Buccaneers Shipshape

A true love letter to the beat 'em ups of the '80s and '90s, which vastly improved upon the original game. The pet helper system brings a fresh feel to the gameplay, and fighting underwater (while being able to drink beer!) is a lot of fun. It has some very creative scenarios, like the Super Scaler-style carriage fight and the rooftop fight. I recommend the game; it's a lot of fun!

I don't want to be "that" person, but I wish there was a mixed review option. On one hand, the characters look cool, and the music/sound is really great, though I might be nuts as I thought i heard the same track on stage 3 again on a later stage. The stages themselves are pretty cool and nicely detailed. so why the thumbs down? In my hour and a half of playing, I've had three crashes. One, I got stuck at a stage clear screen after a boss. Two, I was way further in the game, and my game just decided to crash. Three, I once again got stuck on the stage clear screen. The combat, is just "okay". There's not much in terms of meat here, you got your basic X combo, a bird to help you in fights, a super move and thats about it. I really don't want to downvote a beat em up as I adore this genre and have since i was a little kid, but the crashes and the combat just really don't do it for me. Devs- Please fix the crashing and I'll gladly update my review, I don't like leaving bad reviews because while this could be a fun experience, the constant crashing leaves me with a lot to be desired.

Got to the final boss... got folded... game said lol cya... kicked my ass back to the title screen. But I appreciate the hustle.

Reviewed on 7/26/2025 Buccaneers is a perfect beat em up! Controls: 10/10 Smooth and responsive controls with more depth than you would expect Graphics: 10/10 Beautiful pixel graphics! Backgrounds are more than just eye candy, they make sense and add to the game Music: 10/10 Catchy themes that sound great, stick with you and fit the pirate theme of the game Overall: 10/10 This game is short and sweet. Checks all the boxes of a classic beat-em-up, has multiple endings, and will have you replaying it multiple times! Definitely worth the price! I recommend!

It's pretty short for the asking price. But it's nice. Cool vertical scrolling sections, don't see too many of those. Nice unique animations for some levels. Could use difficulty settings for replayability.

I truly love this genre and it's great to see a project like this that keeps it to the basics, gets the presentation right, and comes together very well. And it's a remake to boot, but a MASSIVE overhaul of a remake (about the same jump from Buccaneers 1989 to this as Ninja Warriors Again to Once Again, though NWA was a much better game than Buccs '89) even with some jankiness brought on by the OpenBOR engine. If you're the kind of guy who likes their beat-em-ups the most when you throw an enemy and they become a projectile that can knock down entire crowds or chip away at a boss, you will LOVE this game, as that's the best overall strategy and it's damn fun to do. Each character is just different enough and the timed meter + limited parrot summons (on top of making sure you get enough gold to max out your lives) gives it solid resource management even though the meter only really returning over time is a bit lame. The difficulty curve is excellent even if it's on the easier side, with every single stage standing out from the rest in terms of the enemies and gameplay elements (even if Stages 2 & 3 limit your moveset a bit); I 1cc'd the game with Portia which was only my 2nd playthrough (but also Portia is very strong) and I usually don't even get to the point of 1ccing games I've spent much more time on. I've also put about 5 minutes into the recreation of 1989 and thanks for the gesture of preserving it but wow it's bad. The long and short of it is if you LOVE beat-em-ups, you should absolutely play Shipshape. If you just like arcade games and/or pirates, it's still a fun quick game with 4-player co-op.

Video: https://youtu.be/xHWTC1d8p-s I'll start by saying the game took me about 40 minutes to finish. I'd say the price of $11.69 is higher than I'd of liked for such a short time of gameplay. But, that's because I don't particularly have an interest in playing this a second time around. It's a decent Beat 'em Up if you're nostalgic for the late 80s and early 90s. But, in the end it isn't a very substantial game. There are multiple characters, a handful of different enemy types, and it's all entertaining enough in that 40 minutes. Just not something that will likely pull me in for round 2. But hey, if you like beating up pirates and stuff then this might be a good choice for you. I have no regrets, I'd just recommend this on a deeper sale.

Годный ремейк на Openbor'е. Движениями, анимациями и эпизодами вроде сёрфинга напоминает мою любимую TMNT: Turtles in Time. Одно "но": игра слишком короткая по современным меркам.

I love beat 'em ups a lot and while there's some good ones there's also a lot of boring ones. This is definitely a highly enjoyable one. 1-4 player local co-op, normal and now hard difficulties, and it even includes the original 1989 arcade game as a bonus. It controls really fluid, has tons of variety across it's stages, enemies and bosses. The story is goofy in a good way, pixel art is fantastic and a really catchy soundtrack to boot. This checks all the boxes for what I look for in these types of games, definitely check this one out. If you're interested in my full review check below for a link to my video review which also covers the improvements that were made since release. Video Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bLBHakN4LU

Excellent beat 'em up game. Very fun and addictive, especially for those who love retro gaming. Highly recommended!