Playfirst would like you to believe that their new game, Mystery of Shark Island “tempts everyone’s inner beachcomber.” To be honest, I’m not sure I have an inner beachcomber – I have more of an “inner guy who pounds fruity drinks, gets sunburns in uncomfortable places and ogles the co-eds down at Cabo on spring break” But perhaps that’s like the evil cousin of the inner beachcomber, so it must be worth something.

The game owes much of it’s gameplay to the MCF-clone I-Spy games, but unlike the wash of clones we have been seeing lately, really changes the gameplay around. Instead of having a static scene to search for esoteric objects like pineapples and stop signs, you have a beautiful beach. As you gaze at the sand, wave after wave rolls in, showing you a number of seashells, jellyfish, seaweed, and other various flotsam and jetsam. Your job is to find a set of those that match the ones in your mysterious stone box (more on the box later).

The result is a strange mix of relaxation and stress. You get to mellow out and grab things off the beach, but you are always worried that the next wave will come wash all of your goodies away. Instead of the lenient 20 minute blocks most of the MCF-clone games give you to find your objects, you have about a minute or less between waves – so sometimes you can get a bit frantic. On the good side, the objects are much easier to find, so you won’t have to be searching nearly so hard.

Also, the game plays to one of the real strengths of Playfirst, by offering a compelling and rich story to go with the game. Utterly unashamed to blatantly refer to your favorite beach-themed TV show, you are picking up clues and “mysterious relics of an unknown civilization”. To be honest, the story is written in a sparse language that creates a strong interest, and is very well done. I was interested in what happened next, and found that the 1hour trial was over way before I thought it would be…

The overall experience is original, interesting, and compelling. Go play it yourself – you’ll be amused.

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(1 votes, average: 2 out of 5)

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