Welcome to my first review of 2022! It took me only five tries to type the right year this time, so 2022 is off to a great start. I love the fact that I get to kick off with a game from Dutch ground, straight out of my backyard. It’s Match Three Pirates II from Denda, so let’s dive in with a stroopwafel!
Denda Games
Before we plunder the bounty that awaits, I want to give you guys a little bit of the history of Denda – since it’s a piece of Netherlands gaming culture. Denda Games is a publisher of Dutch and French casual games for PC, Nintendo (DS/Wii and now Switch), and downloadables. It was founded in 2007 and became the market leader in ‘affordable’ casual games, focussing on Search & Find, Time Management, Three in a Row, Mahjong, Adventure, Strategy, Puzzle, and Cardgames. At the time of writing, Denda published over 450 games, primarily focusing on the online market, with a recent jump to the Nintendo Switch market.
Match Three Pirates!
I’m a sucker for time management games, and I don’t walk from a good match three-game. I grew up on Denda games since my parents both played many casual games back in the day. So when Match Three Pirates II came around, I jumped ship and tried my hand at building an.. pirate amusement park? Yes, it’s time to join the pirates and help develop an incredible amusement park to turn their pirate world into a place filled with fun and adventure! Complete swashbuckling match-3 puzzles, destroy obstacles, fight pests, avoid skulls, use powerful boosters, collect treasures, and reveal each pirates’ unique story as you go!
I prefer to play games like these in Casual mode since I play games to unwind and relax when the children are in bed. Luckily, it does not matter for the storyline or gameplay that you chose to play ‘easy’ mode. When you finish the tutorial, it’s time to help out red-hair-mc-little and hippie-mc-scrubbers to find the jar of dirt (which is an amusement park this time). My daughter loved the graphics, even though she doesn’t know what pirates are yet. The whole aesthetic is excellent and feels suitable for the setting. When completing a level, you gain coins, which can be used to either upgrade the rides of your amusement park or buy boosters to achieve levels faster or take the edges off.
Walk the plank!
The balance between the effort needed to ‘gain coins’ and the number of coins required for upgrading or building is decent – it took me a few levels to achieve the more expensive upgrades. On the other hand, Match Three Pirates II made me forget about time a few times, which is usually a good sign. And if you have the guts to be more challenging, you can always try your hand at the two other difficulty settings the game offers. To keep you entertained, there are a total of 100 levels with pirate fun and lighthearted dialogue.
Conclusion
So, to conclude! For everyone that thinks the Switch is only for Nintendo fans, try this one – it’s perfect for the casual gamer or the parent that bought a Switch for their kid but hasn’t got a clue what this machine can do; next to playing Mario. Denda proves that casual is still fun, and not everybody needs to play Fortnite to game, and I’m happy to see that they are still around and ready to prove their worth on the Nintendo Switch.
7/10
Tested on the Nintendo Switch.
