What a fascinating idea for a game - being stranded on a desert island with the simple goal of surviving. This concept was tested with mixed results in 2005 with Lost is Blue for the DS (which in turn is based on the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance Japanese hit RPG series Survival Kids), and while reviewers widely panned the game, fans seemed to find it enjoyable enough that Konami brought us a sequel.

Two years later and Konami delivers Lost in Blue 2, a game with a few more new gameplay mechanics and the same old survival gameplay that fans enjoyed in the first game. The problem is that the game’s most enjoyable moments are overshadowed by that central survival gameplay element that is nothing short of ridiculous…

But before we start belly aching about empty bellies and being thirsty, a little background. In Lost in Blue 2 you find yourself enjoying a leisurely respite on a luxury ocean cruise when suddenly your ship crashes, you get tossed into the sea -- and by some miracle you wash up on the shore of a deserted tropical island. You note that this place is hotter than Hades but there seems to be an abundance of clean drinking water coconuts and an empty cave where you can take shelter. Shortly after a quick exploration of the island you run into another castaway. It is at this point that you both realize that if you don’t find some shelter, a way to make a fire and some food and water to sustain you that the hot sun and cold nights will make quick work of you. You basic goal is to stay alive, and while that seems simple, it’s tough to do that if you don’t learn some skills very quickly. That’s the basic premise of Lost in Blue 2, but gamers will soon figure out that it might have been better if you’d both drowned at sea…

Lost in Blue 2 doesn't really revamp the basic "stay alive by the second" core gameplay in a way that is palatable but it does add a lot of interesting and fun mini-games that really will have players torn between being entertained and being agitated. The agitation revolves around keeping your characters' whining to a minimum by making sure they have water to drink and food to eat. And when we say that this core survival gameplay is by the second we mean it. Water and food is used up very quickly by these castaways at alarming rates, and depending on what activities you attempt to take on while outside the cave or even what the weather is like on this island getaway you'll see these levels drop like Internet tech stocks in the late-nineties. Not only is micro-managing this whole survival thing a lesson in frustration, it is also tedious and to be quite blunt - ridiculous. It's hard to understand how these kids survived during a school day back home, let alone being stranded on an island.

There are ways to increase the length of time in which you'll need to eat and drink luckily. Common sense will tell you that in order to create more nutritious meals with a mix of vitamins and proteins is to look for different sources of food. But beyond that you can create recipes that incorporate all kinds of food types and even spices that are filling and provide you with hydration and stamina.

As you explore the island either with one character or hand-in-hand with your partner (whose gender is determined by who you chose at the beginning of the game), you'll encounter plenty of things to do like digging for crabs, smacking coconut trees for fruit, pushing objects to create pathways, finding items that can be used for tools and plenty of ingredients for cooking including a myriad of spices that make the off coconut and fish monstrosities you'll create taste just a little bit better.

But the exploration is really a pain in the ass when you have to drag the other character along because you can't trust them to feed themselves. Parts of Lost in Blue 2 are just frustrating, while many of the mini-games keep you coming back for more. Too bad you'll spend more time resource gathering, babysitting and sleeping than exploring. But these mini-games are worth mentioning because they are fun. A good example is starting a fire. To start a fire you move a twig in a circular motion (just like they taught you in the "Scouts") in a pile of kindling by pressing the right and left shoulder buttons. Timing is everything so you have to carefully press each button at the right time for it to work, but if you get the rhythm the kindling will start to glow and you'll have a small ember show up - by blowing into the microphone to bring its heat level up you'll cause a flame to appear and voila! You have a campfire.

Once you've done that you can start the process of cooking food. Chances are the first thing you'll eat is seaweed and coconuts. You start this process by cutting stuff up using the stylus in a mini-game. Using slashing motions, you rapidly slice down on each object on the screen to cut it up in pieces. From here you can eat it raw or you can cook it on your fire. In yet another mini game you must make sure that the food is cooked evenly by flipping it over in a very brief mini-game.

There are plenty of other little mini-games you can take on as you play the game, and they add a lot of charm to an otherwise tedious experience of micro-management.

It’s just a shame that there aren't more moments like this in Lost in Blue 2. The other part of the game that doesn't make sense is that there's no skill building whatsoever in the game. It would seem like shaking coconut trees, spear fishing, digging in the sand and climbing and walking all over an island would be a perfect opportunity to build some strength, agility and intelligence. But this game doesn't let you do that. Instead you play the master of the quickly depreciating stamina, hydration, and nutrition. And when the moon comes up and you've eaten your dinner and put another day behind you it feels like you're wasting your time.