One of the great surprises in this generation has been the full-blown arrival of roguelikes. Unlike specific genres, which adhere to pretty well-defined styles of play, the roguelike label instead acts as a framework for adding challenging elements and some flavor to the mix. But while I’ve seen it mixed with plenty of genres and styles in the eShop, I can’t say that to this point I’d seen it combined with a game involving pirates. With Rogue Waters I can now happily report that has been remedied.

In it you’ll be challenged to hit the high seas, taking on some ship-to-ship battles, a bit of swashbuckling strategy, some mythical creatures, and a variety of potentially game-modifying pieces of gear. While there’s an overlying story, it’s pretty boilerplate fare, but it at least tries to explain your perpetual ability to suffer defeats and return once again, so it’s serviceable in that regard. It does take some time to get your sea legs and understand how best to tackle the melee skirmishes, positioning your crew to ideally knock enemies overboard or into each other to maximize the power of each attack. As you go you’ll have the chance to pick up special gear and additional crew as well, which leaves the door open to going all in on a strategy focused more on your crew, your ship, or a little of both in order to maximize your chances to make it through each unpredictable run.

Aside from it seeming to take a while to let you remove your training wheels, the game’s most consistent issue is tied to frequent and pretty long load times as you move through each phase. I’ve encountered worse, but given the game’s visuals and overall presentation being merely middling, they feel unusually lengthy and that can often sap the player’s enthusiasm. Then throw in interface navigation that feels quite cumbersome and somewhat unintuitive, and some on-screen instructions that aren’t always very clear as you’re trying to get started, and there are times where patience is due in order to get the most out of the game.

All in all, I do applaud the effort to make something a bit different, and considering that there haven’t been very many reasonably-good pirate outings on the system, I do appreciate this mash-up that’s at least refreshing. By no means is it perfect, and its pacing can certainly contribute to runs losing their momentum, but there’s absolutely a novelty to it all that’s at least notable. Considering my classic love for a good pirate game, and the lack of representation for them on the system, it at least deserves a nod for proving they can be done in a way that feels both classic and new.