The series had a small revive on the Nintendo DS system a few years ago by Konami and since then, the welcome hasn’t been all that warm. With many saying the new games do not meet up to the original game Survival Kids.

Fanboys and girls alike could hide behind the series and be blatant about what games sucked. When it comes down to it, none of the games in the series are perfect and many have some nice interesting features. At the end of the day Lost in Blue 3 is what Lost in Blue should have been.

The series has a very basic promise, with your characters always winding up on a deserted island after their boat sinks in the middle of the ocean. Like all games in the series you some how land on an island which is deeply tied to a criminal gang.

Your character lands on the beach and soon enough decides he remembers crap all about who he is and were he is. But his memory is soon jogged as you go through the game and learn about the story, as well as the mysteries which surround the island.

The plot twists and turns as you play the game are more interesting and detailed then the past games in the series.

The game introduces many fixes but few things new from the last instalment in the series Lost in Blue 2. Lost in Blue 2 introduced a new feature to building which was a small mini game which you had to cut the wood then press on areas for the rope to be tied. This is still in Lost in Blue 3 and has had the room for error decreased, like most other mini games. For example the fire mini game you can never fail unless you don’t do what it says. In the earlier games you would always loose your sticks if you go faster or slower than the last one. But in this instalment of the series the room for error has been shrunken allowing you to speed along or be slower than normal.

Konami has added more backdrops to areas as well as making the graphics slightly better. The backdrops appear in the fishing mini games and when you talk to a character. It is now relating to the area you are not the same background for any location.

Konami has also added more music into the game, past games only had music when you were about to die or a 10second intro into an area. Music now plays in every location basically and the sound track is very interesting. It fits well with the game and the music is very slight to the sounds of nature around the island.

Something interesting Konami has thrown at us this time around is instead of 2 characters you now have 4 which can be playable and live with you. Some people believe this would suck, but it works much easier. You can now go out and do what ever and concentrate less on doing stuff. The other characters you can then have get firewood or food. So it becomes a small community which works together. Also different characters have different skills.

One stuff up you could say which Konami has done to the game is change the Quick Save to a ‘Your Parents want you to do something quick and you need to save the game’ saving system. In which that means you then go to the title screen, instead of continue game play. It would be good if it was an option after its saved such as ‘End or Continue’.

THUMBS UP

Game play: Lost in Blue 3 has very similar game play to the past games in the series. But it doesn’t feel broken but it would still be nice with some more fine tuning.

Controls: Like the game play, the controls are very similar to past games in the series. Also like the game play it doesn’t feel as broken as before but would really do some with more fine tuning.

Sounds: The music and general sounds in the game do not feel out of place or retarded.

Replay: Konami has made a good game, but when it comes to replay its lacking, there is more than the older games. But it still needs improvement. A feature regarding replay you can play as the other 2 characters not just the original girl and boy. Which start in different locations and the game play is different.

Summery: Over all Konami has improved the formula for the series, making this the best game in the series. One thing they have forgotten is that this would have been good if it came out instead of Lost in Blue or Lost in Blue 2. As those two games feel much like an experiment and have destroyed the fan base because of it. This game is great, but not good enough to fix what Konami wrecked. To do that they would have to change the formula very much so.

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Review by: Trent Petronaitis