain’t no good at ‘em, ye may find yerself in Davy Jones’s locker ‘fore long.

And if ye still think the pirate’s life is the one, remember this ‘fore ye go on the account: buccaneers enjoy plenty o’ drinkin’ an’ sword-fightin’, and ye’ll need to do both in Puzzle Pirates. Aye, they be puzzles too, but they require ye to think smartly an’ keep a finger on yer mouse button.

Playin’ at the Pirate Life

We calls this one an online multiplayer role-playing game, which means ye pretend to be a pirate. No need to actually dress as one and parade around yer house, makin’ yer mates think yer daft. Ye simply creates a piratey character an’ gives him a good name, like Scurvy Dog or Black Jack. Aye, or Sally o’ the Seven Seas, if yer into that sort o’ thing. Personally, I prefers to be known as Scallywag.

At any rate, ye makes yer pirate (one of three ye can create) and sets off to Guava Island, where ye’ll find other players who can join yer list of hearties, or buckos. “Friends,” I thinks yer word is. So ye can chat with yer hearties or even challenge them to swordfightin’ or drinkin’ duels. Aye, these be puzzles too.

What ye really wants to do, though, is stop bein’ a landlubber and join a ship’s crew. There ye’ll be put to work pumpin’ out bilge water or fixin’ up holes in the hull, all for a few pieces o’ eight, which be Puzzle Pirates’ money. Aye, those tasks be puzzles, as are the swordfights that happen when one vessel attacks another and come close enough for hand-to-hand fightin’. If ye win, ye plunder the other crew’s booty. Not all ships be equal, though, so don’t go ‘round pickin’ fights with just anyone.

Buildin’ Yer Fortune

Once ye earn enough pieces o’ eight, ye can buy better swords an’ clothes an’ even build yer own ship. Then ye can hire yer own crew and call the shots as ye sail the high seas. There’s nothin’ like hangin’ up the Jolly Roger and commandin’ yer own destiny, I tells ye.

Aye, there’s plenty for landlubbers to do too. Ye can work in a shop, or open one yerself, and put yer puzzle skills to work. The faster ye are at a puzzle, the faster ye can create products for sale. All this drives an in-game economy that me simple mind don’t quite get. I knows, though, that worker and supply shortages can drive up prices and make yer buckos wait longer for their stuff. Ye don’t want that to happen, so ye need to make sure ye have enough landlubbers on hand to do the work.

Or if ye enjoy makin’ yer own way, there be plenty of unsettled islands to explore and claim for yerself. Maybe ye might make it a veritable pirate paradise, a place for buccaneer bacchanals, if ye will. Ye should also be on the lookout fer NPPs — that be non-playable pirates — who might offer ye quests and other missions, or even secrets. Ye won’t rightly know what to expect every time ye logs on; th’ world o’ Puzzle Pirates be a vast one.

Ah, but that be the true pleasure of the pirate’s life: settin’ sail for adventures beyond yer wildest imaginin’. There be nothin’ like it.