This is rather nifty. Developer area/code recently assembled a pirate-themed PC game, "Plundr", which uses real-world locations as an integral part of its gameplay, with players required to visit certain landmarks (represented by desert island icons) on an interactive street map in order to progress.

Now, area/code has ported the game over to the Nintendo DS, and has shown off the results at the recent Where 2.0 conference in San Jose, an event dedicated specifically to this kind of software. The transition to Ninty’s handheld seems like something of a no-brainer; after all, the portability factor alone would strongly benefit a game of Plundr’s nature.

The game uses a Wi-Fi Positioning System to keep track of the player's whereabouts, and directs them to hotspots, from where they can buy and sell different goods, loot merchant ships, and scrap with other players. "Depending on where you are in the physical world, you'll find different islands, different market prices and different ships to fight," explains the developer’s website.

Which all sounds pretty excellent to us, even though area/code has thus far refused to divulge information on when or where the DS version will be released. So far, the game’s site only shows maps of Tokyo and Chicago.

Nevertheless, it’s a novel idea, and it gets a thumbs-up from us, if only for encouraging more languid, pale-skinned gamers to dismount their sofas and beds, and get outdoors - something that probably hasn’t been attempted since Konami’s Boktai games, which used natural sunlight as a key gameplay component.

To give the PC version of Plundr a go for free, head HERE.