"There may be other alternatives.."

One Piece is certainly the thriving anime these days. It's an extremely popular anime in Japan (probably because it doesn't have to do with half-demons, samurai, or other random/awkward concepts that are trashy, yet still catch on in America), and is gaining momentum here in America. It is inevitable that this game will see release stateside. However, is it REALLY worth putting the time and effort into the game?

Gameplay: 6/10

At first, One Piece: Pirates Carnival looks like a big playing board, with little else to do but pick a space, play a mini-game. The winner of the mini-game gets the space, and his worth (or bounty, I'm assuming), and what I assume is the worth of your ship, increases or decreases depending on various events on that particular square.

Looking a little deeper into the game, anyone who has had a childhood not constantly camped in front of an NES or SNES will realize that One Piece: Pirates Carnival is simply Othello. Yes indeed, friends.. the very game whose motto is 'a minute to learn, a lifetime to master'.. has come to Gamecube, over glorified. But wait, there's more!

Remember those mini-games I mentioned before? They vaguely remind me of Mario Party.. oh, wait, that's because they pretty much ARE Mario Party knock-offs! Though all of the mini-games are One Piece themed (such as diving for treasure, jumping on Buggy's head, and throwing forks at your own 'nakama'), there are a few that are actually very inventive, and set the game apart from Mario Party mini-game madness. Similarly, many of the endings to the mini-games are amusing, often getting a chuckle from you.

Still, I figured it best to point out the fact that it is merely Othello, One Piece themed, with mini-games in there to keep the game from making you cry (from boredom). Instead, you will cry from the length of the games. On the second or so board alone, it took nearly three and a half hours to complete the entire board from start to where the winner is decided.

Mercifully, the game includes an option that allows you to save your progress mid-game and start from that point later. Of course, if you can't read Japanese, then you'll have to figure out the save option through trial and error. Mmmm. Confusion.

Despite these pitfalls, the One Piece mini-games are so excellently themed that, at first, the game sucks you in and you're addicted for the first three boards. Then you kind of wish you had all that time back so you could do something more productive.

Graphics: 6/10

The graphics for this installment of the game is not unlike that of the semi-popular One Piece: Grand Battle (Grand Battle: Rush! for those that have imported the Japanese copy, to which I say, smart move!). The characters are all SD, cel-shaded. To give those out there some idea of what they look like.. they are smaller versions of their One Piece personas. While this is cute at first, it can quickly become annoying. For some reason, it grated on my nerves after a while.

The game itself, however, is typical of a One Piece game. It's very colorful, and any good fan will be able to point out things or characters (sometimes so obscure they may not even remember/know them). Before the game, you get a look at the theme of the board (basically, East Blue, Grand Line, and Skypiea), but after that, good luck looking down at it and seeing anything specific. Which is a shame, because a lot of the places are actually a little cool to look at.

Sounds/Music: 5/10

Anyone who likes the Japanese voices will have a ball with this game. Shonen Jump brought back voice actors to do voice acting for even the most obscure characters. Which is interesting, because Pirates Carnival has A LOT of dialogue in it. That is, if you can understand Japanese, let it be in a textual sense, or just through the talking.

The music is very typical of One Piece. Sad to say it, but the music is happy-go-lucky, if not extremely optimistic, even if you're getting your butt whipped. I almost feel like I'm at a carnival sometimes when I listen to the music. Either that, or a low-budget action flick.

Bells and Whistles: 3/10

As far as extras go, the opening movie is actually very nice.. not to mention, you gain artwork as you play through the game, but nothing you probably can't search up on Google. Still, give 'em points for trying, huh?

Final Score: 5/10

I hate to give the game such a low score, but frankly, the game just can't balance out its negatives with the positives. Because you can really only import this game now, if you do so, prepare to be addicted.. for about a day or so. Twelve hours will fly by very, very quickly.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 01/02/06