by Craig Medlin

Created on: September 10, 2008   Last Updated: September 17, 2008

When I was looking at a list of new games to check out, one in particular caught my eye, "Hawaiian Explorer: Lost Island" by IWin. The title intrigued me. Who wouldn't want to explore through the beautiful Hawaiian landscape in search of a lost island? I immediately downloaded the game, only to find out; it was not at all what I had expected.

Gameplay - 1/5

In terms of gameplay this title does nothing original, innovative, or entertaining. The game is made of thirty, similarly boring, missions. They involve searching the screen for the various listed objects within a set amount of time. The timer goes down a considerable amount however, when you click on an object not on the list. This creates quite the challenge. If you fail a mission you have to replay it using a different object set. The gameplay is overly repetitive, tedious, and, for the most part, just plain boring.

Graphics - 1/5

When I booted up the game and the loading screen appeared, it looked promising. A very nice looking plane took shape above a well-crafted island in the background. After entering the game, the graphics show for what they really are. Since there is relatively little animation in the game, the graphics are rather simple. Each level is just a setting with objects over it. These objects are not objects you would expect to see in such settings. This gives the player a very surreal feeling when playing the game and doesn't portray the self-proclaimed adventure genre very well.

Music 2/5

I feel rather redundant saying this but the music was as boring as the rest of the game. Consisting of little more than ten or fifteen second loops, the simple 8-bit style soundtrack did little to impress me. It most certainly did not help me complete the levels any faster, causing as much frustration as the game.

Creativity 0/5

This game demonstrates absolutely no creative innovation. It simply took away from other games that have already tried this technique, and made it worse. I would expect a better game from first time programming students in a beginners game design class.

Overall 1/5

Most people play games for entertainment; if you are one of those people, scroll your mouse right on past this game. In an effort to create or advance basic memory and eyesight skills this game takes away anything that could be mildly entertaining and makes it torture. After only fifteen minutes of gameplay my eyes had begun to hurt, feeling strained after searching for bizarre objects in an office locale. The objects make absolutely no sense in the scenes, or the story, they are placed in. I would highly recommend you search for another game to fulfill your entertainment needs.

Learn more about this author, Craig Medlin.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.