Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End was one of this year's biggest blockbuster films. It grossed over 900 million dollars, and knowing what kind of money-making franchise they have on their hands, Disney produced a game to accompany the movie - for every system currently on the market! While Eurocom developed the At World's End games for most systems, they didn't touch the Nintendo DS version. This job was up to Amaze Entertainment, most likely because they also developed the prequel, Dead Man's Chest. I can't compare this game to its elder siblings, but if they're anything like this one then they're probably not worth looking at.

I'm never one to spoil things, whether they are movies, games, books, or leftover food! Apparently, the guys at Amaze Entertainment have the same mindset. If you've seen the movie, you'll find out that the game is absolutely nothing like it. Sure, the same characters are in it and the places you'll visit are kind of like they are in the movie, but the story of the game doesn't follow the movie at all. You'll venture to places like Singapore and Davy Jones' Locker, but they're going to be much different than you remember. In the movie, Davy Jones' Locker is a barren desert. Not a bony wasteland with cliffs, monstrous skeletons and undead pirates. Obviously the game was made like this to spice the areas up and make them more interesting, but in my opinion, it would have been much nicer had they stuck to the story and stuck with what the areas should have looked like. The final product seems more like your typical action/adventure game with the Pirates license slapped on - and that's one of my biggest problems with the game; with the exception of some gameplay elements, At World's End is just like most other games in the genre. It's a shame too, because this license had a lot of potential.

Set in a 3D world, you play as Jack Sparrow, Elizabeth Swann and Will Turner, jumping, climbing and fighting your way across each level. During your journey you face obstacles such as pirates, crocodiles, endless pits and, erm, more pirates! You need to keep a close eye on your health bar, which deteriorates when you are hit by enemies, caught by explosions or chomped on by crocodiles. Luckily there are regular checkpoints, because you're bound to die - a lot. This isn't because it's a challenge though - the game is very easy and any hardcore gamer will breeze through it in four or five hours - you're going to die a lot because of the absolute lack of depth perception. You see, it's incredibly hard to tell exactly where something is, whether it's a dangling rope or a floating platform, in relation to where you are. Because of this, a lot of the gameplay is very trial and error, and there are far too many instances where you have to make leaps of faith over and over again, just so you can finally latch onto that one rope or jump onto that crocodile's back. It's absolutely painstaking and much too frustrating when there hasn't been a checkpoint for a while, jump, die and then have to repeat the whole section another five times until you finally get it right. I cannot stress how big a problem this is, and it's easily the biggest flaw in the game.

At least the controls are simple and easy to use. Attacking consists of pressing Y over and over and over again, and there's little incentive to mix it up, unless you really want to be fancy and perform special counters or use special items. The X button is context-sensitive; you can use it to kick a blocking enemy to break their block, or counter with your special attack by timing the button press just right, when a pirate skull flashes above the enemy's head. Also, if an enemy hasn't noticed you yet, you can sneak up behind them for a comical sucker punch, which is a one hit kill. It's funny how you can slice up your enemy, slashing them over ten times, and not kill them, yet one simple punch from behind takes them down. You'll find four special weapons scattered all over the levels that you use with the right shoulder button; a tar bomb to slow enemies, a dagger to poison them, the flash bomb for a temporary stun effect and the whip, which kills with one or two hits. Using these items depletes your 'savvy' bar, kind of like a skill bar but with a different name - savvy? You can jump and block, although I didn't use either in combat, as there is simply no need.

You gain extra items during your adventure, which give you extra abilities to negotiate the landscape, like the bamboo pole to vault across platforms, the torch to burn obstacles out of the way, the grappling rope to swing over gaps and hooks to grab onto netting. Each level creatively puts these items to use once you've got them, never forgetting about any of them as the game progresses. The bottom screen shows collectibles like the gold you've collected to unlock artwork, and the Calypso's Tears you've found in treasure chests, which increase your health or savvy maximum for every six you pick up. Some treasure chests also contain map segments, which allow you to visit other islands and secret levels.

The enemies are pretty stupid and boring to fight; pressing the same button fifteen times to kill one guy isn't exactly what you'd call fun. After a while I stopped fighting completely, unless I needed to fight in order to trigger an event. The enemies either try to attack you, which they almost never get a chance to, or to block your attacks. And if they try to block your attack, they literally just wait there until you kick them and then pummel them. When there are multiple enemies, they try to attack you simultaneously, but they're just as easy to evade and defeat. The poor AI is also visible with other things, like when you try to sneak up on an enemy and they supposedly don't see you. One time I had two guys with their backs turned to me, so I snuck up behind one of them and sucker punched him. The other one turned around and just walked away, so I sucker punched him too. I know if my best friend just collapsed after being punched in the face by a guy who was obviously right behind him, I wouldn't turn around, look at the guy and walk past him! I'd probably run away - but that's beside the point!

