Pirate Ship Higemaru

Pirate Ship Higemaru was produced by Capcom in 1984.

This is a top-down view arcade game where the player is cast as Japanese sailor Momotaro who has to defeat all of the Higemaru pirates as well as their nefarious captain Bow.

Each stage is a fixed screen view of a pirate ship filled with barrels, oil drums, bags and more where Momotaro has to take out a set number of pirates (and a captain) before moving on to the next level. Momotaro has no weapon of his own, so he has to pick up the various barrels and items on the level and throw them at the pirates. Some items break on impact, while others are indestructible and can be used more than once. If Momotaro manages to throw a rolling barrel which hits more than one pirate in succession, the score gets higher for each pirate defeated. Some of the barrels and items hide point bonuses and for each sixteenth barrel destroyed, an invincibility bonus is rewarded to the player which lasts for a short while. The enemies themselves will kill Momotaro by touching him, so staying away is a must to survive.

Each fourth level is a bonus level of sorts where breaking barrels yields increasing points, and there is a set number of Bow captains to defeat. After level 16, the game will start over from the beginning again, making it a game with no ending.