Pirates! (XBox, PC, $100)

On guard, as you challenge the captain to a sword fight in Pirates! where strategy is the key weapon.

Caption1: On guard, as you challenge the captain to a sword fight in Pirates! where strategy is the key weapon.

Pirates! holds a special place in my heart. It was the game I played most as a kid, the one that had me hurrying home from school or slinking away from the dinner table.

I played it on my Amiga 500 for hours on end, my little boat cutting across an island-studded sea. I'd sack Cartagena, take on the formidable fort cannons at Havana and plunder the Spanish silver train bound for Panama.

I think I was even playing a pirated version of the game, exchanged on floppy disc with a mate at school.

Pirates! was an adventure and the best thing was that you could divide up the plunder, retire and start again as a young captain on a completely different course. It made me think about life and how the decisions you make along the way steer your fate.

A revamped version of the game was released on PC last year, no doubt designed to trade on the success of the movie Pirates of the Caribbean, which also has its own game.

The Xbox version is the best yet, though the thrill of playing Pirates! is gone for me. This is a youngster's game, but one that has more depth and replay potential than most games aimed at kids.

Everything moves a lot faster on the Xbox. The opening scene plays out, showing how your merchant family was enslaved, and your lucky escape.

Then you choose your nationality, the era of Caribbean history you wish to explore and your strength, be it sword fighting, navigation or wit and charm.

What follows is an open-ended journey across the Caribbean punctuated by stops at ports, sea battles, treasure hunts and the quest to find your family.

It's a lighthearted game that plays up the romanticism of pirates, sword fights and treasure hunts.

The sea battles are exciting, especially when you're outgunned and you know the prize will be substantial if you are victorious. These encounters are at the mercy of the wind, which will shift unpredictably, leaving you becalmed one minute and racing towards the enemy ship the next. Once the boats crash you'll take on the captain in a sword fight. The duels are a bit repetitive but are essential to success.

In the ports you talk to the governor, meet travellers and barmaids in the taverns and trade with the merchants. In port you are furnished with tidbits of information to help you through the game.

Pirates! is incredibly strategic allowing you to take any path depending on what you want to achieve. You can play it patriotically, attacking towns and ships that are at war with your country, become a trader, buying and selling where the merchants offer the best prices, or play as a coastal raider, picking off ships at will.

Unlike other games, it doesn't spend the first 20 minutes telling you how to play. You read up on the controls in the manual and find your own way.

A nice new addition is a map you can overlay on the screen to ease navigation.

I was hoping for some slightly more advanced animation to take advantage of the Xbox's processing power, but the developers have gone for the same low-key approach as the game I played 15 years ago.

The characters speak in an unrecognisable tongue, similar to those in the world of The Sims. The period music and sounds of ships' rigging creaking and cannon fire add atmosphere.

You age through the game, so it's a race to accumulate as much wealth, curry favour with the governors and find your family, before you retire.

A multiplayer mode lets you take on friends in the sea battles, though they can't accompany you on the rest of the journey. It would be fantastic if - via Xbox Live - you could come across other real adventurers prowling the Caribbean, but the online element doesn't extend to gameplay, just downloads of new content.

Pirates! is a classic updated and improved for a new generation who are likely to get as much value out of it as I did many years ago.