Buccaneers Shipshape (PC) CO-OP Playthrough/Come on, lads, and take what's yours if you dare to try!
6Buccaneers Shipshape (2025) by Merso Entertainment is a beat 'em up set on the high seas, full of pirates hungry for riches and fame. In the game, we play as a small group of pirates whose treasure map is stolen and ship hijacked by the rival Captain Winters.
The game is a typical beat 'em up with a classic approach to the subject, without any major surprises, but it is so varied that it is basically fun from start to finish.
The variety is mainly due to the different solutions implemented during the levels, such as vertically scrolling levels, many traps and terrain obstacles, and interesting events that affect the level.
Graphically, the game may not be too interesting, and I would even venture to say that it resembles what we saw in Sunset Riders on Nintendo Snes. So, in fact, nothing extraordinary, but it does the job well enough that the level of graphics doesn't bother you at all.
The combat system is standard to the point of pain, as usual, one basic combo, a grab, two attacks for both jumping and running, and two special attacks. One of them regenerates, and when the bar is full, we can perform an attack that varies depending on the character, as well as a special attack that requires collecting cages with parrots. After using them, we summon a parrot for a fairly long time to help us in battle.
In terms of difficulty, this is basically one of the easier beat 'em ups we've played, as we managed to complete it on our first attempt without any major problems. The bosses have such simple and predictable behavior that they don't pose much of a threat, and their design is rather ordinary, with no major surprises.
We think that “no major surprises” sums up this game quite well, but of course not in a negative way. Despite the fact that it is simple in almost every respect, the game is a "well rounded" title worth playing it once to quickly get through it and move on to the next game.
Buccaneers is basically two games, the main one and the second one, which is a kind of kung fu clone, where you go right and don't let any opponents get close to you, turning them into pulp. But neither of them is good enough in any way to justify the current price, which is a bit too high. If it were half the price, it would definitely be a must-have game, but as it is, you can just pass it by... save your money and buy something better. Although the game isn't bad, it's short and offers rather little content. It's definitely playable, but we would recommend waiting for a price reduction.
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"Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio"