Adventure Time is one of the best modern cartoons currently on the air. It’s nearing the end of its long run with its ninth and final season, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a show that’s so consistently funny for viewers of all ages while mixing in emotionally mature themes and content in one accessible package. The gaming references, catchy tunes, and lovable characters certainly help as well.
Despite that success and familiarity, there just haven’t been a lot of good Adventure Time games. This might have something to do with their often bizarre and wordy subtitles (presenting Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why'd You Steal Our Garbage?!! as Exhibit A) but they’re also usually based on derivative interpretations of gaming’s most basic concepts. Unfortunately, to that end, Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion is no different.
In Pirates of the Enchiridion, Jake and Finn wake up to see that the entire Ice Kingdom has melted, which has transformed the entire kingdom of Ooo into a giant ocean. So you set sail on a makeshift boat to find out what’s happened and try to restore things to how they once were. It’s a great setup that feels like it would have fit right in as an episode on the show, which is a great testament to how well it respects the source material.
Make no mistake: fans of Adventure Time will likely have trouble not smiling while playing Pirates of the Enchiridion. All of the show’s original cast have reprised their roles as Finn, Jake, BMO, and company to deliver a well-written, silly, and often hilarious adventure full of shenanigans. While you’re sailing around the open world, Jake and Finn will often burst out into song about your next objective because, well, pirates + Adventure Time = lots of singing. It just fits.
At its core, Pirates of the Enchiridion is a turn-based RPG with light exploration elements sprinkled on top. Combat is extremely basic with each of your party members having access to basic attacks, items, and some special attacks. Your entire party shares an energy pool for special attacks and each character has their own Limit Break-style meter below their avatar that slowly builds across fights. If you save that up, you can unleash a massively devastating attack to deal lots of damage.
Other than being able to use items on the same turn that you attack, and characters going into an uncontrollable “Flipping Out” mood if hit too many times in a row, the team at Climax Studios has done very little to iterate or innovate on standard turn-based RPG mechanics. For example, you can’t even see the turn order - a mechanic that’s essentially become standard ever since the PS2 days of JRPGs. Perhaps the laid-back and simplistic design will at least serve as a good entry point to the genre for younger fans of the show that may not have experience with many games of the genre.
Despite the opening moments, very little of the game actually takes place on your boat. Generally speaking, it’s more like a vehicle that gets you from one objective to the next, sort of like the King of Red Lions in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, except flooded Ooo is a far less interesting setting than the Great Sea.
While the target audiences are admittedly very different, there is one key difference between Pirates of the Enchiridion and other licenced RPGs such as the two South Park titles. What those games did well - that this game seems to miss the mark on - is that, if you remove all of the South Park brand and content, stripping them bare to their core ideas, both games are still solid and fun RPGs. The combat systems, progression, and general flow and pacing are so good in and of themselves, that the South Park setting just enhances it to make them great games. Pirates of the Enchiridion, on the other hand, feels like it’d be entirely lifeless if it couldn’t ride on the coattails of its licensing.
Conclusion
Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion feels like a return to the old days of licensed video games. The developers took a classic genre in the turn-based RPG, boiled it down to its core mechanics, and plastered the Adventure Time setting and characters onto it with far too few original ideas. Even though it feels like a faithful recreation of the show’s personality and charm thanks to the original cast and solid writing, the uninspired gameplay drags down any goodwill it builds between encounters.
Comments 36
Retail release planned or not ?
The graphics in this game are lovely, so I was really expecting the gameplay to be up to snuff. Bummer.
Being shallow and uninspired sounds exactly like what I would have expected from an Adventure Time game in 2018.
Harsh.
Adventure Time deserved better games
Have to disagree about Adventure Time games being traditionally poor. Haven't played "Investigates" but I've enjoyed the others... Sometimes a bit - others thoroughly.
I'm not going to knock the game for being mechanically uninspired. So long as the controls are responsive, I'm good.
Having the atmosphere feel like the cartoon is a nice touch that makes this an eventual buy for me.
Kinda odd that CN green lighted an Adventure Time game in 2018 when the channel barely shows the thing. I’m surprised that there’s no TTG to the movies tie in game for better or worse.
Still gonna get this, as well as the 3DS games at some point. I just became a fan of the series last year after having binged the entire thing, twice.
The tv show has an immense amount of depth and character delevopment. As long as the games continue the stories, and have have the humor, I’m down for the ride. I can forgive blah mechanics/controls if the story/humor are worth it, and vice versa.
I was really hoping this would be good. I LOVE the 3DS game and was hoping this would continue that awesome gameplay and character. It looks to me like a Wind Waker x Adventure Time love-child. But what I feel hurt this for me is the lack of information leading up to its release. I had this preordered and cancelled at the last minute because I had little to no incentive to buy it. It looked just like a basic RPG— looks like I was right!
