Arrrr, avast ye scabrous scallywags!  With the recent release of the Tales of Monkey Island game, and the upcoming release (as of the time of this writing) Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition, I was in a very pirate-y mood this weekend.  So I decided to play the only (dyarrrr, that takes the wind out o’ me sails) co-op pirate game out there, Certain Affinity’s Age of Booty.  With a few fellow lubbers in tow, we set sail in the hopes to pillage some villages, sink a few ships, and fill our holds with pieces of eight. Age of Booty is a real-time strategy game that puts you in control of a pirate ship that’s out to capture a few towns before your rivals.  You only control the one ship, which can be upgraded through the collection of resources that are generated by the town.  In the single player mode, you and a group of AI partners race against the other pirates to capture the most towns first.  In co-op mode, the goal is the same, but you now have real live partners to help out, which is a much preferable option.  Since none of us were exactly up for searching for another group of players to take down, we went with the tried and true comp stomp.  My friends and I formed the Red Hand team (and a more foul-tempered, grog-swilling, bloodthirsty gang o’ Jacks you will not meet), while our AI adversaries, the fearsome Admiral Enis and his band of Trained Monkeys, formed the Poison Talons.  With the teams set for a 4v4 match, all that was left was for us to get to pillaging! YARRR!

The Age of Booty just got more bootylicious.  Ok, I promise I'm not going to overuse the word booty in this post. 

You know what's better than booty?  More booty.  Bountiful amounts of booty.  And in the Age of Booty, booty was plenty.  But now we have more booty than the Age of Booty can handle.  

International Talk Like A Pirate Day was last month, but it's not too late to celebrate.  This week, another pirate game (about pirates, not pirated, matey!) hits Xbox Live Arcade.  Age of Booty is today's co-op release.  Up to four scurvy dogs can play locally, and a full fleet of eight "Cap'n Colorbeard" types can play together online.  The co-op is said to be squad based, but still, that's better'n walkin' the plank, eh?  Each villainous captain will control but one vessel, making good strategy more valuable than a handful of Spanish dubloons.  The game's rated "E", so I guess the booty must be of the monetary varrrrriety, morrrrr'es the pity!  If you do download this title, keep an eye out for green clad flying boys, ya heaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr?!