Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara

Every year, it seems like we get an adorable, non-violent action/platformer starring a good-natured hero and a full cast of colorful characters. This year’s iteration of the trend is Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara, a tropical adventure from the same people that gave us the equally wholesome Mail Mole back in 2021. With swashbuckling action and a booty full of treasure to unlock, this is a high-seas platformer that the whole family will enjoy. Though, some of the more seasoned gamers may feel like they’ve been here and done that before. This is my review of Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara.

At first glance, Koa looks like a precocious young girl who skips around her tropical home without a care in the world. Of course, in reality, that’s far from the truth. She’s been summoned back to Qälis Island by a friend who writes of pirate attacks. As it turns out, things are even worse than Koa thought, as the small tourist community has been hit by a one-two-punch. First a terrible storm blew through the city, then a bunch of pirates came can stole everything that wasn’t nailed to the ground (and a few things that were). Now it’s up to this good-natured little girl and her customizable backpack to infiltrate the pirate strongholds and get the stuff back before Qälis Island goes bankrupt.

And so begins a light-hearted adventure through a bunch of short, self-contained platforming stages all taking place on the different islands of Mara. No matter if it’s a snow-covered island or one made up of fire and lava, the structure remains the same from beginning to end – we run and jump through three straight-forward platforming stages before taking on the boss and unlocking a new part of the map. There are eight locations in all, each with their own theme and look, as well as a few secret items to pick up along the way.

If you’ve played a 3D platformer before, then a lot of Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara is going to look awfully familiar. With the locked camera angles and simplistic level designs, it’s clear that this is a game designed with a younger audience in mind. Gamers who might not be as well-versed in butt-stomping giant red buttons, dodging spike-covered cannon balls and dealing with those platforms that disappear and reappear every time the hero jumps may have a good time dealing with the many obstacles, but everybody else is going to see most of this coming a mile away.

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That’s not to say there isn’t any variety in the level designs, because the developers have done a good job of mixing things up from one level to the next. We’ll occasionally switch from the standard 3D platforming to a bunch of fun underwater 2D stages. There are also levels that will immediately remind you of some of Sonic the Hedgehog’s speedier stages. These different types of stages not only mix up the gameplay, but they also add a number of new obstacles that you’ll need to memorize and avoid.

Even inside of the standard platforming stages, the developer is good about introducing new wrinkles to keep things interesting. For example, you’ll suddenly need to collect a bunch of keys to open up a door or complete a very simple puzzle to advance the story. The game knows that you don’t have any bad guys to beat up, so it does its best to keep things interesting with the level designs and diversions.

I also enjoyed the different types of boss fights. The different pirates are cartoony and silly, so a lot of these so-called battles end up being little more than a race to the finish line. These are well-crafted level designs that give you the option to sabotage your opponent in a lot of fun ways. As the game becomes a bit darker and serious, we’ll start to take on the bosses in one-on-one fights that will often have us throwing bombs at the enemy. This is about as violent as the game gets.

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With eight stages to play through, the game will take around four hours to complete. You can add on an extra hour or two if you want to collect the hidden extras in every stage or take on the completely optional bonus levels. While short, the game has a surprising amount of extra stuff to do and see before saying goodbye to the Mara Islands.

As a 3D platformer geared towards younger players, this game is a lot of fun. Koa is a cool character and the supporting cast (including the pirates) are all silly and goofy in all the right ways. I enjoyed hanging out in the Mara Islands and was impressed by how many things I can buy and upgrade around the city. The tropical locations are bright and vibrant, and I couldn’t help but be in a good mood while watching Koa skip around the dangerous obstacles like it was no big deal.

That said, older platforming fans will likely breeze through this game without it putting up much of a fight. You’ve seen all these obstacles and ideas before, usually in much harder gamers. It doesn’t help that Koa, for as happy-go-lucky as she is, doesn’t have very many moves. She runs, she jumps and she will occasionally pick things up. In other words, she’s like every other 3D platforming hero, except that she doesn’t get a double-jump. That’s especially disappointing given the developer’s previous game, Mail Mole, which managed to shake-up the platforming genre by giving us a hero that literally burrowed underground. There’s nothing that cool or inventive in Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara, and while this probably won’t be a problem for younger gamers, it definitely was a problem for me.