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Lost in Blue 3
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Graphics & Sound:
Lost in Blue 3 is the most addictive, annoying thing I have ever picked up on the Nintendo DS; and then subsequently put down, and picked up, and put down. It's like a piece of hard candy when you want chocolate. It slightly satisfies the sweet tooth, but just doesn't scratch that chocolate itch. Lost in Blue 3 does have some pretty cute graphics that allows for annoying faces from the main characters. Faces that tell you your character is dying, and thirsty, and hungry, and tired, and sick at their stomach... five seconds after you have just fed and watered them.
The scenery, for the most part, isn't that horrible. The beach looks like a beach, the forest a forest, and the total random jungle attached to the forest looks amazingly like a random jungle. The water is blue and liquidy and everything. Apparently, the graphics have not changed an exorbitant amount from the first two games, which could get old for those that played the first two. The downside of the graphics being that not all the scenery is that entertaining. It gets a bit cookie-cutter and cut-and-paste-esque. Then again, with all the hunting and gathering and searching for water-ing... I never paid that much attention to the scenery.
At first, the music made me happy and toe-tappy, but, damn it, I did not feel like toe-tapping after having to cook a mushroom for the eighth time in ten minutes. Like much in Lost in Blue 3, the music starts out catchy, but quickly loses its appeal.
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Gameplay:
Lost in Blue 3 was the first version of the game that I had played, so I think I was fascinated with the novelty of the game to begin with. After having to cook every five seconds, and running out of energy and randomly napping in the middle of thirsting to death, the novelty went away. Far, far away. Luke Skywalker wasn't even far enough away. The game begins with you choosing a character (either Sam or Claire). I should have stuck with Sam; he could climb easier and had more stamina. Unfortunately, he gets hungry faster.
Lost in Blue 3 can get to such tedious levels of micromanaging that I actually thought about biting my DS in hopes of somehow killing my stupid character faster. The supposed point of the game is to find out how you landed on the island. Claire and Sam were dating before they both - separately - ended up on the island. Claire had been looking for Sam when she miraculously ends up on the same island Sam is on. Sam remembers nothing of his past life, let alone Claire, but accepts that the blond knows him with passing ease.
So, basically, you run around collecting things the entire game. In essence... you are a freaking squirrel. An evil, retarded squirrel with a stomach the size of a singularity. You must gather food, wood, vines, and every other manner of thing you could imagine. It doesn't end there, however. Some things you cannot eat raw (or at least fussy Sam refuses to), so you are forced to cook. But, you cannot cook without a fire! And you cannot make a fire without making a tool! And you cannot make a tool unless you've gathered a stick and bark. In the meantime, you have starved to death... and died.
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Difficulty:
The only real difficulty in the game is figuring out how to micromanage trying to live with trying to get the crap off of the weird island with the fourteen different climates. That said, micromanaging can be very, very hard. I mean, look at President Nixon. That didn't end well either.
The mini-games can be a bit twitchy at times, which makes for a lot of burned mushrooms. Most of the difficulty (read: annoyance) comes from trying to figure out how to keep fed, hydrated, and energized while looking for things to keep you... fed, hydrated, and energized.
Between gathering food, cooking (slightly annoying mini-games), feeding the other people on the island (why can't they make their own food?), getting enough rest, and trying to get enough liquid, you forget the whole point of the game. Being a squirrel is not a game! The flashbacks letting you in on the characters' backgrounds are not enough to compete with finding water every five minutes.
The most difficult thing to do is trying to school your temper when you realize you ran out of room in your pack, or your boyfriend is starving to death. He's lived on the island for years and he can't feed himself? |
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Game Mechanics:
The mechanics of Lost in Blue 3 are very simplistic, if not a smidge annoying. The D-pad gets you around; the (Y) button is player action -- which is a tad redundant, if you ask me. The (L) and (R) buttons toggle between your map and your players' icons, which will always tell you that you are starving! (B) is cancel, and (A) is confirm and player action.
There are two ways to search the ground for things (like spices and worms... from the same hole). You can either tap the ground with your stylus or press the (A) button. Tapping the ground with your stylus will bring up the patch of earth on the entire lower screen. This is about the only fun you will have using the stylus. You can scratch away at the ground to uncover things, and then tap them to add the item into your pack - you know, the one that is way too little.
Even with the micromanaging, the biggest problem I have with this game is the fact that it doesn't really use the stylus. The only thing you have to use the stylus for is some of the mini-games, specifically cooking. As far as I am concerned, cooking is definitely not a game. Slicing mushrooms and coconuts over and over is more of a chore. Lost in Blue 3 gets a huge F in the utilizing the DS department.
If you are a masochist, go rent this game. If you are sane and don't want to spend your time running around looking for mushrooms that might or might not screw with your internal organs, go rent The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hour Glass. Lost in Blue 3 starts out addictive, but the allure quickly fades. |
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-Phate Kills, GameVortex Communications AKA Ashley Field |
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