The Games of my Life

Hmm, there surely have been a lot of “first impressions” recently… I really must get back to this blog’s original theme, “the games of my life”. I have a bunch of them in the queue, but with the new DS, then Christmas, then the New Year, I haven’t had any free time.

Anyway, Konami’s Lost in Blue is a very unique experience. To put it simply: you end up on a deserted (so far, at least - I haven’t gone far in the game, yet) island, and you have to survive, and eventually escape. Of course, easier said than done, as you have to rest, eat, drink, take care of yourself, and those are certainly not easy. In fact, I bet that you’ll starve to death a lot, when first playing.

Eventually, you begin to get your bearings in the island, and learn some ways of improving your situation - for instance, it wasn’t until I used a stick and a sharpened rock to build a crude spear, to use for catching fish, that I stopped being almost starving all the time. Of course, the situation still isn’t great. Plus, on the second day a girl also washes up at the island - while she offers a few suggestions, and can cook (much of the food can’t be eaten raw), she also has quite poor eyesight, and has lost her glasses, so you have to take her by hand even just to go to the nearby river and let her drink some water. In short, you have to take care of her as well.

From the manual, I see that there are other things I can do, such as lay traps, or even hunt animals. But I haven’t done that yet.

Still, the game is quite intriguing. And it uses the DS’s capabilities well - for instance, you have to use the stylus to dig in the sand and look for clams, and to build a fire, after you use the L and R buttons to turn a stick around, you then have to blow into the microphone. It works better than it sounds, trust me.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to play it more, in the following days. But I got Nintendogs as a present, 2 days ago… and there’s still Mario 64, and Meteos, and Mario Kart, and Metroid Fusion, and Advance Wars, and… so many games, such little time.

Bought it yesterday, and played it for an hour or so. Here’s a few random thoughts:

• It’s a puzzle game, as everyone knows. Reminds me of Bejeweled and Puzzle Pirates‘ bilging puzzle, with a little bit of Tetris added to the mix. Basically, pieces (called “meteos”) fall from the top, and you don’t control them there (unlike Tetris); instead, you have to move them, after they’re down, using the stylus, to make columns or rows of three or more identical meteos. When you do so, they “ignite” and move to the top, taking everything on top of them with them. The goal is to make them leave the screen (if you’re competing with another player, or a “bot”, it’s even more important, as they fall into their screen), but sometimes you need to make more than one column or row quickly so they have enough thrust to leave the screen.
• The graphics are really great. For some reason, even though it’s using the same screen(s) as GBA games, the game seems much more colorful and “hi-res” than them. The game’s presentation is fantastic - those guys have put more care into the game’s menus than many developers put into entire games!
• Music and sounds are excellent, too. Dozens of different tunes, in many separate genres - reminds me, in a way, of Star Control 2. I’ve heard techno, trance, rock, even something like country, there. And you can unlock many tracks to play in the “extras” section.
• Each “planet” has different graphic styles, different music, and different rules. Even though the game’s basic rules are the same, in each level you have to adapt to different conditions - for instance, gravity may be lowered (which means you have to make simple rows or columns really fast) or increased (forcing you to plan your moves and make big combos). This is only one example, there are many more variations.
• There are lots of unlockables. New planets, materials, items and tunes. You’ll have to play a lot to get them.
• Can be played with up to 4 players, though I haven’t done so yet.

So far, I’m happy.