LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game

LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game by Traveller's Tales applied the studio's proven Lego formula to the Captain Jack Sparrow film series. The game retells the plot of the first four Pirates of the Caribbean movies, from The Curse of the Black Pearl to On Stranger Tides, in the style players have come to expect from Lego adaptations - no spoken dialogue, just pantomimed, comedically exaggerated cutscenes built around scenes from the films.

Gameplay is built around cooperative puzzle-solving and platforming progress, switching between characters with different abilities - one wields a sword, another squeezes through narrow gaps, another operates a special tool needed to unlock the way forward. Environments can be smashed into studs and rebuilt into new objects, the basic building block of the entire Lego game series, and the pirate setting adds naval battles and sailing between islands on a more open map of the Caribbean, which can be freely explored after the story is finished to hunt for hidden treasure and bonus characters.

Like other Lego titles of its time, the game aimed primarily at family play and younger players, but thanks to its humor and faithful treatment of the film source material, older fans who know the movies by heart will also enjoy seeing how precisely the Lego formula can parody their most iconic scenes. The Wii version further benefited from motion controls during combat and ship sailing, letting the player literally swing a sword with the controller's movement instead of pressing buttons. Why play it: Because it offers a lighthearted, humorous, family-friendly take on a pirate adventure, ideal for playing together.