Hannah's Adventures: the Pirate Caves

For this week’s article we will talk about Hannah’s first game, Hannah and the Pirate Caves. This is a very old game, but since you can obtain a pretty avatar and trophies when playing it, the game hasn’t been forgotten by the neopians.

The gameplay is actually very simple. You play as Hannah herself, controlling her with your arrow keys, crouching with the down arrow key, and jumping with your spacebar. The objective on this game is to collect all the treasure chests at the level you’re in so you can proceed to the next one until you’ve reached the last one. Pretty simple, huh? The problem is that sometimes the chests are hidden and you’ll have to face some obstacles to get them. No need to worry, though, as you can practice all you want.

There’s nothing much to describe per level as the gameplay is always pretty much the same, so I divided the game in different parts. This way I’ll be able to point out specific details that I find interesting and that will help you while playing.

- The Game -

Tutorial Levels: it doesn’t matter how expert you are at this game, if you are aiming for the avatar and/or the trophy you must always play the tutorial levels. Why? Because you can get points in these levels too and they will count up towards your final score.

There are six different tutorial levels and while playing them you will get to know all the basics you need to learn before heading to the “main” levels. You just need to follow the arrows on the screen and instructions will automatically pop up for you to read.

One thing about this game is that it’s fully filled with secret areas. You will be able to find one on basically every level of the game. Honestly, I found it very hard to describe the way to access the secret areas in this tutorial, therefore I won’t do it, but the gems you can find by entering the secret areas are very important if you want the trophy or the avatar since they are worth 5000 points; however, it’s possible to win them without the gems. You can spot the secret area by the “holes” you will find on the walls. Note that in most of the levels you don’t have to hurry, so try to be patient and protect your lives, as they are very, very important.

Levels 1-5: now you will be facing some enemies, so be extra careful! I had way too much trouble with the fifth level, but then, fortunately, luck isn’t a winning factor in this game, but practice is! You will need to practice a lot every level before going on a “run” and play every level, trying to complete the game. My recommendation is to first complete every level, individually, memorize the best way to complete them, and then do it. Since there’s a pause screen between levels, you can write down or take print screens of every level and look them up before starting them (extra handy if you do this technic with the secret areas).

Levels 6-10: if you have been destroying everything in your path, including the wooden boxes and arrows, and collecting all the gems in the secret areas, you will be able to win the avatar by the seventh level. But truth be told, who wants to stop at the avatar when you can have a trophy, too?! Trophies are easier on the first day of the month because the high scores table resets, thus if you are not confident with your ability to achieve a high score on this game, you can always play at that day and, luckily, win a shiny trophy. It’s completely possible to win the trophy in the middle of the month, too – I, for example, got the golden trophy on the 18th day of the month.

Levels 11-15: the game is getting harder and harder, I must say. For me, the 11th level is the hardest on the game. I once had 7 lives with me and I died, with every single one, on this level. IT IS INSANE!!! *pulls hair* Uh, sorry for that. Let’s keep going. The 12th level isn’t hard, but you need to be extra careful – there’s a right sequence of shooting the arrows, so if you do anything wrong, you got to restart. Apart from that, the recommendations are pretty much the same: be extra careful with your lives, you don’t want to end your game when you are basically halfway through completing the game, and practice as much as you can.

Levels 16-20: if you have successfully completed the levels before these, it’s very likely you will be able to finish the game. The final five levels aren’t hard, but they need previous knowledge. By that I mean that it’s to be expected that you won’t complete them on your first tries as they need quick action. But don’t worry - you will be an expert at no time!

- The End? -

Well, this guide has come to an end. Hannah and the Pirate Caves is a classic, incredible fun game, but it can be hard in the beginning. Don’t worry if it seems difficult for you, you just got to practice a little more. If you have got any questions, feel free to neomail me – I am here to help.

This article may have ended, but you will still be seeing me next week! The next game works pretty much the same as Pirate Caves, but it has some new features that I am sure you will like. See you there, then? Good bye!