Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara is a mascot platformer with a fun cast of characters but, sadly, a bit of an identity crisis.
Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara is a casual indie adventure platformer game developed by Chibig, Talpa Games, and Undercovers. They are known for games such as Treasures of the Aegean, a hand-drawn non-linear open-world indie platform game.
Titles such as Mika and The Witch’s Mountain are fantasy adventures of an aspiring witch who delivers packages to the townspeople of a small island similar to Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara. Between the three of them, the developers have a few games under their belt, with Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara being their latest offering, and the charming platformer is a new adventure with fun challenges and friendly characters.
Entering Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara, you are treated to an animated cinematic of Koa and the other characters you will encounter in the game. After the colorful cinematic, you are asked what type of control layout you would like to play with, these being either playing with a gamepad or a mouse and keyboard, though it is highly recommended that you play with a controller if you want a smoother experience.
After selecting your control layout, you will then be asked which game mode you would like to play. Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara feature two game modes: normal mode and relaxed mode. Normal mode offers the player the whole experience of the game as it was intended to be played, whereas relaxed mode offers players more checkpoints. This is useful for players who are new to the platforming genre and may need some assistance.
You begin your journey with our young hero, Koa, who is on a boat trying to save their friends after getting a telegram that explains that something has happened to their home island, Puni Island.
However, things don’t seem quite right. Instead of encountering the dangerous pirates described in the letter, they encounter their catty rival, Mayo, and her band of fishy misfits, Sandee and Bo-ho. Mayo explains that the letter was just a rouse to get Koa to try out their friend’s obstacle course. This obstacle course also just so happens to be where the game’s tutorial takes place.
After you complete the obstacle course, Mayo reveals that the whole thing was a trial to see if Koa was fit to be a candidate for the titular Five Pirates of Mara. Understandably, Koa is upset that they were lured into this whole thing and decides to head back to the island of Qalis.
This is where the true story of Koa unfolds. The peaceful island has been ransacked by pirates who have taken everything, even pets. It is now up to Koa to figure out where the pirates are and whether they can get everything back to normal.
The first step is to acquire a map, which is, sadly, in the clawed clutches of Mayo. If you want to get the map, you will have to perform the oh-so-daunting task of acquiring 20 sea shells, which have been dotted across the island.
Sea shells are also Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara’s form of currency, but we’ll touch on that later. Though this task may seem a bit redundant, it also serves as a fun way of getting you to explore the town and see all the things that it has to offer, which isn’t much in the beginning.
Once you’ve acquired the seashells, you will be given your first map. But don’t think things are over. Sadly, you can’t read the map, as the feline menace Mayo has gotten it wet and illegible. Luckily, a kind squid lady called Saimi will help decode it. She will then thankfully decode the other eight pieces of the map free of charge… unlike Mayo.
Now, with a map in hand, you will finally be able to explore the seas of Mara and hunt down the scallywags that snatched the town’s floorboards. Be wary, as Mara is dangerous and filled with obstacles; you are told not to venture into places you don’t have a map for.
Luckily, you will be able to control your mighty vessel and sail across the stylized overworld. However, this is one of the many aspects of the game where a controller is highly advised since controlling the boat with a mouse and keyboard is no easy task.
The overworld is primarily composed of various islands that host a series of races and obstacle courses, very similar to games such as Mario and other mascot platformers such as Crash Bandicoot 4 and even Sonic the Hedgehog.
This is also where one of Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara’s biggest issues lies: It doesn’t know what it wants to be. The game seems to have taken all the features of the previously mentioned games and smashed them together without much consideration of how these mechanics work together.
A good example of this is when you’re told to complete a course as fast as possible, but you are also given various items that you will need to pick up; essentially, the game is telling you to hurry up but also explore every nook and cranny of the level.
Now, you would think that there would be some sort of penalty, but that’s the thing, there isn’t. You can spend ten minutes messing around and not picking up a single item, and the game won’t even bat an eye.
Besides random items, you will also need to collect sea shells. Now, as mentioned earlier, sea shells are your currency, but you don’t really have much to spend them on. You can get some cute dresses and shirts for Koa from Sandee and Bo-ho’s indie clothing shop, as well as a cute bag to keep your shell-baked companion. The most important store, however, is probably Caleb’s. Here, you will be able to upgrade your boat and add various useful upgrades to it.
Currently, Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara are a bit on the bare-bones side of things, as a lot of the game’s features are not fully fleshed out. This doesn’t mean the game is any less fun; it just means it feels a bit empty.
Also, because the game is not fully developed, there are a few minor bugs, such as Koa constantly running, which is more helpful than you think, and a bug that prevents you from skipping cutscenes, which is a small but fixable issue.
Interactions between characters, although strictly text as there are no voiceovers, make everything about the story of Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara get told to you through character dialogue.
Each character has their own personality, which is shown through the game’s very cartoonish style, making it feel like a comic for kids that you are playing through. There are even nonhuman characters that seem to be fashioned after sea creatures, along with various other species in the game, such as cats, frogs, and catfish.
The game’s sound design in terms of music needs a bit of work, especially on the main island. The theme for that island has hints of mellow and tropical Caribbean music, which, while thematic, can get incredibly repetitive, making you feel like you’re trapped in an elevator with one tune on a loop. Going out to sea, the tune changes to sound like an adventurous and light-hearted version, giving a sense of a Disney-style adventure.
Starting a trial and completing it will give you the next one for the island. One thing to note is that these trials are time-based. The better your time within the trial run, the better your reward and ranking. The game’s levels will have Koa climbing trees by jumping on mushrooms and pushing big buttons to get to other parts of the challenge.
One of the game’s major mechanics is to have Koa jump up and smash down to the ground to activate buttons on the ground. Another mechanic in the game would be to pick up objects and throw them or launch them straight into the buttons on the walls.
Overall, Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara is an adorable game that tries its hardest to pay homage to the old mascot platformers of the past. Unfortunately, it doesn’t get there and instead lands flat on its face. The game is definitely not for the hardcore platformer fan, but it is a great game to give to younger siblings so that they can get a taste of the genre or develop a rage-quitting habit.