Now I’m not saying I’m never buying this... but I am saying I’m waiting until it comes way down in price.
So, the best Adventure Time game is still Adventure Pals? Bummer, there's so much potential there.
@terry93 yes
Adventure Time: Secret of the Nameless Kingdom was basically a toned down--but still fairly challenging--clone of Zelda: LTTP on PS3. It was really good and had some puzzles I actually had to Google the answers for. It was the only AT game I ever played, and I quite liked it.
This game doesn't interest me in the slightest though; sounds beneath my seasoned RPG interests.
@Dualmask you're thinking of Secret of the Nameless Kingdom. It was on most systems not just PS3
Still gonna buy it. The jokes seem to be there so it’ll probably be lots of fun
@AfterAnAutopsy yeah, I googled it and realized it after the fact. I just happened to have played it on PS3, didn't know it was on other systems.
I would have appreciated it if the reviewer had commented on the soundtrack, the graphics, the frame rate/performance on the switch in both docked and handheld mode. I'm not saying it's a bad review, it just seems to be lacking many essential points that would help myself and others inform their purchase.
@shinynewbicycles length, dungeons?, bosses, companions, and skills/upgraded?, were what I was also looking for.
Doesnt matter much, buying it anyway, due to my kids, but wanted to know if it was worth my time as well.
Adventure Time (the cartoon) is extremely overrated.
I noticed the developers are former members of Climax Studios. The developer of an original Xbox title I really enjoyed, Sudeki. As soon as I found that out, I preordered a copy. I hope this game has a similar amount of charm that game possessed.
I feel like every Adventure Time game so far has just been a cheap cash-in.
sounds like every other garbage adventure time game. No suprise here
I ''ll check more reviews before buying this . It looks great though
Card Wars was fun, the other adventure time games though..not so much. They all looked great though. Maybe it's just hard to live up to how awesome the show is.
Makes me want to play Wind Waker. Wish we could get the HD version on switch!
Still trying to burn through Hey Ice King. Everytime I play it, I tell myself I should watch the show. I've been telling myself that for 9 years now. Maybe one day..
@Pichuka97, You should watch the show there are some really great episodes not every episode is a winner but the good ones are really good and definitely worth a watch .
I was hoping this game would turn out better than the last game which I thought was horrible, so a pass for me there are way to many excellent games to play on Switch to waste time on this . It is a shame though I really like the show it deserves a great game, maybe someday.?
@Magician you shush your filthy mouth
So gutted about this. There have been so many AT games made and all fall short. Was really hoping that being so close to the end of the series that we would get a good game.
@Toshiro_Baloney Im actually with the reviewer on this one. I bought and enjoyed hey ice king the first time through though once I played it on hard mode I immediately realized how shallow and barebones the game's design was. I had the misfortune of buying explore the dungeon because I dont know and that was one of my worst 3ds purchases I've ever made. (to this date it's the only 3ds game I've played that's crashed multiple times within seconds of starting up the game)
@Romeo-75 It's bound to happen. I think if Adventure Time got a VR game in the same vein as Virtual Rickality, a VR Adventure Time game could also be hilarious as well as fun for the fans. Pretty confident that if WayForward had another go at the license, they could make a great game out of it as well
At first, I thought "pirates of the hand-dagger? I would expect most pirates to use daggers - not sure why that would make any particular group of pirates special..." But then I remembered that, while that's what the word means in ancient Greek historical works (where it literally translates as "small handheld thing"), it later was used to refer to small books summarizing philosophical or theological systems, usually Stoic or Christian, implying that the basics of the faith should be kept close at all times as a method of defense like a dagger. I know nothing about the plot, but I suspect that either they have a dagger or they follow a series of philosophical teachings.
I would buy a game where Ooo is flooded and the main characters respond by becoming stoics though. "I got a game over again. This is the will of the universe, and it is good"
Not that many reviews out on any platform yet, but 5/10 seems to be slightly lower than the general consensus. The average seems to be roughly 6,5/10 at the moment.
The Adventure time game for the 3DS became repetitive after 30 min. It’s sad that this game has as much depth as the 3DS one..so much potential. I’ll pass on this
Huh, "the old days of licensed video games," you mean back in the 90's when many of them were actually good or at least above-average? How does an average review like this fit a comparison like that? Don't you mean the modern days of licensed video games, when most of them range from average to absolute trash?
I wish the reviewer would just be honest with everyone. It takes forever to load when you have to restart and boss battles take ages to load as well. Why don't you tell everyone about all the problems this game has? Big day one patch fixed none of this. Save your money until this is properly fixed, people.
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