Hands On: Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza In Hawaii (Xbox)
Image: Pure Xbox

You know, ask any of my mates, and they'll tell you that back in whatever year it was that Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag released, I was constantly telling them, "this is great, yeah, but what it really needs is cheesy karaoke rhythm games, customisable mopeds, Japanese gangsters and 200% more sequins. Oh and a perverted guy who dresses up as a squirrel."

I didn't really say that, but somebody over at Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio must have, because that's exactly what Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii has been like in its first 15-20 hours. It shouldn't work, really, fusing the naval combat of Black Flag to the street-fighting exploration and chaotic silliness of the Yakuza games, but man alive, it's so much stylish, well-written fun...I kinda just want to sack everything else off and keep playing.

You kick off this time around with Goro Majima washed up on a mysterious beach, which turns out to be an island very near to Hawaii. He can't remember anything, of course he can't! But through the usual mix of smacking people around the head with bins, and engaging in nonsensical conversations with shady old men, we start to get a handle on his predicament. He's got mad fighting skills, you see, those of an ex-Yakuza, which we discover alongside him in a tutorial that showcases a smart new take on the series' arcade combat system.

I was a bit disappointed initially, to find out that this spin-off wasn't going down the turn-based combat route, as I think it adds a ton of humour and strategy to the franchise, but lo-and-behold this new fighting style is actually a really nice switch up. It feels like a cleaned up version of the brawling of old. There's more space, Goro isn't as unwieldy to move around, and even though we only have two fighting stances/styles to switch between at the moment, it's proving to feel like a more polished and modernised return to the violence of pre-Yakuza: Like a Dragon days.

Which immediately makes this one highly compelling for me. It's the Yakuza that I love, with a brand-new bunch of settings to explore, refined combat, and then this absolutely daft, but brilliantly well-realised idea of smacking Black Flag's pirate ship combat into it. How on earth does that work? And why does it work so well? I think it's because they've really gone all-in on it. The ship-to-ship stuff is engaging and fun, tight to control, fast, and with its own flourishes that actually make it feel a little more immediate, colourful and arcade-like than Assassin's Creed. Your ship has great big metal turbo thrusters on it, too. Which beats historical accuracy out the door all day.

The islands I've visited so far, although it takes a little while to get used to the lack of traversal options,(Yakuza ain't got no parkour, yet), they are still fun to explore, to dig around in, no matter how small, and then in bigger islands, such as the Pirate Arena, the game shows off that its no slouch in the graphics department. This ain't no joke. I can't wait to see what else is down the line in terms of big boss lairs and dungeons styled as pirate hideouts. I can tell it's gonna look amazing, that much is for certain.

I love, too, that the pirates here aren't even real pirates. They're mostly just bozos, weirdos, drunk guys and cosplayers. The worst. All these slightly off-kilter people sort of just hanging about, waiting to get a turn at being in your strange pirate gang. It's brilliant. Why have the monotony of...whatever the lad in Black Flag was called...was it Edward? I refuse to Google. Why have that po-faced monotony, when you can have Goro Majima smashing guys, singing and dancing, doing karaoke, playing loads of games on his Master System and doing quests for all-sorts of bizarre and, quite likely, perverted reasons?

There's a warmth to the Yakuza series that's always risen above the lewdness; and even in the early hours of this new adventure, it comes across strongly. It's all very likeable. The characters in these games; whether it be Goro himself, his young sidekick Noah - who somehow isn't annoying - or any of the rest of the madcap crew we've got together so far, all have a realness to them, they're all a little broken, and wanting to fit into the world again, and it makes them all very easy to be be best pals with. I am very lonely.

I'm not far enough into the game to give any sort of score just yet, but taking the on-foot sections of Yakuza and transporting them to a bunch of bespoke islands split apart by ship-to-ship combat and gentle exploration, well, who knew it would make for such a delightfully fun and colourful spin-off? I'm really digging the new combat, it feels faster and more fluid, less tanky, more responsive, and the contained areas that you have to sail around in, it makes for a much more surmountable challenge when the sea isn't quite so endless. Also, just landing on small islands to wreck the locals and steal their gear is so much more fun when those same locals abuse you the way they do in this game. And Black Flag never introduced any of its enemies by having "A**HOLES" appear across my entire TV screen in front of my children. So it can never really compete now.

Anyway, overall, I'm having a very good time with Pirate Yakuza, thanks. I felt like this was gonna be a Yakuza too far for me, I've played a lot of them lately, but the combat, ship stuff and top-notch humour has got me all-in again. And when your overall aim is to steal some legendary treasure whilst pimping up your ship, beating lads to a pulp, and listening to old video game soundtracks on your in-game Walkman, well, you can't help but feel up for a bit of the old swashbuckling.

Are you picking up Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii for Xbox? Tell us down in the comments below.