Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion - Standard (Nintendo Switch)

• Explore the Land of Ooo freely, discover secrets and collect loot with playable fan-favourite characters, Finn, Jake, BMO and Marceline.
• Set sail across the high seas between kingdoms and venture into uncharted territories to figure out what’s going on.
• Upgrade your heroes, use items, spells, potions and unique ultimate hero abilities to battle bad guys in fast-paced tactical combat.
• An all new Adventure Time story, voiced by the series cast.

Finn and Jake start out on the never-before-seen Ocean of Ooo after their home mysteriously floods overnight. The map gives the illusion of vastness, presenting itself as open with islands dotted here and there, almost akin to The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. In practice, it feels more like an overworld map, or a hub for smaller levels. Instead of letting you freely explore the islands, each one has a set path with linear puzzles to complete. Worse, it takes so long to get from one island to another across the almost barren waters that it becomes less of an open world and more of an empty-feeling one. Much of the game sees the heroes exploring popular landmarks of the show, hunting for clues to their current mystery. Navigating the world is a genuine treat as colours burst from the screen, yet the exploration is stunted and shallow. Gameplay outside of fighting comes down to wandering around, smashing props that reward items and money, or fetching quests that force you to wander back and forth delivering random items to citizens as side-quests. This somewhat robs the game of its fun, because platforming is minimal and the extra abilities from Jake – transforming into a scooter or growing in size to climb up to ledges – appear forced. There’s no need to speed around on Jake’s back, and his growing only really replaces the need for ladders, but it does so with an Adventure Time spin. While out exploring, enemies will approach for fights that are quite unavoidable, although the game hints that you could lose them if you tried. It’s pointless; pretty much every section of the game requires the player to wade through groups of foes to progress. Fights play out as turn-based affairs, reminiscent of JRPGs. Standard attacks are the bread and butter, steadily building an abilities gauge at the top of the screen that unleashes larger attacks. For example, Jake can spin like a tornado slapping at enemies. Later, he upgrades to transforming his hands into axes, so it costs a little more. The balance here is interesting and adds an extra layer of strategic nuance. Of course, items can be used to buff and debuff the party – which later extends to characters – and a superpower meter accompanies each hero and is filled via certain actions. Finn needs to land hits, whereas Marceline needs to deliver the finishing blows to enemies. Once the super meter is full, clicking the left thumbstick will result in a devastating attack.