Max's Pirate Planet - A Board Game Adventure

Say "pirate-themed family boardgame" to me and all I can think of is Pop-up Pirate.

It was one of those gimmicky, plasticky novelty family games that somehow acted like catnip to any pre-pubescent who so much as glanced at its gaudy box.

Max's Pirate Planet - A Board Game Adventure is a rather different brand of pirate-themed family boardgame, but there's the familiar whiff of novelty about it.

One of the chief benefits of digital boardgames is that the board itself doesn't necessarily have to conform to the flat, square formula. The board here is spherical, and is populated by a few tiny islands and four human or AI pirate players.

Yep, it's a pirate planet.

Players take it in turns (on the same handset) to flick a spinner and move between one and four spaces on the board. The goal is to collect four treasure chests, at which point you'll be whisked off to engage Barnacle Bill in combat for the overall win.

You can also collect cards along the way, which can do things like move you additional spaces or take you directly to the nearest treasure chest. It's an extremely simple setup that's uncommonly easy to pick up for a boardgame.

In addition to moving about the board and collecting treasure chests there are three situations in which you'll be required to take part in one of Max's Pirate Planet's mini-games.

The first is when you pick up a treasure chest, at which point you'll be required to fend off the creatures guarding it. This can mean dodging a rampaging whale or tapping away at a bunch of bats.

There's also a suite of duel-based mini-games to play when you land on the same square as an opponent. One sees you matching a swipe prompt in order to out-fence your opponent, while another sees you trading cannon shots. The winner pinches one chest from the loser.

Finally, there's the end-game run in with Barnacle Bill himself, which is a case of flicking cannonballs at him as he scarpers behind his piles of gold.

None of these mini-games is particularly nuanced. In fact, they're extremely shallow to the point that they become a chore when they come around for the dozenth time.

More importantly, the Barnacle Bill face-off one feels completely out of place in tone and toughness - it's clearly been engineered to keep you stuck at the end point while your opponents attempt to catch up.

So Max's Pirate Planet - A Board Game Adventure is an extremely basic and repetitive boardgame, but it's not all bad.

The presentation is first class, with attractive and cartoony 3D models, fine animation, and bright (if repetitive) audio.

In fact, this presentation inclines us to ease off the game's faults a little. This is clearly a lowest common denominator family game, by which we mean that it's been built with young kids in mind as the primary audience.

Played in such a setting (as a single-player offering it's really not worth a damn), adults will no doubt get their kicks from seeing the younger ones joyfully interacting with this well-drawn world.

Of course, the best boardgames manage to appeal to all ages and levels on their own merits. But then, Max's Pirate Planet - A Board Game Adventure clearly doesn't belong in such esteemed company.