Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 4 hours ago

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Pirate Ship Higemaru is an action-puzzle arcade game created by Capcom and released in 1984 in Japan only. This was Capcom's third video game after Vulgus and SonSon as well as their first game that wasn't a shmup or shmup adjacent.

This game would be best described as an action-puzzle game inspired by Pengo with a pirate theme. Each stage, called a Deck, is a single grid-like screen where you use barrels (in Pengo it was ice blocks) or some non-destructible items like coins or stuffed bags to slide/roll toward enemies in order to take them out. On most stages, you have to take out all of the chubby little bearded pirates known as the Higemaru. There are also optional pirate captains to take out known as the Bows that regenerate continously until you kill all the Higemarus and the stages ends. On Decks 4, 8, 12, and 16, there are Hi-Point decks that only spawn the Bows and you have to kill all of them in order to move on. There are flashing barrels that you can pick up that have items that are worth a small amount of extra points. Another way to score extra points is to take out more than one stunned Higemaru in a row with a single barrel or non-destructible object. You get a slight bonus for this as demonstrated right before Deck 1 in the introduction.

There are some differences between this and Pengo in terms of gameplay. One, this are secret items underneath the non-destructibles that can be acquired by big scoring bonuses or an occasional 1-UP if you don't grab anything else prior on the stage. This applies to Stages 3, 6, 9, 10, 12, 14 and 15 on the first loop. This adds an extra scoring component along with the items from the flashing barrels. This game also lacks bonuses from clearing stages quickly as well as anything like the diamond block mechanic. Plus, the barrels work a bit differently than the ice blocks in Pengo. You can pick them up and move around until you're ready to use them. Also, your barrels goes slightly up in the air whenever you roll it left or right, meaning that it can kill enemies slightly above your position. Taking advantage of this is key to success in the later stages.

As far as difficulty goes, this game starts out fairly chill until the second half of the first loop. By Round 10, the enemies become significantly faster and smarter and the challenge ramps up until it peaks at the end of Loop 1 on Deck 16. Also, despite the stage layouts staying the same and the secret items staying in the same places, there is RNG in terms of where enemies spawn on a given stage, so you cannot memorize this game completely. Despite all of that, this is not a super challenging arcade game. After the first loop is done after Deck 16, the game repeats Decks 9-16 infinitely until the player runs out of lives. There is no difficulty increase after the first loop either.

As far as other versions of the game go, there is a virtually perfect port of this game on Capcom Generation 3 for Playstation and Sega Saturn that includes a remixed soundtrack that sounds better than the original music. You can also play this nowadays on Capcom Arcade Stadium for cheap. It has also been included in the past on mini-consoles like the AtGames Legends Flashback and the Retro-Bit Super Retro-Cade.

Played on MAME .287 via the MAME Current RetroArch core and recorded in OBS Studio. Also, I left my mic plugged in by accident (it was actually on the floor away from my PC). You can hear my voice in the background at the end of the first loop because I was pretty excited about beating Deck 16. Oh well lol.

00:00 Intro
00:17 Deck 1
01:06 Deck 2
01:58 Deck 3
02:59 Deck 4
03:52 Deck 5
05:10 Deck 6
06:13 Deck 7
07:20 Deck 8
08:16 Deck 9
09:43 Deck 10
11:14 Deck 11
12:54 Deck 12
13:44 Deck 13
14:42 Deck 14
16:19 Deck 15
17:48 Deck 16
18:49 Loop 2