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LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean and outpouring emotion

Traveller's Tales on its co-op platforming powerhouse.

Eurogamer So there's no need for a big multiplayer battle component?
Jonathan Smith

We're always looking to do new things. LEGO Star Wars 3: Clone Wars has got an interesting arcade mode which plays differently to our story levels from our other games. That's worth a look. So you can see we're always trying new things. It comes up very rarely as a suggestion.

Eurogamer With Pirates, which new feature will have the most impact?
Jonathan Smith

Jack's compass. It's a funny thing, which suits our LEGO tone. We can hide objects in the levels that are completely surprising. You never know quite what you're going to get with Jack's compass. You have an idea of what's available, because the compass will tell you what's available, but not what it's actually going to turn out to look like or to be or how useful it's going to be. So it plays to our strengths of surprise and humour. Plus, Jack's a great character.

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.

Eurogamer What's next for LEGO games?
Jonathan Smith

We'll definitely be making more brilliant LEGO games!

Eurogamer What's the most requested LEGO game?
Jonathan Smith

We've been surprised over the years at how many people have asked for LEGO Back to the Future, because in some ways that's not a natural one because it doesn't have the adventure or variety of characters as some of the other ones. But it seems to be something people consistently want us to do.

People love to ask for completely inappropriate games with brands that are totally not suitable for children.

Eurogamer Like LEGO Mortal Kombat?
Jonathan Smith

For example. LEGO can be anything, as YouTube will show you. That's wonderful. We aim to make games that will appeal to the broadest possible audience and will be suitable for all players as well.

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