Age of Booty is Capcom and Certain Affinity's strategy game. Let me just say right off the bat: they've blown all other XBL and PSN arcade games out of the water (no pun intended).

Clocking in at only 800 microsoft points, or roughly Ten dollars, Age of Booty is worth every penny. The game has a very user friendly control system, that really only requires one to two minutes of your time to learn the basic controls. You move around by clicking on Squares, or hexes as the game calls them. You battle other ships through getting on a hex near them. If you are hurt you can heal at one of your towns, or at your pirate lair, but the pirate lair heals you quicker, and if you have enough resources you can upgrade your ship at the pirate lair. To win a game you have to capture a certain number of towns, and you capture towns by breaking down there defenses and capturing them like a flag.

The whole strategy component to the game is really...ingenious and simple. You start off with a predetermined number of resources, and spend them at the start of the game to buy you and your teammates one of three upgrades. Armor, which makes you withstand more bullets, but slows you down; Cannons, which makes you fire faster, but slows you down; or Speed, which speeds you up, and has no downside. It is best that you and your team figure out ahead of time who's getting what upgrade. 

There are three resources in Age of Booty: Wood, Gold, and Rum. You gather resources from capturing towns, picking up crates, or ransacking villages.  You can use the resources to purchase town defense upgrades, or to upgrade your teams ships, but be careful, because the resources are for the entire team and not just you.

The "campaign" in Age of Booty is really just a bunch of challenges each on easy, medium, or hard, but each is very different. The challenges basically just show you how to play, and teach you basic concepts of the game. You get some various achievements for beating all the challenges. The challenges are really fun, and are great learning tools for the incredible multi player that awaits you.

The multi player aspect of the game is really simple. There are two modes 4v4 or 2v2. In either mode you can play along with a friend over XBL or hook up locally. It is really quick, and the hours can rack up, because the games go by quick. This game calls for careful planning and a lot of team strategizing. Make sure as many of your teammates as possible have microphones. The multi player is really...really addicting, and it just makes your mouth water for more. The game is a thousand times more fun if you play with a friend, because you feel sort of obligated to work with them. The maps are very diverse and different, and each map requires you to rethink your strategy at the games start.

Age of Booty also has a great map editor system, that is very detailed and deep, but is once again incredibly simple. You can allow for where the resources are, where the towns are, and where the pirate layers are. You can also affect the geography of the map, so that people will have to maneuver around certain obstacles.

All and all, in my opinion, Age of Booty is the best Xbox Live or Playstation Network game ever. It has an incredibly addicting and deep multi player, that will keep you coming back and wanting more. The map editor system allows for you and your creativity to shine, while you can still have fun plundering the map for treasure.