Back in primary school, we used to play this variant of Go, called Kepung (Malay for “to surround”) just by using pen and pages from the mathematics exercise books (they’ve got ready made gridlines in there). The objective was pretty simple and if I recall properly, you are supposed to surround as many grid boxes as possible.
XecuDev’s latest iPhone game, Pirate Lines, works along the lines (no pun intended) of Go and Kepung, but with the added iOS bells and whistles and some really interesting gameplay enhancements. The latter exist in the form of bonus objectives in keeping with the whole pirate theme. Surrounding grids with stuff like treasure boxes and maps will net the player bonus points while other items such as skulls will result in the opposite. Grabbing normal grid boxes nets players a point and an extra move.
I need to mention here that I really like the game’s cheery art direction. It’s very cute.
The opponent AI is no pushover and while I read somewhere that coding for Go games can be a real pain given the amount of strategies involved, it seems that XecuDev did a pretty good job. Players can also challenge their friends or other people through same-device play, Bluetooth or via the Internet. Pirate Lines comes with 48 levels and given the difficulty level involved, any player will take some time with the game.
Nine Over Ten 9/10 rates Pirate Lines at a 4.5 out of 5 for being a challenging puzzle game with plenty of value. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. The game is available on the iTunes App Store for USD 0.99. Check it out over here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pirate-lines/id528946561?mt=8
