Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara

If you’ve played Summer at Mara, you know that the colourful game was loved by thousands, providing a great farming simulation / life simulation  experience. The game was colourful and fun, full of unique and interesting characters. While the gameplay might have felt a bit repetitive as it released in a year full of similar style games, it was still a great experience, and one I really enjoyed. When Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara was announced, I was intrigued, although cautious when I saw it was a platformer.

To be fair, there isn’t a lot happening in this game that you haven’t seen elsewhere. It’s basic platforming at it’s best, though with unique puzzles, switches that are often hidden, great sections that require precise platforming skills, and more. The game is bright and vibrant, and through my roughly six hour playthrough, I don’t think I ever got stuck in one place for too long.

The game begins very simply, probably too easy for most individuals. I would have like the challenge of the game to ramp up a bit faster, as certain moments in the game feel a bit more frustrating simply because the game hasn’t prepared you for what you are encountering. The spike of difficulty is very apparent – I think this game would have benefited from a more gradual difficulty increase.

The variety of things on offer here is what keeps you coming back after beating the main game. You can revisit levels to find collectibles you might have missed the first time, as well as participate in time trials and races against NPCs. A lot of the faces you see around Mara will be familiar to those who played Summer in Mara, and are a nice nod to this games environmental origins. For those just getting into the experience, however, there isn’t too much lost.

Writing is pretty solid all around, with a few moments making me chuckle out loud. I can say my 9 year old son Lochlan enjoyed this game a lot more than I did, but we both came away from our experience feeling satisfied by what we had just played. The only downside to the game is the jump mechanic, and more many this could be a deal breaker. There never seems to be a good indication of what jumps you can and cannot make, and experimenting with a jump late in a level could result in you going back pretty far (as falling from ledges is incredibly unforgiving.

Still, it’s something worth playing – if you want another platformer to sink your teeth into, Koa is one that will challenge you a bit, while not being overly frustrating.