Life at sea is far more fun.

The sea battles are more enjoyable than the land missions.  You control your ship's speed and direction with the directional pad, and use the shoulder triggers to fire the cannons.  The longer that you hold down a trigger, the more loft you get on your shot.  As a result, there is far more skill involved in the sea battles than in the sword fights.  You need to maneuver into a position to bring your cannons to bear on the enemy and add enough loft to your shot to score a hit.  It takes some time to reload your cannons, so timing is critical if you want to score a hit.  Alas the sea battles are in the minority in the game, and even though they can be entertaining they are not enough to carry the game.  Instead they serve as a welcome break from the tedium of the other levels.  As a matter of fact, they may seem even more enjoyable than they may be thanks to the gameplay they are sandwiched between.

One final annoyance with PotC is the fact that the game relies on a password save feature.  When you complete a level, you are given a password that will allow you to begin your next play session from the next level.  If you forget to write down a code or lose it later, then you are out of luck and will need to start again from the beginning.  If this happened it wouldn't be quite the disaster that you'd imagine, though.  Even though the game comes with over twenty levels, you can play through the entire title in a few hours.  After that there is really no motivation to play through it again since the game is so repetitive.  Why would you want to see if you can find a few more coins in the game instead of playing a new game that provides you with puzzles, secrets, and, dare I say, some challenge?

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 50%.  It be a poor portrayal of the pirate's life, says I.

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