Before Elizabeth Swann there was ... Black Kat

It seems you can now go to any video game store and find a huge assortment of pirate games. Numerous versions of Pirates of the Caribbean games, Sid Meier's Pirates, Battlefield 1942 - Battlefield Pirates Alpha Mod, Half-Life 2 Pirates Vikings and Knights II, etc. But take a moment to check to see how many were there BEFORE pirates became the rage with the PotC movies?

The PotC movies first came out in 2003, but Pirates: The Legend of Black Kat came out in 2002. I don't play many video games, but this is one of the few ones I do play. First, you get to play as a female character! Hurrah! That's always a plus for me. Many games have the "token" female characters, but they always seem to be outnumbered by the male choices.

While many have complained that they became bored running round on land and sword fighting. I found the game enjoyable. The manual is void of all complicated combination moves which seem to be necessary for most fighting type games. (Although I'm sure there are secret codes out there for specail cheats.) It's a pretty straight forward game and rarely require certain things being done in a certain order. My kids always got a kick out of the tiki things that would come after Kat on the islands. I forget exactly what sound the things made, but my kids always imitated it and laughed hysterically.

I know another game with a female lead is Tomb Raider, but somehow Kat seems a bit more realistic than Laura Croft. I feel like Laura was primarily designed as eye candy and then thrown into a game. Whereas Kat fits into her game better. Maybe I just like pirates better than adventurers. It would be nice to see a Legend of the Black Kat movie come out, but I doubt it will happen.