Capcom Arcade Stadium: Pirate Ship Higemaru Review (PJ150)
REVIEW #41
Capcom Arcade Stadium：PIRATE SHIP HIGEMARU
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One thing I can count on with classic game compilations is that I know I'm almost always going to discover a game that I've never heard of but absolutely love on first play. This is the case with PIRATE SHIP HIGEMARU.
If you've ever played Pengo or similar games, the gameplay will be very familiar to you. Pick up and roll barrels at pirates to knock them off of your ship, scoring bonus points if you hit multiple targets in one roll. Different enemies are worth varying point values, and some will even jump into barrels and use them as armor, requiring multiple hits to defeat. Items worth bonus points will be in barrels with open tops, and some barrels even contain items that give you invincibility for a limited time.
I like this one because it rewards the player if they find the balance between thinking and acting quickly. Watching enemy movement and plotting high-scoring moves within a split second of actually executing them is a winning strategy here, but so is quickly forming and acting on a plan B should an enemy do something that ruins your schemes. The pacing of the game isn't lightning fast, but it certainly feels like it when you're in the thick of it, especially since you need to keep watch of multiple moving baddies in order to survive.
The only issue that I've had is that, sometimes, it feels like my gamepad inputs don't register, but that could be because I'm so frantic during play that my thumbs admittedly don't hit the buttons solidly on semi-rare occasion, so I currently don't count this against PIRATE SHIP HIGEMARU. If anything, I consider that praise to Capcom for how into the game I get.