If you’ve been paying any attention to TV lately, you’re sure to have seen the advertisements for Disney’s upcoming feature film "Pirates of the Caribbean," and these days, no film is complete without a complementary stack of game licenses. Soon enough, we’ll be taking a look at the console version of Pirates of the Caribbean, but right now, we’ve got the GBA title in hand, and it’s time to talk about it.

Pirates of the Caribbean seems aimed at children, a fact its simplistic gameplay can attest to. As Jack, the stalwart adventurer, you start the game marooned on an island and must find firewood. This firewood will signal a rescue ship that will return Jack to Port Royal, home of the merchant fleets. This first level is incredibly small, and a dirt path points you in the right direction at all times, eliminating any possible sense of difficulty. There’s limited space to explore due to the small level, and this quest for fire should take all of four minutes.

While this appears to be a training level, you’ll quickly discover that this is how the rest of the game plays: pushing crates, jumping, climbing and fighting through very short quests. The quests are so simplistic, in fact, you’ll be hard pressed to spend more than 10 minutes on any single level. One would-be shining moment in the game, the ship-to-ship combat, ends up being a quick round of firing two cannonballs at your opponents and heading back to shore.

Combat is woefully weak. Jack begins the game armed with nothing more than a cutlass, which cannot be drawn until an opponent spots Jack. At that point, both sides will square up, take a few swipes at one another, and Jack will win. Rarely will you ever die from combat. Later levels introduce muskets as weapons, but you’re stuck firing them from long range, all the while standing in one place. It’s not much fun for stalwart gamers, but it’s easy enough for younger players to pick up on.

The levels in Pirates of the Caribbean are far too small to interest even the hardiest of explorers. After several rounds of practically being led to your objectives, you’ll give up on exploration and spend the rest of the time wondering how to finish the level within five minutes, which isn’t a terribly difficult proposition.

With such short levels, it’s particularly annoying that this is a password-save game, meaning you’ll have to keep a scratch pad ready to take down the level codes as you finish them. Rather than end up with a mountain of post-its full of codes on my desk, I just left the game running for the single day it took me to finish it.

Pirates of the Caribbean is a good-looking title on the Game Boy Advance. Character sprites are smoothly finished and nicely animated, and the scenery looks especially lush. The high points in the graphics, though, are the buildings and ships, both of which include little details like open windows, wooden doors and burning fires. It’s obvious that Pocket Studios spent a lot of time making this game look good, but it’s too bad that as much time didn’t also go into expanding the levels.

Next to the graphics, the soundtrack is probably the best part of this game. The music is cheery and fun for the most part, and it sounds as you’d imagine pirate songs should. Sound effects are equally appealing, with the clanging of swords seemingly sampled from a real duel. Sure there are a few poorly crafted sounds (why does a dying crab sound like a dying English soldier?), but overall, these are some of the better effects in a GBA title.

If you’re looking for a title that’ll hold your interest for weeks or even several days, forget about this one. It’s a very short and completely linear adventure that probably won’t last you more than a day or two of gaming. Since it lacks any special modes or unlocks, one round through will be more than enough.

With all the obvious effort that went into the sound and graphics, you would think Pocket Studios could have fleshed out the level design and gameplay elements a bit more. My guess is that they got the license at the last minute and had to get a game out in time for the movie’s release, so they did their best in a limited timeframe. Sadly, as good a job as they did in a limited timeframe, it just isn’t enough to make a game that will provide long-term interest to skilled gamers of any age. Younger GBA players who appreciate a simple pick-up-and-play game might find a few hours of fun, but even they will tire of Pirates of the Caribbean after a few levels.