Lost in Blue: Shipwrecked

Probably should re-think that cruise vacation I was planning.

Posted 4 years ago By - Marko Djordjevic

Konami Entertainment’s long-running Nintendo DS series Lost in Blue finally arrives on consoles with Lost in Blue: Shipwrecked. Now it’s time to try to get off the island with the use of your Wii-mote. Will you want stay a bit longer and enjoy the tropical weather or rush off because you just can’t stand it anymore? Read to find out.

Gameplay

Lost in Blue: Shipwrecked is extremely similar to its DS ancestors. In this edition, you play as Aidan Sanders, a teenager who gets lost at sea after the cruise ship he was on catches on fire and sinks. After falling off the rescue boat and being left at sea, you wake up on a small island and realize must try to find a way off it. You discover the island is too small, so you venture out to another, larger island in the hopes of finding others. There, you meet up with another person from the cruise ship and together, must find a way off the island.

While there is a story, it only serves as a reason for all the actions in the game, which are played out with numerous mini-games and interactions on the island. As in the portable versions of the series, you have three status bars that you must keep track of. Your first is the water, which can be taken care of quickly by going to any watering hole. The second is your food meter, which is replenished depending on the food you collect and eat. The third status is your fatigue, where you just need to rest or sleep to replenish.

It may seem simple, but in fact, this is what makes this game so difficult. Food and fatigue are easy to take care of, but when it comes to eating, you will spend the majority of your game trying to keep this status high enough. You can manage to eat half a dozen coconuts, handful upon handful of fruits and even plenty of fish or other meats and still not manage to fill your bar up in a single day. Considering the amount of protein and other nutrients you are consuming, any normal person would be fine for a long period of time.

The managing of you and your partner Lucy, along with your two pets; your monkey Hobo and her dog Max is another chore of the game. Not only do you have to take care of yourself, but for some-odd reason, the moment you got onto the Island and were discovered by Lucy, it gave her the free pass to avoid doing anything on her own. You will have to monitor her at all times. When she gets hungry, you’ll need to feed her. When she gets tired, you will have to tell her to get some rest; she does absolutely nothing on her own. In fact, even when you do ask her to help you, for example to cook, she may not always do it if she doesn’t feel like it. Considering this is a kid’s game, this will make it difficult for anyone at any age to enjoy the micro and macro managing required in the game.

It’s not all bad. The game contains a plethora of mini-games which for the most part, are quite enjoyable. Every action in the game uses the Wii-mote in proper context sensitive motions. When you need to shake a tree, you simply take the Wii-mote and nunchuk and shake them. For the fire-starting mini game, you will have to move the two in a rubbing motion followed by fanning the fire to get it going. Even the food mini-games, where you are preparing and cooking the meals are really well done. The mini-games, which there are a lot of, do save the game to some degree.

Graphics and Sound

There isn’t much to be said about the graphics in the game. Shipwrecked’s graphics are the worst point of the game. Upon first glance, you will swear you’re looking at a GameCube title and even that might be too much of a compliment. The characters look pretty bland even close-up and even from a far, the draw distance is very short. While there is some variety in the areas on the island, there is still too much repetition and nothing that really stands out.

Even the sound doesn’t hold up that well. The game has a bit of speech by the characters but it’s only on certain words and phrases. The voice-acting isn’t bad, but early on, you might be confused when Aidan or Lucy begins to talk only to stop mid-sentence. Even the sounds on the island aren’t anything special. You do hear the sounds of the waves and other environments, but there could have been so much more done to create a more believable island experience.

Value

The mini-games are the best part and there is a mini-games option in the start screen if you want to just play them. Most of the mini-games do have a two-player option that can be played either in the main-story line or in the mini-game mode. There is also another mode that is unlocked once you progress to a certain point in the main game. It opens up some challenges that require you to collect items in a certain amount of time. It does add a bit more to the game, but chances are you won’t get far enough in to unlock that feature.

Conclusion

Your enjoyment of Shipwrecked will be determined by how much you can handle the storyline. If you don’t mind having to take care of not only yourself but of someone else, you might actually find something to enjoy. For the majority of people, this game is just not that pleasurable and can be quite tedious or difficult. I will give the developers some credit for attempting to add a story to a collection of mini-games, but unfortunately, this continues the trend of Wii games that is rushed out the door and not given the attention it could have used.