Pirates: The Legend Of Black Kat sees you placed in the shoes of the aforementioned Black Kat in a quest to find the secret behind her mother's death. A journey that spans many islands and battles both on sea and land it ultimately leaves you wanting more than it can give you.

Gameplay:
There are two distinct parts to the game.

1. Sea Battles. Arrrr.
2. Land-lubbing action/adventuring.

However, neither feels as polished as they should and combine to make an awkward, scrappy game. The sea battles have you pitted against one or multiple foes, be it other pirate ships or fortresses on the land you are attacking from the sea. You can upgrade your ship with gold and treasure you collect along the way from the island adventuring but no amount of pseudo-RPG ness will take away the fact that all you do is go round and round in circles shooting cannonballs at your opponent. It's just exactly the same battle repeated many, many times.

Similar criticism is levelled at the island combat which has you pitted against apes, crabs, pirates and skeletons amongst others. All is needed is for you to repeatedly tap the A button to dispose of the stupid no-AI opponents. Oh, and they regenerate too. Fun. Occasionally you'll face a boss creature whether it be the man Blackbeard himself or a Giant Crab or?. I really don't care when the gameplay is this repetitive.

Graphics:
Initially I was impressed with the lovely water effects and the general look of the game but this again, becomes very samey. While it's in keeping with the feel of the rest of the game, this is the X-Box and more effort is expected. Blandness soon sets in as you repeatedly encounter the same textures again and again, if it was like this in times gone by, you realise what it was that made the pirates a bit mad. Unsurprisingly from a game of this nature there is slowdown. Oh yes, there are some serious bottlenecks in the code to make the game slowdown when it looks as average as this. Admittedly it mostly happens when you blow up a rival pirate ship and it explodes in flames but is still quite shocking that it happens anyway.

Sound:
The sound is equally as uninspiring. It all works ok, but doesn't stand out as a sonic masterpiece. Ok, it's quite limited in scope but it seems as much effort has been put into the sound as the rest of the game so it's not that surprising.

Longevity:
Initially intriguing, Pirates: The Legend Of Black Kat soon becomes repetitive and even quicker after that, a chore. It holds little charm and fails to inspire, leaving you with the same levels to play over and over again. The action is limited in scope as is the adventuring, and all makes for a short lived game.

Round Up:
There are too many things that have to be addressed to make this game anywhere near great, but then it never seems to aspire to greatness. It seems quite content to languish in the overflowing cesspit of average games we are inundated with. The controls are average, the gameplay is average, the graphics and sound are average, everything's just

Pros:

• Um, not much really
  

  Cons:
  

  • Repetition
    
  • Repetition
    
  • Bloody REPETITION!