If you are looking for something tropical to keep your brain occupied between those baffling new Lost episodes then you might want to give the Treasures of Mystery Island a try. In this new puzzle game from Alwar Entertainment, you take on the role of Alex, making just another routine run across the Atlantic Ocean in his cargo plane when his girlfriend’s lucky talisman starts to glow. Moments later, as his ride dives toward choppy waters, he finds himself parachuting to the sandy expanse of an uncharted island. When a native rescues Alex, he begins a hidden object adventure that will take him into the heart of a strange island.
The object of the game is to find pieces of lost object that are hidden in the intricately detailed scenes of island life. Once the pieces of each lost object have been located, then you have to figure out where the object should be placed in the scene. If you have trouble locating the pieces you can use the hint feature to help you zero in on an item’s location. You can get as many hints as you need, but you do have to wait for a short period of time between hints as a meter refills.
One of the difficulties of the game is the amount of detail in each scene. In order to find and place objects you will be zooming in and out a lot. It is easily done, with just a tap of your finger, but even with that I found myself using the helpful hint button more than I would have anticipated, since some of the objects are pretty hard to make out when you are zoomed in as far as the game will allow, even accounting for my aged eyeballs. The other option is to start tapping randomly on the screen to see what you happen to hit, and if you do to much of that, the game actually scolds you with a little warning message.
When you get all of the objects assembled and correctly placed in a level, you are rewarded with a mini-game. I aced the first one and got an achievement, but am stuck on another that I may never defeat and all my progress in the game seems to be blocked. That’s another frustration point, don’t leave a gamer stranded with everything hinging on one mini-game.
If you enjoy hunt and find puzzle games, then this one would be a good pick. The game play is simple and straight forward, with the mini-games giving some added challenge. The graphics have nice detail and the interface is crisp and responsive. You can purchase Treasures of Mystery Island for your iPhone or iPod Touch from the App Store for $3.99.
Pros:
- Nice graphics and interface
- Engaging puzzle game play with challenging mini-games
- Good value for price
Cons:
- Could use stronger zoom
- Provide an alternate path for someone stuck in a mini game
Rating: 3.5 
