Customer Reviews

LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

My 10 year old son loves this game. We purchased it for the Nintendo Wii the day it came out since he had waited anxiously for it's release.

In the beginning you start out in the game just as the 1st of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies starts out. You begin playing as Will, in your blacksmith shop making swords. Suddenly Captain Jack Sparrow (Lego version of course) appears and you begin to duel with swords. Each time you accomplish something in the game, or you complete a level, you watch part of the Lego version of the movie. You are actually watching the entire Pirates of the Caribbean movie done with Lego characters.

After you have completed certain areas of the game, Jack is then added to your character wheel of people you can play as in the game. As you go along, more and more characters are added to the wheel. Each level offers something new and it is by no means a game that is so simple it could be completed in a single day. It offers challenges, but is not frustrating. You actually get to play through the whole movie as you go along, so you have an idea from watching the movies what you need to do next. Having the two player option is great and a lot of fun when trying to complete more difficult goals.

While nothing is scary in the game (everyone of course being Legos), they did a tremendous job making the Lego version of the Pirate of the Caribbean just like the original. Very comical and fun to watch, this game was so very much worth the wait and a MUST HAVE for the Lego video game players out there.

We are really enjoying the game a lot, but there have been quite a few glitches and some freezing. The glitches are easy to ignore, drop out the character and get past, but the freezing is getting a little annoying, and now very frustrating. There have been at least 4 random freezes for us where we have had to unplug the wii and now three times in a row it has frozen at the same spot while trying to defeat Blackbeard on the last level. This is extreamely frustrating for my kids. I have tried looking it up online and found others with the same freezing problems, although some people having no problems at all. I am a little dissapointed especially because it is a very fun game to play. If it wasn't for the freezing, I would give the game 5 stars.

Excellent addition to the Lego Universe. Everything about this games is wonderful: music, visuals, and gameplay. Each character has his/her own way of moving about. Jack Sparrow is hilarious. Controls for this game have been perfected. Selection of characters within the game is very simple. If you love the Pirates movies and love Lego's, this is a no brainer.

I'll start off with full disclosure; I LOVE the LEGO video games! All our kids and I play them all repeatedly.

Specifically for the Pirates of the Caribbean LEGO game:
- The videos and cut scenes are fun and some are funny, but they feel forced in comparison to the Star Wars and Indiana Jones games. They are still entertaining and I didn't actually buy the game for the videos.
- There are many, many fun items and extras to unlock throughout the game; some give you benefit while playing levels others are just for fun. There is a lot of depth in this game. It would be difficult, though not impossible to beat the entire game in one day.
- The story mode is fluid in each movie; plot points are changed from the actual films, but the license taken isn't annoying.
- Free play mode allows you to switch not just between a limited set of characters (using the "1" and "2" buttons), but between all characters you have unlocked or bought (holding the "C" button down for a few seconds). This is a huge improvement over the Star Wars version where you had to take the right characters into the level, or worse, the Indiana Jones The Adventure Continues game where you had to go find the right characters in the "world" before you could play the level in free play.
- The "world" outside the levels is pretty big and fun to explore. There are items and extras you can only get after reaching a certain level of the game, or by having certain character types unlocked.

Some issues we've noticed:
- The loading screens are designed to look like paper cut-outs. The look works, but it feels wrong in the game, and the motion of the waves gets a little nauseating.
- You have to fight any characters you want to buy into submission before they can be bought. This, in itself, is not a huge issue. However, there are transitions close to where you typically find these characters and sometimes the action of the fight pushes them through the transition. If your character follows them through, you have to wait for them to reappear. Also, they will run by and, if the make it off screen before you catch them, they are just gone. Frustrating, especially for our younger kids.
- The game freezes the Wii system, quite a lot actually. I don't think I've made it through more than a couple of hours of play time without at least one freeze. Fortunately, it does auto save on occasion. However, I've also lost nearly an hour's work in a level as my Wii started to whine. I do not know if this is because our Wii is one of the first year's manufacture, or it is just the design of the game. I've found at least one place where it is easily reproduced: In the On Stranger Tides movie the last level; if we start bashing away on the plants to get studs, the game freezes every time. Instead we jump past the plants and try not to smash that section.
- The game has a fair few glitch spots. Typically you can use the "C" button to switch characters and recover, though not always.

Overall I recommend this game, but be warned on the glitches and freezes. We typically take them as a chance to walk away and enjoy some family time. :)

** UPDATE - 2011-Dec-13 **

For the freezes, I tried a suggestion posted by "Mr E "solved" (Michigan)" in their review from 2011-July-24. The suggested change DID allow me to play through the area of the On Stranger Tides final level where the game had always frozen before. I will continue to monitor for any other freeze issues going forward, but it has resolved the one easily reproduced freeze point we had.

Quoting the review, here are the steps to make the change:
- From the Wii Channel menu, point to the "Wii Options" button on the screen and press the A Button.
- At the next screen, point to Wii Settings and press the A Button.
- In the Wii Settings menu, point to Sound and press the A Button.
- Select "Stereo" or "Mono", then point to Confirm and and press the A Button. (Be sure not to select "Surround" as that seems to be the culprit)
- Point to Back and and press the A Button to return to the Wii Options menu, and again to return to the Wii Channel menu.
- Re-start Lego Pirates and see if it fixed the problem.

** UPDATE - 2012-Jan-08 **

With the above work-around in place; I started a new save game and was able to play the game to 100% with only one Wii system freeze. The freeze was not the same as the previous ones, it was related to the character switching. I won't up-rate this product as this is still a bug, a rather bad one, and the work-around above is not a fix by any means.

