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Whenever pirates get together, they have a good old fashioned drinking session and Blackheard wakes up the morning after he and Redbeard have drunk the town dry of rum. Fearing the worst, Blackboard shoves his hand in his pocket and comes out with a handful of nothing. What he hoped to come out with was a treasure map, but it appears that Redbeard has been through that pocket already. Understandably Blackbeard wants the map back and so he sets off to get it from Redbeard's ship. Guess who's Blackbeard?

At first sight, Blackbeard looks very similar to Gauntlet. That's because it is. There are four levels to the ship and each one scrolls in four directions. Pirates are the monsters and there are treasure chests for you to empty of their contents. One of the chests has the treasure map in it, but which one? Chests can only be opened by being shot, but bullets work well on pirates too. You have to save some bullets or you won't be able to complete the game. You also have knives that can be used on pirates as well. Supplies of both can be found around the ship.

The graphics are colourful, but the scrolling is very slow. Animation is poor too. Sound effects are very limited and there are no tunes.

It's slow and it's boring. The only thing it has going for is its price, but you can pick up Gauntlet on loads of compilations and Gauntlet is much better than this. Steer clear.

Gary's last ever review for AA, and how right he is (whaddya mean, makes a change?). Get Gauntlet instead.

Loses colour - all the game had going for it to begin with!

Graphics 45%
P. Colourful sprites
N. Slow scrolling and poorly animated sprites.

Sonics 11%
N. It goes ping!

Grab Factor 49%
N. Too slow paced.
N. Finding something to do is boring.

Staying Power 42%
P. Four large levels lo explore
N. Each one is very similar though.

Overall 47%
If you can find it, get Gauntlet instead