Stranded Review

Stranded, another well-polished glu game for mobile phones, starts off quite a bit like Lost and evolves into a rather interesting cross between Lost and Robinson Crusoe. You -the heroic protagonist- and a few survivors are stranded (hoho) on a mysterious island and have to make sure a) you survive b) you find out what's going on c) you get the feck outta there. Oh, and it's not a plane that miserably failed you, but more of a ship.

Stranded, despite what most gaming sites will tell you, is not an adventure. It's an arcade adventure pretty much like Zelda, and one featuring interesting hunting and fishing minigames too. The game's controls are excellent and impressively intuitive (you can easily start playing the game without even bothering to read any instructions), mostly using the 2,4,6,8 buttons for movement and the 5 button to perform actions ranging from talking to shooting arrows to planting seeds.

Besides the very interesting -though rather cliched- plot that spans six chapters (and will last you quite a bit more than your average mobile game) and gets progressively more engrossing, the game does feature quite a few sidequests and tons of animals and plants to discover and take advantage of, which do add to its replay value. Gameplay mostly consists of exploring, talking to characters, fighting (in brilliant arcade sequences) boars and snakes, hunting, making arrows, cooking, planting watermelons and basically completing quests that will advance the story. Oh, and despite being on the more repetitive side of things, it's fun and addictive enough to keep you playing even in those post-midnight hours, while quite a few of the quests are perfect for 5-minute long bus-waiting playing sessions.

The technical side of the game is more than satisfactory, sporting decent music and nicely detailed graphics with a distinct 16-bit feel. Interestingly the game also features rumble which is quite a nice touch.

Stranded was tested on a Nokia N80 and really is the most engrossing game I've ever played using a phone. Try it here.

SCORE: 8/10

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Related Tags: Stranded, Glu games, Mobile game, Phone game, review, Games, Game, Lost, mobile games, nokia, phone