Pirate Jack [獨眼傑克]

Rostart Games - Xinyi Flagship Store (Taipei, Taiwan)

Time limit: 60 minutes

Age limit: 12+ recommended

Player limit: 3-7 (2 players allowed on weekdays)

Difficulty: Medium

Date visited: April 2026

We had a good time playing Rostart's Red Sun the last time we were in Taiwan, so this time we decided to check out some more. Unfortunately, many of their games are horror and strictly 18+, so we had to go with some of the more family friendly options.

Pirate Jack, at Rostart's flagship Xinyi venue, was recommended to us as the perfect game for families and kids, requiring some physicality and not an excessive amount of Chinese reading. We did this one as a team of four, with my mother standing in for E again. Did it live up to the recommendation?

• Pirate Jack was a solid game all around. Decent size and props, with some interesting puzzles that leaned toward the easy side. Indeed very good for beginners, families, and those who can't do horror games.

• The room looked and felt a little worn, but it was clean and well-maintained. We encountered no tech issues and the overall experience was very smooth.

• There was an abundance of tech in the room, but nothing mind-blowing. The majority of the puzzles, with the exception of only a couple, involved tech of some kind, whether in the solves or the related (lighting and/or sounds) effects.

• Despite not being very hard, the puzzles were fun and required a variety of skills to solve them, ranging from something as easy as following instructions to deciphering codes and applying logical deduction.

• Notably, most of the puzzles aligned with the pirate theme, and things that you might expect to happen or see on a pirate ship, whether in terms of navigation, supplies, or battle.

• We ended up cruising through in about 37 minutes without hints, about 3 minutes off the all-time record, though we joke that we might have beaten it had one part of the room not required my elderly mother to essentially tackle what amounted to an obstacle course. The kids and I were all sweating by the time we managed to help her through to the other side.

• Like Rostart's other games, the hint system involved exchanging a "coin" every time we needed a clue. We were handed 3 coins in a bag at the start of the game, and there were numerous other coins to be found throughout the room. Amazingly, we didn't find a single one, though the GM did give us an opportunity to find them all after we escaped since we had so much time left. We found this much harder than the puzzles!

Escape time: 37 minutes out of 60

Theming	Atmosphere	Puzzles	Creativity	Fun
B+	B	B+	B+	B+

Verdict: A solid room that ranks among the better pirate games we've played to date due to its fun puzzles and a handful of memorable moments that aligned well with the theme.

OVERALL RANK:

H	Z	J
B+	B+	B