Stranded characters on a deserted island has always been one of the most popular situations for stories to be set in. From Robinson Crusoe to Gilligan’s Island to Survivor to Lost, we have always been fascinated with the idea of ordinary people being forced to survive with nothing more than their own wits, strength, and speed. The subject has rarely been used as a setting for video games, however. On the Game Boy Color, Konami released Survival Kids, giving players the chance to try their hands at living on their own in the wild. The spiritual successor to that title, Lost In Blue, was released for the Nintendo DS, and was successful enough to warrant the release of a sequel, Lost In Blue 2.

As either Jack or Amy, two teenagers who both happen to survive a cruise ship wreck, you must keep yourself and your partner alive on a mysterious, jungle-covered island. You must find water, food, and shelter, all the while searching for a way to escape back to your home. The game’s premise is strong, and exploration of the island is fun and exciting. Using only what you can find, you must create fire, makeshift weapons for protection and hunting, and edible food. You not only have to worry about the big problems, i.e. getting off the island safely, but also your basic, everyday concerns. And it is here, unfortunately, that the game falls apart.

The characters have four basic statistics: hunger, thirst, need for rest, and overall health. Each is represented as a percentage out of a hundred. Anytime either character gets a low percentage (under 40 percent) in any stat, they’ll let you know about it, over and over. This would not be such a problem if it weren’t so hard to keep the statistics up, especially hunger. You can spend all day gathering as much food as possible, bring it back to your cave/improvised home, and in all likelihood you probably still won’t restore more than thirty or forty percent of your hunger. Even worse is the way the statistics relate to each other; if you’re too hungry or thirsty, you can’t go to sleep, but if you’re too tired, you can’t carry on to search for food and water. It makes survival much more difficult than it should be and certainly too hard to be any fun.

Making matters worse is the fact that your partner character is completely useless. If left to their own devices, they will die of thirst before they go get a drink from the stream that is literally right outside the cave; you have to take them by the hand and pull them into the stream to get them to drink. The same goes for eating and sleeping; your partner will do nothing to stop their own demise, leaving you to do it for them. Sure, if you ask them to make something while you’re gone (like a firestarter or a spear), they will, but you could just as easily do it yourself. Of course, if they die, it’s game over for you, so you’ve got no choice but to babysit your partner constantly. This, coupled with the difficulty of keeping your statistics high, adds a severe frustration factor to the title.

Which is a real shame, because if you can look past these two crippling flaws, there’s definitely the potential here for a great game. The game is technically very solid, with good 3D graphics, a great art style, soothing music, and fitting sound. The island itself is well designed, with numerous secret and hard-to-access areas that really make you feel like you’re exploring the wilderness. The touch screen/microphone minigames that govern most activities, from fishing to starting fires to shaking trees for fruit, are simple but fun enough. There’s even a relatively deep cooking system that, while no Cooking Mama rival, does allow for many different recipes and cooking methods, each represented by its own unique minigame.

Unfortunately, though, the truth of the matter is that this is a broken game. All the positives in the world would not offset the fact that the essentials of the game, your day-to-day survival, are difficult, frustrating, and just plain no fun. If Konami adjusted these aspects of the game, I could see myself greatly enjoying a Lost In Blue 3. As it stands, Lost In Blue 2 is a real disappointment. If this is what it’s like to be stranded on a desert island, I think I’d rather go down with the ship.

Gameplay: 5.1
The minigames are fun, if simplistic. The survival aspects are poorly designed and far too frustrating to be enjoyable.

Graphics: 7.5
Among the better looking 3D games available on the DS.  The world is lush and the characters animate well.

Sound: 7.8
Some music is beautiful and some is merely soothing in a forgettable way. The sound effects go a long way toward immersing you in a jungle environment.

Difficulty: Hard
The game is hard in a frustrating way, not a challenging way. Micromanagement of your character’s needs can be done well (see The Sims) but was not here.

Concept: 8.3
A deserted island is a genius setting for a video game. Survival in nature is a natural for game mechanics.

Multiplayer: 5.6
Compete against your friends in one of three very simple touch-screen minigames. There’s not much content here, and it gets boring very quickly.

Overall: 5.7
A poorly designed main game surrounded on all sides by high quality elements. Unfortunately, the strengths of the latter in no way make up for the shortcomings of the former.