Pirates Of The Enchiridion is a bit of a strange game. Loosely speaking it’s an interactive adventure about saving The Land Of Ooo from being engulfed by a melted ice-kingdom. It has a slight flavour of the Legend Of Zelda: Wind Waker to it too. On one hand, it’s a great primer for younger or otherwise inexperienced players who might want to enter the often-daunting world of turn-based RPG’s.
On the other, it’s got some preposterous loading times, a difficulty curve that can never quite find the equilibrium between ridiculously simple and infuriatingly hard and it won’t give you any more than ten hours of gameplay, even if you complete every moronic fetch side quest presented to you.
Not bad biscuits then, more a soggy Garibaldi.
While we love the series, Adventure Time hasn’t exactly had the best track records when it comes to videogames — and perhaps that’s understandable. The world that genius animator Pendleton Ward created in the late noughties for the show’s Cartoon Network arrival in 2010, is one that is very odd and often very dark (while at the same time being well on the sugary side of cute). It’s a kids show for adults, really; one in love with the lore of Dungeons & Dragons and retro videogames. So far, so very difficult to encapsulate.
Previous Adventure Time titles like 2012’s Nintendo eShop exclusive, Hey Ice King! Why’d You Steal Our Garbage?!! for the 3DS or Explore the Dungeon Because I Don’t Know!, concentrated on small, contained areas of The Land Of OOO. This open-world adventure is the most ambitious attempt to capture it yet. And, for all the games flaws, it’s that which makes it an experience that is still worthy of your time.
With SPOILERS in mind, FANDOM thought it would be a very nice idea to highlight some of the things you should make sure you stop and see on your adventure into Ooo.
CHOOSE GOOSE IS IN IT!
Now a veteran of Adventure Time games (this is Choose Goose‘s fifth appearance) the rhyming goose serves as the game’s shopkeeper. Thankfully, the stuff he has to sell, is, unlike the TV show, not always completely rubbish. And, like a less gruff, goosier take on Resident Evil 4’s purveyor of fine wares, manages to be in all of the places all of the times. That said, this is a game about a cartoon in which a dog talks and can morph his body into any object he does so desire, so let’s not get hung up on semantics. Though speaking of which…
JAKE CAN TURN INTO A MOPED!
Not just any old moped but a moped that can carry the rest of the gang around. He can also turn himself into a boomerang, a JCB digger and a brick wall. Have you ever wondered why Jake just can’t turn himself into, say, a giant spatula, that can swat away baddies for good, or a microwave oven that can melt the Ice King once and for all? Again, this is a game about a cartoon in which a dog talks and can morph his body into any object he does so desire, so let’s not get hung up on semantics.
PEPPERMINT BUTLER IS STRANDED ON AN ISLAND!
The funniest bit of the game is a section in which a very emotional Peppermint Butler is stranded on an island with a sphere-shaped candy person called Todd. PepperMint Butler insists on calling Todd, Watson. Todd really doesn’t want to be there. Peppermint Butler is completely oblivious to this. It took a while for FANDOM to get it, but Watson is surely a spin on Wilson, the volleyball Tom Hanks ‘befriends’ in the 2000 movie Cast Away.
FERN IS A TOTAL DOUCHE!
If you’re not aware of Fern – aka Fern Mertens the Human, formally known as Grass Finn – he’s a pretty complex character. The result of a merger between Finn’s Grass Sword and the Finn Sword… yeah, as we said, it’s all quite complicated. He turns up fairly early and reveals himself as bad biscuits having kidnapped Princess Bubblegum. It’s an extremely enjoyable experience cutting him down to size. Mathmatical!
LUMPY SPACE PRINCESS!
Oh my glob is LSP’s appearance in the game fun. She’s kidnapped BMO and is spending her time dressing the poor games console up in pirate cosplay. It’s moments like this that make Pirates Of The Enchiridion worthy of a playthrough. They’re moments that feature show quality writing, even if the journey to get to them suffers from the flaws outlined prior.
RELEASE THE KRAKEN!
There’s a Kraken in it. To be rid of it, you have to pump it full of cannon balls, from a pirate ship, while Marceline says sassy stuff. It’s a general rule of videogames that if a game features a Kraken it’s automatically worth playing. Developers take note; we expect to see Krakens in all games forthwith, even in the likes of Forza and FIFA. Cool? Cool.
MARCY CAN TURN INTO A WEREWOLF!
Marceline is one of the coolest characters to play as – she doesn’t walk, she glides – and her special ability to turn into a werewolf and slash at enemies is a pretty cool moment. It’s also in the little details added to the game, like the low thrum of her guitar/axe whenever she swings it, that result in the game being a fun experience. To date, this is by some distance the closest we’ve come to being able to experience the wonder of OOO and you can just about forgive it’s failings when you’re lost in the Adventure Time fandom it indulges.
