Today’s the last day for entries into Appletell’s pirate game giveaway, in which we’re awarding one winner copies of Freeverse’s Jack Keane and Coladia’s Destination Treasure Island. But is that all? Of course that’s not all. We’ve decided to throw in two games of your choice from the Appletell review vaults. Which games? Well, you’ve got to find the treasure chest before you can open it up.

Pirates are bad. They steal. They kill people. They’ve got horrible hygiene. It’s just not a pleasant thing. But that hasn’t stopped Hollywood and the gaming industry from glamorizing them, and why should it? I’m guessing sword fighting skeletons would be nasty in real life, too, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be included in every movie ever made. And although we’ve got no skeletons for you, we do have some pirate games we’d like to give away this weekend.

Pirates have sure made a comeback, huh? No longer relegated to goofy musicals and crazy notions like the idea that Geena Davis could ever be a respected ship captain, pirates are now back where they should be: the subject of big budget action movies and sexy Halloween costumes for the ladies. Even better, they’re now the subject of an Appletell giveaway.

I had a lot of fun with Jack Keane. I’d like to think this has more to do with the quality of the game than with any sense of nostalgia, but I imagine that’s not the case. Those who never got into adventure games or who have never actually played one will likely grow tired of Jake Keane within a matter of moments. But if you prefer your games to be story driven or like your puzzle logic to border on the absurd, then Jake Keane is a fun, entertaining romp worth the few technical glitches and slow moments along the way.

All you fans of pirates (the handsome, comical, romantic kind, not the amputated, murderous, drunken kind that, you know, actually existed) will be pleased to note that Jack Keane, “A hilarious, action-packed adventure game in the spirit of Monkey Island,” will be shipping out to retailers across North American on December 8th. Boy, I sure am glad we can laugh about pirates these days. Why, I think it was only about five or six years ago when I told my best pirate joke at a party and as admonished for being “too soon.”

In Jack Keane, we’ve got a stressed out pirate, a mysterious island, and a monster that eats British secret agents. Seems that covers everything, and yet, there’s more: 250 objects will need to be utilized to solve the game’s puzzles, dozens of off-beat characters will come into play, and you’ll get to play as both Jack and the lovely Amanda, who apparently has a habit of stealing Jack’s crew members from him.

Is there anything that could make this game sound any better? Yes…

Normally, an announcement such as this would go right to the daily Macintosh/iPhone software update round-up, but when it’s pirates and it’s adventure and it’s Freeverse, I have to make an exception.

An article at Apple’s website offers details on Jack Keane, an adventure game developed by Deck13 Interactive and originally published for the PC by RuneSoft. Now, the fine folks at Freeverse will be bringing it to the Macintosh by the end of the month.