I’ll admit, I’m not a mobile gamer guy. But I am a One Piece fan, so I thought I’d give One Piece Treasure Cruise a go. This is a free-to-play game, but a good one that won’t beat you over the head trying to get you to spend more money. In fact, it’s really nice about the whole microtransactions thing in general.

And it’s a lot of fun for a One Piece fan, because you get to go from island to island and fight lots o' bad guys. Each bit of the story is told through character art with minimal animation. Still, the designers manage to do just enough to make the cutscenes entertaining, and sometimes even downright funny.

The goal of the game is to play through the story while raising your crew and making them progressively more powerful. Each battle will net you money as well as new crew members. You can add these guys to your regular lineup, or use them to level up your team. And you can swap out old members for new ones at any point. It’s all about making the dream team you want. And that’s one of the best parts—villains can be on your crew!

Battles are fast and fairly simple. First you tap on the character you want to attack. After he attacks, written sound effects will burst out of the attacked foe. Then they’ll contract and when they’re just about to disappear, you tap a new guy. And so on until your whole crew has attacked. If you time it right, you’ll get a good, great or perfect score. A perfect score is the hardest, but does the most damage. If you time it wrong, you’ll get a miss. It all goes really fast, actually.

Some teammates have abilities that support each other, so it’s best to pick them next when attacking with all your guys. Some have pieces of meat by their picture which can heal, but only if you get “good or great.” If you get a perfect, it blows the meat away which sucks, but it's really funny to watch. There are also super moves, which can be performed once the special meters are charged.

And you can have up to six different crews so you can experiment with different types. You don’t have to sacrifice everyone you find to make your core guys stronger. The major focus of the game is team building, so if you're into the minutia of that, this game will provide lots of entertainment. 

Being a free mobile game, there’s a social element of course. You can take other players' captains with you on battles to bolster your team. And when you’re done fighting with them, you can send a friend request! Yay! Let’s be friends! You can then pick them to fight at your side in the future. To be honest, I have no idea what these friends do, but I have seen some really funny crew names.

This is a fun game and a great time killer. It has a neat time-based battle system, cool team leveling system and bright colorful graphics. And the world of One Piece is always fun to play around in. Even a mobile game one.

Hint: Don't forget to upgrade your ship! It can seriously help your team by boosting stats! 

by Urian Brown