Koa and the Fire Pirates of Mara from Chibig and Undercoders brings us a colorful and fun old-school-infused 3D platformer on PlayStation that is perfect for the summer. Check our Koa and the Fire Pirates of Mara review!

 

Koa and the Fire Pirates of Mara from Chibig and Undercoders brings us a colorful and fun old-school-infused 3D platformer on PlayStation that is perfect for the summer. It follows from the events of Summer in Mara – which I got a chance to review on PlayStation 4 – with Koa is on her boat making a quick trip to Puni Island since there’s a big emergency! It seems that pirates have invaded Puni Island and are trying to steal everything that isn’t nailed down. Koa must jump into action and rescue everyone before it’s too late! When you arrive, you’ll be greeted by Mayo, Sandee, and Bo-Ho. It turns out there’s no emergency, and Mayo worded the telegram that way to make sure that you’d arrive!

It’s after this interaction that you’ll be presented with the game’s short and to the point tutorial segment, which consists of an obstacle course built by the aforementioned trio! You can play Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara in one of two different difficulties: Normal Mode and Relaxing Mode. Normal Mode is billed as a journey for more experienced gamers, while Relaxing Mode offers a more chill adventure by having more checkpoints to save your progress. Oh, and it turns out there ARE pirates attacking Puni Island, and they HAVE stolen pretty much everything!

The game will have you controlling Koa with the left analog stick. The game is played with a fixed camera perspective, so you won’t be able to control it. The X button will be for jumping, while the Square button can be pressed after a jump to make Koa roll as she lands. If you then press the X button while rolling, she will perform a long jump. Pressing and holding down the Square button while on the floor will make Koa run. The aforementioned roll can be used to break objects or to attack enemies.

 

Pressing the R2 button while jumping will make her perform a bomb jump, which will make Koa smash the ground below. Koa can also grab objects by pressing the Triangle button. By pressing the Triangle button a second time, Koa will throw said object. This can be used to destroy obstacles, hit switches, or to damage enemies. The Triangle button can also be used to interact with other characters.

To be able to recover everything, you’ll have to beat the pirates in a series of trials to be able to recover everything that has been stolen. You’ll have to find all map pieces to be able to explore all areas with your boat. Once you get on the boat, you’ll accelerate with the R2 button and steer with the left analog stick. You can stop or go in reverse by pressing the L2 button. Pressing the Touchpad on the DualSense will open up your map.

There are many collectibles for you to find during your time with Koa and the Fire Pirates of Mara. Shells are scattered all over the place, and there are also pieces of fabric for you to find. These can be traded for new t-shirts for Koa to wear. You can also find pieces of plastic, and even pearls! The shells you collect can also be spent at Noho’s store to purchase new backpacks for Koa. The more collectibles you find, the more items you’ll be able to purchase since finding plastic will unlock more backpacks at Noho’s store, and collecting more fabric will unlock more t-shirts to purchase. On top of grabbing collectibles, you can also replay levels to try and complete them as fast as possible!

 

Depending on your performance, you’ll be rewarded with a Bronze, Silver, or Gold medal. You’ll probably end up replaying some stages more than once, since you won’t be able to grab all collectibles and complete a level within the time limit for, say, a Gold medal, for your first try. That means that if you want to 100% the game by finding all collectibles, obtaining all Gold medals, and being able to purchase all items, you’ll have to take your time searching every nook and cranny to find all items as you think about the best possible route for speedrunning each stage.

The game offers a full trophy list with a Platinum trophy to add to your collection, and since it’s a Cross-Buy title, if you own a PlayStation 5 console you’ll be able to download both the PS4 and PS5 versions of the game, and each one will have a separate trophy list. Each list will be a long one, with 18 Bronze trophies, 17 Silver trophies, and 3 Gold trophies to work on. Since it’s a long list of trophies that means there are plenty of objectives for you to complete during your time with Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara.

What will you need to do as you work your way towards that shiny Platinum trophy? First up will be completing the game’s tutorial. After that, there are trophies for unlocking the first map, unlocking a small map, unlocking every map in the game, collecting your first sunken treasure, collecting all sunken treasures, beating the different bosses you’ll run into, getting all of the gold medals, finding your first collectible, finding all pieces of fabric, every pearl, every piece of plastic, and every gear, buying all upgrades for your boat, purchasing all t-shirts, buying all backpacks, and more.

 

Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara is a colorful and fun old-school-infused 3D platformer on Sony’s console that pays homage to classics such as the Super Mario Bros. series, with a dash of Crash Bandicoot and even some influence from newer titles like A Hat In Time. It offers plenty of collectibles to keep you busy, as well as time medals for speedrunning the bite-sized stages on offer. It’s a chill platformer that is a good option for some fun summer gaming. Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara is out on July 27.

Disclaimer
This Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by Chibig.