Barf Boat

In this... Er, charming tale of the high seas, we meet Captain Arf, the gluttonous Warf that commands the Petpet pirate ship known as the Pernicious Pinchit. Unfortunately, overeating and choppy seas aren't exactly a winning combination, and with all this rocking... and swaying... he just... might... Oh my.

Ach, I feel scurvier'n a Bilguss at high tide...

How to Play

Barf Boat is played with just three keys: the left arrow, the right arrow, and the space bar. With the ship lurching from side to side in the rough water, you must use the arrow keys to balance members of Captain Arf's crew on the ship's deck. Hold down the arrow keys to turn the boat and alternate directions when needed. When necessary, pressing the space bar will make all pirates currently on deck (aside from Arf) jump. As the game progresses, more and more crew members will come up from belowdecks. If at any point you don't have a Petpet on deck with Captain Arf, it's game over.

Yarrr, a more steadfast an' loyal crew yeh'll never find... Wait, Slorgy Jones, come back!

When a crew member gets close to one end of the ship, they will weigh that end down more; to counteract this, it's best to keep the Petpets as close to the center of the ship as possible. In an emergency, you can make them jump and reorient the ship while they're in the air. Be careful with this, however; if a Petpet is in motion when they jump, they will retain their momentum and jump in the direction they were moving. In the later stages of the game the ship will begin to rock more violently, causing the Petpets to jump automatically. After a certain point, the rocking of the ship will be so severe that it will cause Petpets to jump the entire height of the game screen. During these times, do your best to keep the ship as level as possible.

Occasionally, a coin (see Scoring section below) or bomb will appear on the deck. Bombs come in varying sizes, each with a blast radius about twice the size of the bomb. If caught in the blast, Petpets will be knocked backwards, sometimes over the edge of the ship. The easiest way to deal with bombs is to let them roll off the deck; if a bomb is between two Petpets, simply have them jump and let the bomb roll out from under them. If a bomb is about to explode on the deck, a well-timed jump will usually be enough to get your crew out of range of the blast.

Every thirty seconds or so, Captain Arf will... Give his dinner some fresh air, making quite a mess of the Pernicious Pinchit. Fortunately, aside from being a bit distracting, this has no real impact on gameplay.

No real impact?! Speak fer ye'self!

Scoring

In Barf Boat, points are scored by keeping members of Arf's crew on deck. For having one crew member on deck, you will score 3 points per second, with another 2 points per second for each additional Petpet. This holds true regardless of which Petpet(s) are on deck. At random intervals throughout the game, golden coins will appear on-deck: they can be collected by touching them with crew members, and are generally worth 30 points, though will sometimes be worth up to 300 points.

Extreme Mode, selectable from the game's main menu, sees Captain Arf in control of a tiny rowboat. While you will gain points twice as quickly in this mode, playing on Extreme isn't recommended due to how difficult it is to control.

Strategy

Ideally, you want to keep all of the Petpets in as small an area as possible, to make them easier to control. When Petpets appear, they will usually jump before landing on the deck; you can use this opportunity to tilt the boat in that direction, moving any other Petpets to where the new arrival will land and keeping them all in a smaller area.

Quick Tips

• Don't forget, you can use the space bar to make the Petpets jump!
• Keep all of your Petpets grouped tightly together whenever possible
• Quickly tap the arrow keys rather than holding them for more precision
• Tilt the ship to roll bombs off the side, or jump to avoid the blast

Video

This game guide was written by: Chesu