Shack Chat: What video game character deserves a pirate adventure spinoff?

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is a bold new direction for the fabled Like a Dragon/Yakuza series. It puts one of the main characters in a pirate-themed adventure full of boat combat, sea dog fighting, and more. This swashbuckling spinoff is such a blast that we began throwing around ideas for other characters we want to see in a pirate game. And thus this week’s Shack Chat was born. Come and join the conversation!

Question: What video game character deserves a pirate adventure spinoff?

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Ozzie Mejia, Senior Buccaneer

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been good for some wildly different-looking adventures. We saw it when they traveled through time. One of the time periods they explored was the swashbuckling age of the pirates. So, that got me thinking, why not go all the way with this idea? Have the Heroes in a Half-Shell sail the high seas and make the Shredder walk the plank? A seafaring voyage is the kind of break that the Turtles need after all those times they've defended New York.

Sly Cooper - TJ Denzer, Senior News of the Seven Seas

You know what cool guy we haven’t seen in a while? Sly Cooper. You know who’d probably have zero problem taking to some pirate activity? Ding ding. It’s Sly Cooper again. I miss that thieving raccoon, his thieving gang, and the Thievius Raccoonus they all learned from. What better way to bring them back than to send them off on a swashbuckling adventure?

Sly Cooper wouldn’t just make a good pirate. He’s also got the makings of a good pirate crew in Bentley and Murray. Heck, they could round up The Guru, Panda King, and Dimitri Lousteau from Sly Cooper 3 to round things out. Maybe even have a run-in with Penelope and Carmelita Fox if they feel like it.

Sly Cooper games lent themselves well to stealth and thieving mastery, but there was also so much opportunity for chaos and hijinks when things went awry. I would be thrilled to see all of that applied to a new Sly adventure where they take to the high seas in search of a mysterious treasure that may take several islands' worth of platforming and puzzle solving to unravel.

Samurai Goroh (F-Zero franchise) - Asif Khan, CEO/EIC/EIEIO/YARRRGH

Shack Chat is largely a vehicle for me to push my pro F-Zero agenda, so this week’s topic played right into my hands. I believe that my main man Samurai Goroh should be given a pirate adventure spinoff game. He’s already a sword-wielding space bandit, so seeing him go full pirate would not be jarring or surprising at all. But it would be amusing to see just how far the devs could take the F-Zero universe in a completely different game genre. 

Conker - Sam Chandler, Bad Fur Day Enjoyer

I love Conker. He’s ribald, he’s crass, and he existed at the perfect time. The game itself is also chock-full of references to film and it’s dripping with innuendo. If there’s one character that I think could fit well into a swashbuckling title, it’s this grog-sculling furry critter. Give him a boat, a story of drunken debauchery, and booty to plunder and you’ve got an instant classic.

Pikachu - Donovan Erskine, Pokemon Captain

The Pokemon franchise has conquered countless settings and subgenres with its myriad spin-offs, but we’re yet to get a pirate game. Give me a Pikachu-led swashbucking adventure where the iconic mascot leads a full Pokemon crew of pirates, sailing the vast seas between the ever-growing number of regions. We’ve learned so much about the lands that make up the world of Pokemon, what about the waters?

Wario - Steve Tyminski, Stevetendo Show host, Shiver me timbers and all that!

What are pirates known for? Treasure, plundering, pillaging, and living by their own code. I might be exaggerating this a bit but this sounds like Wario to me. He can never say no to a good treasure hunt. He lives by his own code. One minute he’s looking for the ultimate treasure and the next he’s driving a go-kart or playing baseball. One of his first games, he was exploring and found a new island, Kitchen Island. Finding unexplored islands sounds like something a pirate would do. Hell, he waited for Mario to leave and claimed his castle as his own place in Mario Land 2 and then locked the door with gold coins or as pirates call them, doubloons. Wario already acts like a pirate and it’s time for a new Wario game anyway!

Those are the characters we’d love to see headline their own pirate adventure. Let us know in the comments what character or video game franchise you believe needs a pirate-themed spinoff.

Shack Staff

Shack Staff stories are a collective effort with multiple staff members contributing. Many of our lists often involve entires from several editors, and our weekly Shack Chat is something we all contribute to as a group.