Sorry folks, but I have now gotten through the game and I have to say the number of bugs are frustrating, to say the least. I have downgraded this game to 3 stars because of it, and because the number of game freezes I have experienced (and we do not get that with other games). Be ready for some frustrating times....now for a little helpful hint. Don't buy anything until you can get the multipliers. The double rewards and then the 6X. You need coins to buy characters (you need blackbeard to get to certain places and get certain things), but coins are hard to come by....so, save up and once you have those two multipliers you are getting 12x the coins. Save and buy the others and you can go all the way up to 7680x! At that point you can buy anything and everything. Also, using the mermaid to push/pull things under water is quite frustrating at times. Maybe the rushed the game out? I don't know, but it could easily have been a five star game. I would have liked some better puzzles, because quite frankly, it gets very tiring finding silly quests using Jack's compass. We still play it, so it shows that it is a good game, especcially in light of the freezes, etc. Also, here is a little info on Blackbeard. He can through what seems like fireballs by quickly pressing z. If you hold the z button down for a couple of seconds it will engage the red legos (other characters cannot).

My kids and I have played every Lego Wii game (and have some doubles for PS3). My daughter especially loves the games. Her favorite being the Harry Potter game. Lego POTC starts out nicely, but you are forced to watch the entire beginning, and there are times when you are again forced to watch the animations and are not allowed to move to the actual game. That's a little annoying. Game play is smooth, although my one major complaint is when the players are far apart and the screen splits, it is sometimes impossible to see underwater when you dive. Some boards/positions require you to be close to eachother when you dive or else your character just disappears. There are grunts and sounds comming from the characters which makes it more fun to play. The female characters can double jump to reach higher places. The game play itself has a lot of interaction and the game puzzles are probably the hardest and sometimes most convuluted in the series. This is not necessarily a bad thing....but fair warning, young kids my get bored trying to figure out what to do next. My daughter (6) who almost never has gotten bored with previous games (except star wars) gets bored with this and drops out to let me get through the hard part. Even my son, (7) who is more tenacious, sometimes gives up. I, on-the-other-hand, (age left blank) like the challenge. I should note that I have not looked online for cheats, walkthroughs, etc.....I'll wait until I get really stuck.

The animation and graphics are excellent. There is a little difference now, and Captain Jack has "quests" to solve. They are little simple at times, but that's what keeps the younger kids going.

All-in-all, this is a very good game and should provide many hours of fun and challenge. I'm glad I bought it and I enjoy it. My kids enjoy it as well. I don't mind when they pass me a controller because they are stuck. It's also very close to the movies, so anyone who has seen the films will remember scenes from them...the kids like that.

I've played all the Lego games. In my opinion this isn't quite as fun as Harry Potter or Indiana Jones, but still a great play. We play the co-op mode daily. This one seems to be a bit shorter. I think we'll beat the game in under 10 hours.

I let my daughter buy the Wii version of this game new in store with a gift card without checking reviews. Big mistake. This game froze in about twenty minutes of gameplay, requiring a hard reboot of the system. Has happened now at various points of the game, making it extremely frustrating for her. If you can pick it up on clearance and can tolerate frequent crashing, you'll enjoy it. If you buy it at release price you will be very disappointed. I've tried all the 'fixes' online that have worked for others with this problem, but so far it hasn't provided a long term solution for us. Buggy release, really disappointing.

Great game! My husband and I own and love all of the Lego games (with the exception of Indiana Jones 2, which was very poorly done). This game is lots of fun for a lot of reasons, but mainly because they really paid attention to the details, my favorite being Jack Sparrow and his walk! The game play is challenging and keeps your interest. Highly recommend.

Got this 11 days earlier than expected and couldn't wait to open it up and get at it with my 5 year old son. We've been playing Lego Wii games together for 2 years and we weren't disappointed with this one. We found it easy to begin playing right away, as with all Traveler's Tales games, and are pleased to see many features from previous Lego games incorporated into this one. My favorite feature? It sounds very much as though Johnny Depp voices the grunts and noises of Jack Sparrow. Whether this is from his desire to make any Jack Sparrow experience authentic, the goodness of his heart (witness his visit to a school where a girl wrote about wanting the PoC crew to help her mutiny), or because he was contractually obligated - it makes for a funny addition to a fun game!

I've recently bought this game and started having freezes early on. At first I thought it was my Wii or I was playing for too long, but it seems as I progress further on in the game, my Wii freezes and makes a "scream" noise. I can't turn off or reset the game using the remote or console. I have to remove the power cord and reboot it. :( Very frustrating that I had to read other people having the same problem with the glitches in the game. It almost seems as though the more action going on during 2 player mode, the more likely it freezes. Every time it freezes and screams I have been playing with my spouse. My disc is brand new, my Wii is less than a year old and is well taken care of, so I know it has to be this disc. There are no scratches on the disc, and my Wii is clean and free of dust or dirt. It doesn't do this with my other games, but only with this game :( Very frustrating because I get tired of losing all the progress I made in the level and having to do the level again!

Other than the freezing & screaming sound, the game is very fun and a good challenge. I love the Lego series, and Pirates of the Caribbean which follows the movie pretty well. Just as fun as Indiana Jones!

I did contact customer support for Nintendo, so hopefully there is a remedy! This game is not on their list of specific games with issues, but I did check the Disney site since they are the publishers and it appears that they have already been notified of this issue. Hopefully this will save you the trouble of possibly injuring your Wii!! :)

If the game didn't freeze on me (already @ least 5 times!!!) I would give it 5 stars, but because of this issue, I am still being kind and giving them a 3.