{"id":134109,"date":"2023-08-09T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-09T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/#article-153342"},"modified":"2023-08-09T17:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-08-09T17:00:00","slug":"mini-review-koa-and-the-five-pirates-of-mara-a-cute-island-hopping-platformer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2023\/08\/09\/mini-review-koa-and-the-five-pirates-of-mara-a-cute-island-hopping-platformer\/","title":{"rendered":"Mini Review: Koa And The Five Pirates Of Mara &#8211; A Cute Island-Hopping Platformer"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/16bc74e649513\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/16bc74e649513\/small.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n<aside class=\"picture embed pictures\" id=\"screenshots\"><a href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/138012\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/138012\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara Review - Screenshot 1 of 10\"><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>Back in 2020, Chibig released <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/summer_in_mara\">Summer in Mara<\/a>, a slice-of-life farm sim game set in a tropical world and\u2026 well, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/reviews\/switch-eshop\/summer_in_mara\">for our money<\/a>, it really wasn\u2019t very good. It evidently sold well enough for Chibig to justify continuing the IP, but rather than make a sequel that built on the strengths and fixed the flaws of the original, the studio decided to make the successor a 3D platformer in the vein of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/3ds\/super_mario_3d_land\">Super Mario 3D Land<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pushsquare.com\/games\/ps5\/sackboy_a_big_adventure\" class=\"external\">Sackboy: A Big Adventure<\/a>. Bizarre as the choice may seem, it was clearly the right one, as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/koa_and_the_five_pirates_of_mara\">Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara<\/a> is a substantially better game than its predecessor and holds its own as a solid 3D platformer.<\/p>\n<p>The story begins sometime after the events of Summer in Mara and centers around a competition staged by a local band of pirates wherein competitors must overcome a series of trials to become an official pirate. Koa naturally enters the competition, starting off another seafaring adventure as she island-hops and collects maps on her climb to be the very best. The narrative isn\u2019t much to write home about, and it can get awfully text heavy in some places as you\u2019re nagged by side characters grabbing Koa\u2019s attention, but it mostly stays out of the way.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cache: html:nintendolife.com\/ssl\/switch-eshop\/accessibility-report\/4741\/embed @ 2023-08-09T22:39:24+01:00 --><\/p>\n<p>Before entering a level, the world map is presented to you as a small ocean you can traverse in Koa\u2019s boat that\u2019s vaguely reminiscent of the Great Sea from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/gamecube\/legend_of_zelda_the_wind_waker\">The Wind Waker<\/a>. Islands and collectibles are scattered around this explorable space, and there\u2019s even a cute treasure-hunting minigame that\u2019s clearly inspired by the salvaging from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/ds\/legend_of_zelda_phantom_hourglass\">Phantom Hourglass<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Each island is home to one to three levels that take only a few minutes each to clear, presenting you with concise platforming gauntlets that don\u2019t overstay their welcome and give you just enough challenge to keep things entertaining. Breezing through these is pretty easy on its own, but those looking for more challenge can opt to snag the hidden collectibles in each stage and race against the clock for a gold medal. Koa is quick and responds quickly to controller inputs, and while she\u2019s no Mario in terms of her moveset or general athleticism, we were still pleased by how responsive the platforming controls felt.<\/p>\n<p>For its presentation, Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara sticks to a simplistic and somewhat tired art style, with the many nautical locales often feeling like up-rezzed versions of something you might find in a PS2 platformer. This isn\u2019t necessarily a bad thing, though we wish a more ambitious, memorable visual style were attempted here. Luckily, it all unfolds at a silky smooth and completely solid 60 FPS, which goes a long way towards elevating the quality feel of the gameplay.<\/p>\n<p>Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara isn\u2019t exactly a bold reinvention of the 3D platformer, but it repeatedly proves that it\u2019s got it where it counts. Smooth controls, decent level variety, and lots of collectibles all make this one a fairly easy recommendation, even if it is a little simplistic looking. If you&#8217;re after 7-10 hours of solid, colourful 3D platforming, we\u2019d suggest giving this one a shot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Back in 2020, Chibig released Summer in Mara, a slice-of-life farm sim game set in a tropical world and\u2026 well, for our money, it really wasn\u2019t very good. It evidently sold well enough for Chibig to justify continuing the IP, but rather than make a sequel that built on the strengths and fixed the flaws [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134109\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}