After initiating an attack on the character, you will watch an animation and madly mash the B button to gain an advantage when the swords are locked. The handheld version also adds in a special Pirate Duel mechanic when fighting major characters and bosses. Many of the environments are the same, but some of the puzzles and means of getting through the levels is a little different. The portable version of LEGO Pirates is similar to its console big brothers. The in-game artwork is also less detailed and more comic book-looking than the other versions, but it gets the job done. While it's not nearly as fancy, a series of stills from the movies would have been a better option. The artifacts are so severe in some places that you can't even make out what's going on. While I can appreciate wanting to use these cut scenes, the video is so compressed that it looks worse than most streaming videos you'll find on YouTube. Shortened versions of the cut scenes from the console versions are used to tell the story. My personal favorite is how Jack Sparrow's running animation makes him look like an intoxicated buffoon. The goofy nature of the Pirates of the Caribbean films is also a good fit for a LEGO game, and the developers take full advantage of it with character design and gameplay scenarios. This gameplay set-up is what has made the LEGO games so popular, and it continues to be fun in this latest outing. Different characters have different special abilities, and you are able to switch between members of your party at any time.

You'll run through the story and environments of all four movies, smashing everything in sight, collecting studs, pirate doubloons, red bricks, and little ships in glass bottles, while solving some simple puzzles. If you've played one, you know how they all work. LEGO Pirates is standard fare for the LEGO series.

Lego pirates of the caribbean reviews