One Piece: Pirates Carnival review

Mario Party practically invented the party game, a sort of video board game where winning relied almost as much on luck as actual skill. Love it or hate it, the thing sold gangbusters, inspiring a legion of clones often based on kiddy anime licences. One Piece: Pirates' Carnival is the latest of these, featuring the lovable and wacky cast of Shonen Jump's famous "One Piece" manga / anime. But unlike most of its peers, Pirates' Carnival does enough stuff right to actually make it worth a play or three for dedicated series fans.

Instead of a Candy Land-style loop, Pirates' Carnival is played on a small grid of squares. Each of the four players takes turns flipping over tiles, which lead to either mini-games or one-time, random events which affect the board. The winner of a mini-game captures the tile and scores a bunch of cash, and play continues until all of the tiles are flipped, at which point cash is tallied.

However, a bit of strategy comes in with Othello -style tile stealing. Surround a foe's tiles with your own and those tiles -- and their cash values -- are instantly yours. This being a typical party game, however, other random occurrences can and do pop up to turn the tables and make you curse your foul luck.