Last Resort Island

Last Resort Island
by Rokaplay (aka Rokapublish) - June, 2018

Available at:
Big Fish
Steam



Create a Survival Resort on an island full of crazy ex tofu fanatics!

As a castaway you strand on a remote island. But instead of perpetual loneliness and solace you end up with an island in shambles, teeming with starved ex tofu fanatics. An insane survival training full of slapstick fun begins!

By finding the right combinations in fun Match 3 sessions you can slowly, but steadily create a new island resort. Of course, daily life with all the inhabitants of the islands is going to be full of challenges. Whether it's engaging adventures, tricky puzzles, fun text adventures as side quests or even a Solitaire championship in the local tavern – you're always ready to make an utter fool of yourself to support the community.

And then there are those dazed and confused ex vegans who suddenly have that quite unhealthy craving for meat. The only thing to curb their compulsive eating is a fistful of glucose-heavy power ups. They will effectively shock those lost green souls into oblivion.

Achievement hunters can look forward to a big variety of rewards for creative and heroic deeds.

Will you make it back into normal life?

• Fun story full of whacky slapstick humour
  
• Unique fight mechanics
  
• Hunt for exiting and creative achievements
  
• Create your own survival paradise
  
• Different types of mindless zombies
  
• 96 hand-made levels full of intriguing gameplay
  
• Build a resort for the islanders: town hall, sugar factory, candy manufacture etc.
  
• Face challenging side quests
  
• Master many different adventures
  
• Win the Solitaire championship
  
• Use Power Stones and Power Cards
  

Last Resort Island (Match-3)

Options include separate sliders for Sound and Ambiance, Custom Cursor, Full-screen a Show Tutorials Only Once button and 5 languages.  Choice of Normal, Casual or Relaxed Mode (can only earn 1 star per level on Relaxed). 

Review based upon Normal difficulty, which means a limited amount of turns -- a mechanic that I never liked... Until now.

Story:

Contaminated tofu has turned vegans across the globe into mindless, ravenous carnivores who want to eat yer brainzzz, and the only way to stop them is by throwing them into sugar shock!  Match candies, earn money, do quests and upgrade the town to keep your people safe.


Gameplay:

Level goals are indicated in the top right area of the screen.

The basic gameplay is swap-to-match-3 (or more), with the usual tiles to clear, power-ups and bonuses, but there's a lot more to it than that, which I'll get to below.  Match 4 for a bomb, 5-in-a-row for lightning and create a 'T' shape for a rocket.  Additional power-ups such as bows and hammers have to be brought to the bottom of the screen, and none of the bonuses can be stored -- All have to be used on that board.

You have a limited amount of turns to clear the board, and there are often pesky zombies to deal with!  You will often HAVE to earn power-ups to get access to areas that need to be cleared, but that can be challenging due to the...

Zombies!


There are different kinds of zombies to deal with.  There are your basic, run-of-the-mill zombies that are susceptible to any kind of candy, but some area affected by one type of candy more than others.  For instance, zombies with a green halo will have extra points taken off for matching green candies, etc.

Next up we have the mindless: resistant undead with a golden cracking energy around them who are only affected by matching a string of candies (in the bottom right corner).  The Diabetes Sequence Bar!  You do NOT have to match all of these candies one right after another, though.  Let's say the string is supposed to be red, green, blue, blue, yellow, but you get partway through and can't finish the string right away.  No problem!  As soon as you're able to make that match, the string will be continued, and when you make the last match, the zombie will be hit with a walloping PUNCH!

Lastly are the ravenous zombies (my term for them).  These guys have an antenna above their heads, and they will devour any power-ups you make.  Adding to the difficulty, sometimes they are also mindless(only susceptible to the diabetes sequence).

Some zombies will reward you with extra turns, so that factors into the strategy, as well.

PRO TIPS:

• Get rid of the antenna zombies first
  
• When applicable switch zombies depending on the color you're going to match, ESPECIALLY when you're doing the diabetes sequence.  None of those points from the sequence will affect the resistant undead until you make the final match, so make those candies count!
  

QUESTS:

Periodically quests will become available, all with a cash prize to help our town grow.  These range from collecting stickers to unscrambling pictures to logic puzzles to a 15-hand solitaire tournament!



There is an issue with the side quests, and that is that they can somehow cause you to skip levels, so you'll have to go to the LEVEL MAP periodically to make sure you haven't missed anything.  I managed to accidentally bypass several levels with tutorials in them (such as the diabetes sequence bars) before I knew about this problem.

Verdict:

I was initially disappointed to see that building up your town does not have any effect on gameplay (missed opportunity!), but in the end I enjoyed this game immensely!  I loved the strategy needed to accomplish my goals, and the limited turns mechanic worked really well with the zombie "battles".  Recommended to match-3 fans!