Plunderer's Adventure | Nintendo Switch

Nothing says ADULT like a game about ill gotten booty. Get your mind out of the gutter, lol! It's ill gotten booty of the golden kind ... and maybe some of the girly sort ...

As female pirate Captain Riley your plunderous adventures at sea come with a high cost. Not only are you chasing booty of two kinds, and ships of notorious fame, but you're also out to upgrade your own ship as well. All while amassing a crew of faithful female followers. That crew being an all girl casting whom you must protect with your bullets, and spells as you defend them from pervy invaders while looting their gold to spend on your fruitful endeavors. As it is this "Plunderer's Adventure" is a super grindy arcade-like mini-game experience that has you facing off against stages of bountiful opportunity. Rewarding you in kind with lewd gallery portraits, and animated pixel art as well as the funds needed to progress further on your oceanic adult voyage.

As Captain Riley you are the one holding the line in this lane switching defense game. Behind you stands four buxom big breasted babes who you must protect with your bullets, and spells. Lest the oncoming crowd of wronged pirates and miscreants comes to collect the booty-ful crew of bouncy young lasses. At your disposal is a musket that fires single bullets which increase in distance as you hold down the fire button. That, and two other gun related spells that are assigned to either shoulder button for ease of use. There is a cooldown on the gun, and the spells alike. This is improved, and negated by spending money on ship upgrades. Said ship upgrades include the bow (shot power), sail (spell cooldown), and figurehead (spell power). By clearing waves of enemies in a lane switching fashion (moving up & down), and using your arsenal of weaponry efficiently you'll earn gold coins which can, in turn, be spent on these upgrades. This sometimes requires grinding out already completed stages several times over before advancing to the next.

Each section of gameplay features four stages with increasingly difficult to clear enemies, and a final boss stage where surviving an aggressively approaching wave minions led by the boss is the key to victory. With each stage comes an increase in the number of waves of enemies as well as an increased pacing of said enemies, and increased enemy health which is shown by a heart shaped indicator. Successfully clearing all waves, and completing the stages will score you bonus booty according to feats achieved including a new type of female shipmate. The end goal of each stage is to avoid being directly assaulted by oncoming enemies, and to protect the line of girls behind you. Getting hit directly will result in the loss of one of three lives, and a GAME OVER as will having all four of your crew taken by the opposing enemy crew. To offset the inevitability of failure crates will drop from time to time onto your ship's deck with power-ups randomly revealed. These power-ups contain extra lives, extra crew members, buffed damage, and coin multiplier. Things that will help in the efforts of completion. 

In-game access to all the features is done in a hub area where feature rich menus can be selected. There's a hero select menu with an unlockable, and playable hero. There's a map for accessing the destinations for plundering, and there's an upgrade menu for upgrading the three parts of your ship. In the way of bonuses you'll also find a gallery menu which houses lewd images, or character specific pixel animations that are unlocked as you progress. The latter includes heroes, girls, and monsters. It's the only reason for really committing time to a playthrough, and beyond that replay value is kind of null.

The Verdict ...

Plunderer's Adventure is a gimmicky game with a simple gameplay premise. You defend the girls behind you by holding the line, unlocking spells to assist in this task, and collecting gold coins for upgrading your ship for added buffs. There's a lot of grinding involved for the required currency, and unlockable features that are earned for doing these very things. It's nothing overly complicated, and is super easy to pick up on. Where the difficulty comes in is the need to grind in order to be able to complete the next stage on the map. Grinding, unfortunately, is a must and cannot be avoided as the main character will be ill prepared going in to the next stage in line. It's an artificial difficulty situation, and intentional roadblock that is obviously meant to keep the gamer invested for longer than the game deserves. Sadly, beyond that gameplay is fairly basic. It is more akin to a low effort mini-game than a fully fledged gaming experience. I also feel the game did not earn that ADULT warning at the start as there was really no full nude or overtly sexual content included. I think more than anything that the adult selling point was misleading, and a means to appease to a crowd that it will not please. In short I feel this particular indie game missed the mark of excellence, of it's intended goal, and does not warrant a recommendation. It's a kind of one and done deal with little reason to return to it after completion.