TT Games discusses LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean 3DS details

A portion of a Eurogamer interview with TT Games’ Jonathan Smith…

Eurogamer: What makes the Nintendo 3DS version different from the DS version?

Jonathan Smith: We are amazed at what the team’s been able to create. It’s immersive and rich as an environment to play in. Particularly then, with the 3D effect, everyone who sees it immediately goes wow, which is great.

Eurogamer: The 3DS version has visuals closer to the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions than the DS version.

Jonathan Smith: That’s the key point. Technically, the texture resolution, but also, crucially – and these things make such a difference – the lighting and visual effects. Having the processing power in the machine to be able to create them is what makes the difference, visually. And we’ve got more polygons to throw around.

Eurogamer: It uses Street Pass, as well. How does that work?

Phil, producer at TT Games publishing: You start off with a pirate character and select which attack and defence moves you want it to have. When in Street Pass mode, as you pass someone else who has the game, your pirate with duel their pirate and you’ll get a report at the end to say who’s won and who’s lost.

So when you come back to the console you can see the characters fighting each other. If you win, you gain experience points. If you lose, you gain slightly less experience points, but we still give you some. And then you can unlock new moves.

We also use the Play Coins system. You can earn Play Coins by using the pedometer in the 3DS, and unlock new pirates. You’ll start off with a generic pirate, but you’ll be able to unlock Black Beard or Davy Jones or Jack Sparrow. You’ll be able to mix and match different attack and defence moves to try and figure out what the best combination is to beat people you pass.

Eurogamer: How do you earn Play Coins?

Jonathan Smith: Every time you take a hundred steps you earn a Play Coin. You can use those to purchase characters. But the Play Coin system from Nintendo isn’t specific to a single game. Your Play Coin total is held outside of all of the games. You might go to Pirates and spend five of your Play Coins on a character, but then if you’ve got another game that uses Play Coins you can also spend them there.