Lost in Blue 3

• System: Nintendo DS
• Game Type: Adventure/RPG
• Difficulty: Easy-Medium

• Lots of exciting areas to explore
• Multiple storylines and characters
• Cooking is fun!

• Not much new if you've played 1 & 2
• Your friends make you do all the work!
• Some tasks are boring and repetitive

After your cruise ship meets disaster in a shipwreck, you're stranded on an island with only the clothes on your back and the brains in your head. Now, survival is the name of the game! You'll need to collect food, build a fire, make tools and get enough rest to keep going. To stay alive, you need to monitor your energy meters: thirst, hunger, health and stamina. Over time, you'll gain back memories of mysterious events that took place back on the cruise ship and attempt to solve a baffling riddle about your past. Part adventure game and part RPG, it's survival of the fittest on this island, so you'd better get cracking!

First, you'll have to hunt around the island for food and items. You'll also have to perform a number of daily tasks like going fishing, keeping your fire going and making new tools. Some things you need will just be lying around on the ground, but others will take more effort for you to collect - one of the first things you'll do is shake a tree with your stylus to get some coconuts out. You'll be able to eat some things you find right away, but others will require cooking. Cooking is one of the coolest things you'll do in the game, using your stylus to cut food into slices and grill items on the fire. (Hey, we could really use Cooking Mama on this island! It's too bad she wasn't on the ship!)

If you've played the previous Lost in Blue titles, you won't be in for many surprises. You'll find a lot of the same kinds of items, and basic game play hasn't changed. Performing the tasks you need to complete is usually pretty easy. Even if you don't quite know what you're doing, you can achieve most goals by just wandering around until you find something to explore or collect. The challenge lies in keeping everybody alive, since your friends appear to be too lazy to fend for themselves. Sure, they'll help you out with chores if you tell them to, but it'll be up to you to make sure they're surviving, since they'll sit at camp starving until you get back rather than collecting any food themselves! If anyone's meters drain to zero, it's game over for all of you, so you'll find yourself constantly checking up on everyone to make sure they're still all right. After a few hours, you'll definitely want to reach into that tiny screen and give them a lecture about responsibility and teamwork.

The major change from the previous Lost in Blue games is the addition of more survivor characters - yep, more people you'll have to babysit. We weren't sure we were too happy about that! But more characters also means more unique storylines - every character's got their own piece of the puzzle, and before long you'll be dying to know what exactly happened back on that cruise ship. Each character also has special abilities, so working together has its advantages.

The main downside of the game is the sheer length of time it takes to get things done. Sometimes you just want to get on with it already, but you'll have to finish the repetitive bits to get back to something interesting. Also, when your meters run low, characters start to move reeeeallly sloooowly, which will get you frustrated if you've got a long way to go! If you've got the patience to tough it out through the tedious areas, though, you'll get your payoff with the cool mystery storyline and all the fun exploration. Hey, nobody said being stranded on an island was easy!