World history is littered with horrible decisions, the latest being Hollywood allowing Bethesda (makers of the fun yet glitch-ridden Oblivion) and developer 7 Studios (that's previous credits include the pathetically average Fantastic Four and Defender) to create a game based off the Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise. The result, Legend of Jack Sparrow, is typical cookie cutter fare, a game that could have been truly amazing, but for whatever reason is just another uninspired movie-based title that's a mere shadow of the film that it's poorly emulating.

7 Studios certainly had most of the pieces necessary for a hit. The game is based off Jack Sparrow's aforementioned adventures in the film, The Curse of the Black Pearl, so there was plenty of content to draw from. Plus, there's co-op gameplay, the ability to switch between two characters during single play, plenty of swashbuckling, a gaggle of evil pirates, and a slew of secrets to uncover, though none of them are particularly attractive (just a bunch of hidden chests and other items).

Now I wasn't there for the development process so I cannot comment on what went wrong. 7 Studios could just be a bad developer, Bethesda may not have been ready to handle a major license, and Hollywood may have forced the parties involved to rush the project, but regardless of the reason, Legend of Jack Sparrow is extremely boring and just not that much fun to play. The missions are pathetically linear because the game grabs you by the hand and walks you to each objective, the enemies are rather easy to kill (blocking is quite unnecessary), there's a few annoying glitches (enemies and partners getting trapped behind things or floating above ground), and the voice acting just isn't very good. Whoever attempted to mimic Keira Knightly's voice...you suck. My apologies if you are in fact Keira Knightly.

Even with all of these faults, the game isn't exactly bad per se. If you're really into the license and you desperately want more Jack Sparrow (and if you don't know the difference between a good and bad videogame), then you'll probably extract some enjoyment from this product. The button mashing is somewhat entertaining and the cut scenes are mildly amusing, but considering the other games in this genre, most notably Ubisoft's Prince of Persia series, this title just cannot compete. It would have been good had it debuted on the PSOne (pre Metal Gear Solid and Tenchu, of course), but it's outdated and dry in 2006. As for Bethesda, unless it's willing to invest the time in making a quality movie-based product, then these sorts of things should remain in EA's camp. Say what you will about the gameplay, but Electronic Arts always makes sure that its games capture the very essence of the films that they're based on.

Legend of Jack Sparrow is dull and almost devoid of life. It's a game that harks back to the adventure games of old, but in this case, that's definitely a very bad thing.