British developer Oxygen Interactive is bringing a duo of piratey titles to both of Nintendo's platforms this summer, with the release of Pirates: Duels on the High Seas for the DS, and Pirates: Key of Dreams on the new WiiWare downloadable game service for the Wii. N-Europe set sail for Oxygen's headquarters to check both of them out.

Speaking to Oxygen, it is interesting to see how one title grew out of the other. The DS game, Duels on the High Seas was developed first by a small team at the developer, and was the first title to run on a new engine by outfit, which was then used to experiment with on the Wii. The announcement of the WiiWare service last year by Nintendo fitted the studio perfectly, and provided a platform for which to bring the new engine to a home console as well.

The two titles are much related � they're set in the same game world, and indeed, they both concern a set of mystical keys � the stuff of pirate legend, which is imparted upon you by a weather-beaten old man in a pub. The story in both games is told via a series of gorgeously illustrated stills, with the respective speech as text beneath.

The story begins, as any pirate tale should, with a tale told by a man in a pub. This soon leads to an escape mission from the British forces in Port Royal.

The stories of the two titles are different, as are the games' maps � though the two titles share many of the same locations. In the DS title you travel to locations in each of the world's seven seas � from the starting point of Port Royal in the Caribbean to the Arctic, as well as the lava sea of Hell's Cauldron. You must collect the seven keys, one held in each region - and quickly, or you will fall victim to an ancient pirate curse.

So, to the battling itself. In the DS title, you control your ship by using the D-pad to steer, accelerate using the right shoulder button, while the left is used for reversing. Tapping A fires your special weapon, while B shoots out a round of cannons from whichever side your enemy is attacking (or on both, if you're in the unlucky position of being surrounded). On-screen tabs in the four corners of the touch screen allow you to touch-select one of your crew's particular abilities that you want to operational - but more on them later.

In the WiiWare game, the title is controlled very similarly, with the Wii-mote being held sideways the standard control method. There's also the option to control it with the Nunchuk as well, which allows you to use the attachment's analogue stick for better steering. The Classic Controller is supported as well, though not the GameCube pad. Overall though, both versions' controls feel very natural, and after only a few minutes of game-play we were zipping away, firing off our cannon balls like there was no tomorrow.

Up against a gun turret in Arabia, and also against Davey Jones' massive ship � he's one of several bosses to be found in the titles.

In the two titles, your ship comes in three size varieties which largely choose the difficulty setting of the game. The smallest is undoubtedly the hardest, giving you the fewest amount of cannons to play with, though your size and speediness allows you to evade weapons fire larger boats will have no chance avoiding. The largest ship size on the other hand trades off a slower, less manoeuvrable vessel for a larger roster of cannons. The medium sized boat provides a median between the two extremes.

Your cannons can be upgraded, with power-ups allowing you to fire special weapons such as rockets, a flamethrower, a chain shot, and the extremely deadly saw blade, which literally slices your opponents away and into a watery grave. You can also lay mines for opponents to sail into, and literally barge your opponents out of the way by ramming them with the hull of your vessel.

Other pickups include pirate gold, which pays for in-battle repairs, and also any crew members you find floating around you want to include in your crew � a wise suggestion, since each boosts the stats of your ship. Lookouts increase the uncovered range on your ship's map, allowing you to see where your opponents lie, navigators increase your speed, shipwrights increase the speed of ship repair, while master gunners increase the range of your weapons. You are able to choose one of those four at any time to activate during battles.

These shots from the Wii version show off the mix of locales: from the frozen Arctic to the spooky Bermuda Triangle. Click for a larger view.

The DS version includes 70 unique levels, 35 for the single-player story mode, also used for the "skirmish" mode (which sees you take on two or three computer-controlled opponents) plus 35 multiplayer maps. The WiiWare version on the other hand has ten story levels, with an additional 35 maps for use in skirmish mode and against your frenemies who dare challenge you.

And multi-player is where the title really comes alive. To be fair, we didn't spend enough time on single-player to get into the real story of either, and we enjoyed blowing the hell out of each other in multi-player mode against the developers a lot more. This is probably because we just love mindless violence, especially when it includes pirates.

When you've got an opponent close to sinking, black smoke starts billowing out of their ship as it catches fire � a sure-fire message to all playing that there's an easy kill up for grabs. Such situations are frantic, and often lead to every player surging in to take a shot. While each DS screen shows the player's local area, when playing multi-player on the Wii, the entire level is shown, although in such moments where all players are located in the same area, the map zooms in for a close-up on the action.

Zoomed out multi-player on Wii. Oh, wait - someone's on fire! Click for a larger view.

We'll be giving each a full reviewing in the not-too-distant future. Both are expected in June � firm dates and prices are still to be confirmed, though from our best estimates, the WiiWare version will be costing around as much as a N64 title on the Virtual Console.

Stay tuned for more, loyal readers!

- Tom "Tphi" Phillips
N-Europe Editor-in-Chief