Currently in postproduction and scheduled for release in July, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is Gore Verbinski's sequel to 2003's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. The upcoming movie will see Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, and Keira Knightley reprising their roles as Jack Sparrow, Will Turner, and Elizabeth Swann, respectively, and their likenesses will feature in a trio of handheld games currently in development at Amaze Entertainment. We recently had an opportunity to meet with the games' publisher, Buena Vista Games, and to spend a little quality time with the PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS, and Game Boy Advance pre-alpha versions of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.

　　PSP: It doesn't matter who your enemy is, a kick to the groin can work wonders.

　　We didn't get to spend very long with each of the games, but it's clear that they're all very different, which comes as no surprise given the varying capabilities of the three platforms. The first version of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest that we checked out was running on a PSP development kit and saw us assuming the role of Captain Jack Sparrow. In the upcoming movie, Sparrow will once again find himself in something of a supernatural swashbuckling predicament, this time as a result of his owing the legendary Davy Jones a blood debt. The intro movie that we watched before taking the controls saw Davy Jones attempting to collect said debt from Sparrow, who, after a quite comical conversation, decides that he'd rather not offer himself up for 100 years of servitude after all.

　　The PSP version of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest will feature a total of 10 story missions, and based on what we've seen of the game thus far, you'll be spending much of your time in those missions engaged in melee combat with all manner of cannibals, zombies, pirates, and zombie pirates. We were armed only with a sword at the start of the game, and the combat moves available to us included a fast attack, a heavy attack, and a "dirty moves" button with which we were able to stun opponents with either a kick to the groin or a head-butt. We encountered a few different types of enemies during our time in Sparrow's shoes and found that many of them required slightly different strategies to beat. Some of our adversaries could only be hurt with heavy attacks after we'd repeatedly used fast attacks to wear their guard down, for example, while for other enemies the exact opposite was true.

　　As we explored locales that included the interior of a prison, a tropical island, and a swamp, the time that we didn't spend locked in battles with enemies was mostly spent destroying crates and barrels to find gold and food and swinging from ropes and chains to reach areas that were otherwise inaccessible. There were hazards that we needed to avoid as we progressed through the levels, including fires coming up through the ground and large logs covered in spikes swinging pendulously across corridors.

　　DS: Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann are both playable characters.

　　In addition to the single-player story missions, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest will feature a sea battle minigame that supports up to four players on an ad hoc wireless network. Played from the perspective of a camera situated above and behind your chosen vessel, the sea battle minigames are quite reminiscent of those in Sid Meier's Pirates!, which was released for the PC toward the end of 2004 and for the Xbox in June of last year. You'll steer your boat using the analog stick while using the square and circle buttons to fire your port and starboard cannons, respectively. The shoulder buttons are used to switch between the three different types of ammunition available to you: cannon balls, which damage the hulls of enemy ships; chain shot, which tears apart their sails; and grape shot, which hails down on enemy crew members. Each of the five different ship types available in the game will have different strengths and weaknesses, and some of the items that you collect during battles can later be used to upgrade them. Although the sea battles are primarily designed to be played with up to three friends--as evidenced by the fact that three of the 10 maps can be played against people without their own copy of the game--you'll also have the option to play against CPU-controlled adversaries.

　　After finishing up with the PSP game, we were handed the Nintendo DS version to take a look at. The first level of the DS game tasked us with fighting our way out of the same prison that we'd explored in the PSP version, but although much of our time was again spent engaged in melee combat, the gameplay felt very different. The combat in the Nintendo DS game appears to be slightly more complex than that in the PSP version, with the standard weapon-based attacks being complemented by blocks, flying kicks, and such. We were also able to pick up weapons such as cleavers and spiked clubs that were equipped automatically as we explored the prison level, although these disappeared after we'd used them a certain number of times. Combo attacks and signature moves will also be a feature of the finished game, although we didn't get to see any of these in action on this occasion.

　　Other promised features of the Nintendo DS game that we didn't get to see during our all-too-brief demonstration include two-player cooperative play for all story missions; three minigames for one or two players that have names like walk the plank and shoot the monkey; and levels in which Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann will be playable characters. All of the action was taking place on the upper screen, incidentally, while the bottom screen was used to display weapon information, dialogue between characters, and such.

　　GBA: You'll get to sail between and explore no fewer than 15 different islands.

　　Toward the end of our meeting with Buena Vista Games we spent a few minutes checking out the GBA version of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, which is targeted at a younger audience than the PSP and DS games. The GBA game will feature naval battles played from a top-down perspective, as well as on-foot side-scrolling levels in which Jack Sparrow will use jump and attack buttons to battle his way through no fewer than 50 different levels set on 15 different islands. As you progress through the game you'll unlock advanced attack moves for Jack, though we didn't get to see any of them on this occasion.

　　All three of Buena Vista Games' Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest handheld games are currently scheduled for release in June. We'll bring you more information as soon as it becomes available.