Being stranded on an island has been subject of many movies and TV-shows. Who doesn't like the idea of fleeing from the busy world onto a tropical sunny island, surrounded with palm trees and coconuts? Strangely this concept has rarely been used in videogames. Konami's Lost in Blue for the Nintendo DS shows both the upsides as well as the downsides for using the stranded theme in a game.

Lost in Blue is about two young teenagers, a boy and a girl, who get stranded on a deserted island when their cruise ship gets subject into a storm. The game puts you in control of the boy, Keith. You start when he awakes for the first time on the unknown island. Where is he? Where are the others? How is he going to survive?

Soon Keith finds Skye, a female survivor about his age. Quickly they decide to work together. The kid's find a place, or so to say a cave to stay in and Keith is responsible for the food, furniture and exploring of the island, while Skye's task is to… Well to… uhm, to do what women are good at; cooking and doing some handwork. Sexism aside, honestly... that's all she's good for.

Don't you just hate the Sims because of all the different gauges you need to keep track of? Does your Sim have enough food, sleep, fun, social talks and so on and on, all day over and over again? Well, if that annoyed you, the basic concept of Lost in Blue probably will disturb you too. The upper DS screen shows three gauges associated to the survivors: A water gauge, stomach gauge and stamina gauge. You've to keep these three at a reasonable level since these three things effect your HP. When gauges are getting low, your HP starts to shrink eventually leading to death. HP can only be replenished by having a good nights rest. With a full stomach that is.

Basically, this means you always have to make sure the two teenagers have enough water, rest and food every day. There are different methods to gather food and water. You will find out better ways as the game continues. Especially in the beginning it's hard to keep the survivors alive with almost no help from the game except for some basic instructions. You've no way to catch fish, only seaweed and coconuts to eat. Later on items you acquire like spears become available which you will treasure deeply for catching those damn fish once and for all! Not that gathering food has become an easy task by having this. Items you construct can break, therefore you've to gather the materials again. Yet another tiring task.

Some of the actions done in this game are done by mini-games controlled by the touch screen. Some are fun. Catching fish for example where you have to tap your screen on the right spot on the right time and starting a fire by rotating a stick to cause the sparks and blowing into the microphone to really woo it into flame is a touch of genius. However, some can irritate you to the bone. The furniture building mini-game is one of them. When you've found enough materials you can make stuff by drawing the same arrows as appearing on screen. If you fail your materials are gone and you have to go out and collect them all again. Not the most pleasant thing to do.

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The game is divided in days, lasting for about thirty minutes. You won't need every minute of the day, though. Sometimes you find yourself with nothing to do after a few virtual hours. Other times the days are way too short. Just as in real life, actually. Game completion must be done within 365 days, though you'll get there way before then. After the regular play-through there are two other modes that lengthen the lifespan a lot though. Add on different outcomes depending on your conversations with your fellow stranded comrade (unfortunately no 'Blue Lagoon' like sex scenes in this game fellas, sorry) and you can see that this game has a long lifespan.

The day system of Lost in Blue can easily be compared to the original Pikmin's day system. It's sensible to consider at the beginning of the day what to do. Gather some food, water and wood so you can go out exploring for a long time the following day. Or just go out and discover the island for different types of food and materials. It's completely up to you, but if you or your girl runs out of HP, he or she dies and the game is over. Going out for a long time must be thoroughly prepared.

Let me put on my whiner mode. One thing that put me down about the game is the touch screen controls. The touch screen is only activated in the 'mini-games'; not in the menus nor in regular play. Not very user-friendly, is it. Another little thing that spoiled the game a bit for me was the game's manual. Why is a map of the whole island published in there? Isn't this games main purpose to explore? To discover where you are and what it looks like? Konami sure put a major spoiler in there. Hopefully the EU manuals will be without this but heads up from us; don't look at it.

But these are just minor shoddiness factors. Lost in Blue has bigger problems. Yes, the looks of this game are good. Yes, the sound perfectly fits the environments, but a videogame is meant to entertain you. Not to turn out into an extra chore in your life. I enjoyed many moments of the game, but the game becoming a chore seems inevitable, with the different errands returning so many times. Sometimes I really had to force myself to pick up Lost in Blue again. The idea of gathering twigs again was too repelling.

It's hard to rate such a specific game as Lost in Blue. A small group of gamers will really love it. The reality of being stranded, looking for food every day, going out to explore the rest of the island. Other gamers probably can't be bothered to do the same things over and over again with little variation. If you've the chance to try Lost in Blue for a while to discover if it's your type of game then I'd take it before buying. Who knows? Maybe you'll find a Blue Lagoon like sex scene after all.