Plunder Bros: Retro LCD game – Review

If you’re a fan of the old Nintendo handheld LCD games that were released back in the 80’s, which allowed you to do some pretty basic gaming on the go before the good old Gameboy really kicked off the mobile gaming revolution, then Plunder Bros: Retro LCD game is definitely something you should check out.

Australian developer Andrew Dittmer has launched Plunder Bros: Retro LCD game from his company Appic Win. Plunder Bros is actually a platform for a variety of these LCD based games. There are two currently available – Sink and Coco Nuts – with a third listed as coming soon. The two that are available are outrageously addictive, Sink is available free, while Coco Nuts is available via an in-game purchase which normally costs AUD$1.00 but is free at the moment using a special code which we’ll get to shortly.

One really nice thing to note about Plunder Bros: Retro LCD game is that it requires no permissions to run when you install the App from Google Play. In this day and age with over-complicated setups it’s just nice to see.

Once you’ve installed you’re presented with a screen which lists the games, but also asks you to sign in to Google Play because Plunder Bros. supports the Google Play Gaming service which actually allows you to share your scores and compete on leader boards with other players.

Sink

In ‘Sink’ you play a pirate in a rowboat catching your buccaneer chums as they jump off their ship into shark filled waters. Your rowboat can sustain a maximum of two passengers before you have to quickly row your boat to the landing point at either side of the screen to empty your rowboat and head back to catch some more of your mateys.

Your game is limited by the five ‘lives’ you’re given to start your game off; as you lose buccaneers to Davy Jones’ Locker you lose a life. The game starts off slowly at a nice pace but builds as you catch more and more of the buccaneers. At five points per buccaneer your score does build slowly and by the time you’re hitting the 300 point mark you’re well and truly zipping side to side quite quickly.

I love Sink, I’ve been playing it on and off for nearly a year now – I first introduced it in one of my Daily App Sales posts back in November last year when it was called Landlubbers. The game may have changed names but the mechanics and fun that the game brought has not changed. In my opinion Sink is more a game of reaction times and it’s really good for when you’re trying to kill a couple of minutes. Sink is definitely a must have on all my devices, including the Nexus 7 (2013) which actually gives you a slight advantage with the larger screen.

Coco Nuts

Now, normally at $1 to purchase, I’d pay this in a heartbeat after playing Sink, but Andrew has added a bonus in for Ausdroid readers – simply click on the the coconuts level, then at the level preview page, instead of clicking buy, long-press on the buy button and enter the code ‘ausdroid’ to get access to the coconuts game for free – Winning!!

In Coco Nuts, you play a Pirate Captain attempting to get to his chest of treasure which has been located at the other side of a palm tree filled screen. The problem is that the palm trees are dropping more coconuts than a palm tree has any right to bear. You start your game with three ‘lives’ and you cross the screen to open your chest of treasure, then navigate back to the other side, where your chest will close and you start the process again. You get 2 points per second for remaining in the coconut stream in the middle and 25 points for reaching the treasure you and then 50 points for getting back to the other side.

Coco Nuts is hard, whereas Sink appears to be more about your reaction times, Coco Nuts is about patience, if you have the patience to wait out the coconut storm you can keep going back and forth but get impatient and it will bite you. Coco Nuts is probably a little better suited to when you have more time on your hands but it’s definitely a very cool little game.

Jungle Boogie and the future

Jungle Boogie is the next in the series, unfortunately there’s no release date at this stage as Andrew is working on a kids storybook app, which is due out in the next couple of weeks. We look forward to seeing both the story book and the next LCD style game.

All up Plunder Bros: Retro LCD game is a cool little platform for anyone who wants to play the old style retro LCD games, the library of titles is great and there are plans to expand with Jungle Bookie and I hope more in future. Try out Sink and Coco Nuts and if you actually like Coco Nuts, why not throw a $1 Andrews way and encourage some more development. The integration of Google Play Gaming is great but I need more people playing it to compete against, so what are you waiting for, install Plunder Bros. and get playing.