Probably the most entertaining part of the game is the dueling. Every couple of levels, you have a one-on-one duel with another character, such as Davey Jones or Mistress Ching - and even against Jack Sparrow at one point. Dueling uses both the touch screen and the d-pad (or the face buttons if you're left handed). To attack you draw shapes on the touch screens. You start out with fast and weak attacks, the horizontal and vertical slash, but as you progress, Captain Barbossa teaches you new moves. Drawing a U shape lands a harder, but slower attack, and drawing a Z unleashes the most powerful and slowest attack. But don't think you'll get off that easy, as your opponent fights back and you must block their move using the d-pad or face button that corresponds to the direction of the attack (up or X to block a high attack and so on). If you time it just right and block your enemy's attack right before he's about to hit you, you can parry his attack, which gives you just enough time to counter-attack. Once you've depleted you're your opponent's life, you have to draw a final figure that lands the finishing blow. The duels are exciting and fun, making good use of the touch screen, but there are only nine duels in all and they are fairly short.

I hate having to give my opinion of the graphics on the DS, I really do. On one hand, they might look really pretty - for the DS. But compared to everything else these days, where HD and pretty graphics are king, you can't honestly say that any DS game really blows you away visually. At World's End makes this even harder, because the graphics aren't terrible, so I can't bash it for that. But they're not excellent either. The 3D character models look just enough like their real-life counterparts to tell who's who. When you're actually playing your character is quite small and lacking in detail, while the frequent cut scenes show the characters in bigger, uglier detail. There's little variation in your enemies, which look pretty ugly as well, and there are as little as three types to fight on some islands, including undead pirates and the East India Trading Company. The headshots that appear during a cut scene don't look great either, and Chow Yun-Fat looks nothing like Sao Feng in his duel, which seemed weird, as he's no stranger to video games. At least the frame rate always stays consistent, remaining smooth when you slice your enemies into human shish kabobs.

The levels you visit look pretty nice, as you move through the jungle of Isla Cruces, the Singapore village and the undead wastleand of Davy Jones' Locker, but they're still not mind blowing; you have the occasional shrubs and boxes, some bones and some fire, but the levels are pretty generic. Yet they are varied and you'll never feel like you're in an area that looks just like another one. They're also pretty long and in some cases they might get a little boring, mainly because of how dull the gameplay is. At times I felt myself begrudgingly trudging along just so I could finish the level and get it over with. Each level is broken up by a visit to the Black Pearl, and this ship is probably the most impressive thing to look at in the game, as it looks just like its big screen counterpart. Here you can change your outfit, check ou the unlocked artwork and piece together the map segment's you've found.

The music in the Pirates movies is great - there's no denying that. Luckily, the DS game retains some of this glory and while you won't be hearing the full soundtrack on this itty-bitty cartridge, you will hear some familiar orchestrated pieces. It's definitely a pleasure to hear the Pirates theme when you're browsing the Black Pearl. In addition, each of the levels has its own soundtrack, each fitting the theme nicely, like the spooky tones when you're in Davy Jones' Locker, although some of the tunes are forgettable. The sound effects and voices are excellent though, with convincing effects for sheathing and swinging your sword, as well as the resultant clank or thud as you land blows. The game might not use the film's voice actors, but coming out of the DS's two tiny speakers, it's hard to tell the difference; it may not be Johnny Depp talking, but it sure sounds like it.

You can whistle through the game in a few short hours, and while you can go back to find all the secrets, the motivation to do so is low due to the boring gameplay and the lack of rewards to entice you. Even though you get a compass that leads you to each of the treasure chests, I personally just couldn't be bothered. You can also head into the cargo hold and play a game of Liar's Dice with Gibbs, the cup and dice game seen in the movies. However, it's largely down to luck and won't keep your interest for more than a couple of games. If you happen to have a friend that owns the game, you can wirelessly duel them, a cool feature that would have benefited from game sharing. Liar's Dice is also available in multiplayer and there's even some cheats you can unlock by visiting the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction in Orlando! It's just not enough though, and more innovation like ship-to-ship battles would have been very much welcome to spice things up a bit.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End wasn't the most exciting movie. It was good, but it did have parts where I wished it would move on quicker. The At World's End game had me feeling the same way. There are action-packed parts, but other parts are pretty boring. Average graphics don't help the game's cause either, although at least it runs smoothly and the music is good. However, with the game over in a few short (and mostly dull) hours, and little in the way to entice you back, there's not an awful lot of treasure to be found in this particular chest.

Reviewed by Ryan Brenner for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).