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Now for a proper review...(four years of this catchphrase and it hasn't went viral? Pfft!)

Gameplay: 9/10---Gets laggy with more than 6 ships in one place and/or lots of weapons going off but other than that its a well thought out mix of combat, minesweeper-like treasure grabbing, and money management/upgrading.
Characters: 10/10---Love the fact that both male and female pirates are in game plus all those mustaches! Final boss is great too reminiscent of Sinistar in some respects.
Replayability: 8/10---Unlocking a new ship is a nice bonus upon completion + medals + a couple different approaches to builds (as far as weapons and upgrades).

Overall: 9.5/10

Protips [Because I have 3k characters left :D]---If you know what you're doing you can earn a lot of money fast and get to the final boss and whup him within 20-30 days. Here's how (my opinion at least and kudos to Pagasaeus for saying some of this. His Kraken strategy helped me out a lot). This is MY strategy so don't be afraid to try other strategies if you disagree with mine.
Also names of weapons/upgrades may not be exact but should be close enough to know what I'm referring to.
1. Weapons to get:
Cannonball lv5---its your standard and with lv5 reload you can take down ships fast
Fireball lv4 or 5---By lv4 its good enough to me. It makes the center of Kraken easy to take down.
Autoguns lv 4 or 5---Again lv4 is good enough and it takes out the kraken shield generators fast. Plus it is insanely good against ships later in the game.
Others---forget about em. They don't help with boss, are somewhat of a pain to use, and aren't much better than the ones I recommend. Maybe get Ram lv2 or 3 if you like to get a speed boost or ram, obviously, but pirates and big ball aren't that good.

Upgrades:
Lv 5 armor---nuff said
Lv5 charge---again nuff said. The faster you can fire and clear out ships/kraken shield gens the better.
Lv3 Everything else i.e. Treasure, Turtle, etc. Don't need more than this especially b/c there's no medal for full upgrades to all.

Strategy:
First game, then boss:
Game:
Priority is to finish quests FAST so you get as much money as quickly as possible. So the best plan is to take out forts. 3-4 passes and you're done and you can move on to something else. By day 20 I was taking out 5-6 forts at 1k each every day + treasure quests and the occasional pirate/navy. Add in gold/loot drops and 7-8k a day is easily taken in. Just remember if you have extra treasure you can't carry dump off low payout/high weight stuff for ones that are high pay/low weight. Makes a huge difference.

Boss Protips:
1. Slowdown is your friend. Here's the thing you're gonna get hit no matter what you do. So slowdown and let cannon + autoguns tear up the kraken shields as you almost stay still. Speed up to the next one and repeat till all four are gone.
2. Once down, like Pagasaeus mentioned, go fireball on the center and go at full speed. This will help you avoid kraken's own fireballs (but not much else). If you still have some autogun left (for me about 50/120 rds) all the better. Should be able to finish with a quarter health to spare.

That's all for now. Again great game and don't be afraid to try your own strategy with the boss.

In your face Sid Meier!
This is pretty much a direct rip off... only FREE and better in some ways.
Okay, so it's not quite the same, but this is the best free Pirates type game I've seen to date.

"Oh god it's 2 AM I was supposed to be studying!"
Yeah, one of THOSE games...

This game is pretty good, especially considering that ship simulations aren't that common. Graphics and game engine are well made. However, I will complain that the gameplay is a bit repetitive and involves a great deal of grinding to get a well upgraded ship. Perhaps include more variety. Secondly, I think the idea of ship ramming is quite lame. This isn't ancient mediterranean warfare we're talking about. Third, the concept of treasures wasn't well implemented. It is too unrealistic to have the treasures weigh so much. A real ship can easily carry hundreds of those items while the ship in the game can only carry 5.

For those looking for some tips, the Armor upgrade is the most important upgrade once you have level 1 of the basic weapons.

To beat the kraken, use the close gun gallery to destroy the shield generators. Then, circle around the Kraken while using the fireball shot.

the kraken is way to diffacult even with a fully upgraded ship -_-