So I went snooping the other day to see where my games have ended up on the internet and what people think about them; here are a couple of reviews along with a german video review from a couple of days ago; I don’t understand german but his tone of voice sounded positive so I’m happy about that.

Review by: AznChipmunk
Plot: Pirates has little plot. Infact, there is no dialogue at all. There are only a few cutscenes between action sequences, but they work fine and does not detract from the game. It is a little hard to understand what is going on in the story, but I think it involves a creature that does not like getting its boat stolen… By the end of the game, I had no clue where the subtitle (Legend of the Silver Crescent, which is spelled wrong, by the way) of the game came from. The plot scenes in this game are really just small breaks between action-based parts. The characters that exist are pretty amusing.
Score: 3/5. It’s okay. It’s not the most important aspect of this game, though.

2x Combo!

Gameplay: This is the game’s selling point. Pirates uses various gameplay systems only ever seen before in the original game, and here they have been added onto and improved. Most of the game revolves around a fast-paced shmup-style sequence, where you control a ship and its cannon and must shoot at different kinds of enemies trying to sink you. Spread throughout the game are various addons that make the gameplay more exciting. The difficulty of the game is mostly well balanced, but there is one frustratingly hard level. There are also various other action sequences (minigames) thrown in that keep the gameplay fun and unrepetitive. However, there are a few small bugs that are noticeable (occasionally my health bar would disappear, or an enemy would not die when hit), but there are no real game-breakers.
Score: 4.5/5. Nearly perfect, except for those small things.

Protecting my penguin friend :D

Graphics: Graphically, this game looks great. They mostly consist of nice-looking edits of Warioland graphics that work extremely well for the game. They all match a unique style similar to those of people who have hand-drawn graphics for their game. (Sunset over Imdahl). Carius has paid good attention to details, and everything (all the enemies, the waves, etc.) animates fluidly.
Score: 4.5/5. Looks wonderful.

This level is… almost too hard. You have to jump over rocks and shoot at tons of enemies in front, and behind you. I guess that’s why the level’s called “Onslaught.”

Music & Sound: Pirates has okay sound and music. The sound effects fit the occasion and the background music is fine. The soundtrack is not custom, but I have never heard any of these tracks before, so there is none of the generic FF music we hear in most games. However, there is not a good balance between the sound effects and the background music. The sound effects, especially the cannonfire, are too loud in comparison, and it is very difficult to hear the background music.
Score: 3.5/5. It’s decent and it works, but nothing too incredibly special or memorable.

There is a good variety of enemies

Creativity & Originality: Carius’s game has broken the rules of what we had thought RPGMaker could do, by creating a shooter in an RPGMaker. This little gem is a creativity masterpiece. There are very few games made in RPGMaker that show the same unique skill, and a willingness to try to do something different with the engine.
Score: 5/5.

Pros:
-Good, unique gameplay
-Good graphics

Cons:
-May not run smoothly on some computers
-May be difficult for some
-Minor bugs, none game-breaking

Final Score: 4.1. Superb, even though it’s not perfect.

Final Comments/Notes: This game definitely stands out to me as one the “must-play” RPGMaker games.

Review by: brandonabley
I have always thought Carius is an interesting member of the community because of his iron-clad devotion to making projects in RPGMaker 2003 that are completely beyond the intentions of the toolset. It takes a lot of man-hours and headache to develop games his way, and he is probably wasting a lot of valuable free time. What most people care about, which is totally unrelated to how a game is made, is how the end-product turns out. In this case, the product is a winner.

Pirates: The Legend of the Silver Crescent is a hybrid game with many different game types. It is not exactly a minigame compilation, because one or two of the game types are actually quite fully realized. In some stages you control a pirate ship and fend off scores of angry seagulls and ocean creatures. In others, you control a first mate defending his captain from assailants in order to give him time to dig for treasure. In others, you face a rival captain in a duel following on-screen prompts similar to Sid Meier’s game of the same name.

In fact, Carius’ Pirates compares overall with Sid Meiers’ Pirates excellently – it is a game of many unrelated game types loosely bound together with a swashbuckling theme. Carius’ game is not as polished or deep as Sid Meier’s award-winning retail product, but it is comparably fun.

The best of Pirates’ game types is its side-scrolling shooter (schmup) type. These shooter stages are the meat of the game, and you will spend most of your time in them. They deliver what you expect from a schmup; hordes of pirate-themed enemies attack you from the right side of the screen and you shoot them down. There are a few caveats to the formula that are extremely refreshing, though, and these all come from the game’s pirate theme.

Because you control a sailing vessel and not a hyper-agile outer-space fighter, your movement and attack options are limited. Your ship can move only left and right along the water’s surface, instead of in all four directions. Your cannonballs travel in an arc, instead of in a straight line, and you can only shoot one at a time. Rather than feeling limited, though, the game feels refreshing. this is a testament to its excellent level design. Enemy movement patterns and level layouts are built around your lack of mobility and firepower. Furthermore, the realization of the cannon ball as your weapon is great. It is a genuine challenge working out the perfect arc to fire your cannonball in so that it hits a distant seagull. The game acknowledges and rewards you for particularly difficult shots as well, such as bouncing a cannonball off of the water or firing straight up. The game’s pirate theme does more with the shooting stages than put a new skin on them – it actually reinvents the gameplay and presents an entirely new kind of scrolling shooter.

A loose narrative, told entirely through thought bubbles and simple animations, ties everything together. The story isn’t very detailed outside of the idea that the game features pirates that are searching for treasure. This is an amateur action game, though, and there are no pretenses. A detailed narrative is probably not welcome.

Pirates’ graphics are all custom-made by Carius. Some are referenced from other sources, but redone in his own style. And, the style is really cute; in particular I like the character animations. Levels have many layers of scrolling pieces. They have genuine depth and flash to them. The music and sounds are not custom-made, and the music in particular is really annoying (mostly lo-fi trance tunes taken from Newground Audio Portal).

Overall, Carius’ Pirates: The Legend of the Silver Crescent is a great game. It is one of the best RPG Maker games ever made, and on my short list for must-play games made with the toolset. For those that care about RPG Maker 2003 pseudo-programming (I don’t), it is a technical achievement. For those that care about good amateur games (I do), Carius’ Pirates is engaging, varied, attractive, and generally well-made enough to stand up with the best.

And Finally…