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Youda Survivor
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Graphics & Sound:
The graphics in Youda Survivor are cheerful and bright, conveying a nice sense of the island atmosphere where the game takes place. The main game screen shows an area on an island that you must cultivate. Grass and swaying palm trees surround your sandy area and, on a windy day, all manner of things could blow in like coconuts, eggs and meat. From time to time, pirates will attempt to invade your little spot and you'll get a musical cue to announce their arrival. Pleasant reggae music will always be playing in the background, but the tune will change when the pirates come around. Sometimes crabs will saunter in to tear up your equipment and cause mayhem, or vultures will even fly overhead to drop bombs on your work.
While the music in Youda Survivor is great, the sound effects can get a little annoying. Ok, a lot annoying to the people who might be hearing you play the game. I didn't mind them at all, but Geck0 was really bothered by the snorting pigs, the odd bird sounds and the weird clacking sounds the equipment makes as it processes food products. When your "survivor" runs really low on health, an alarm sounds that will definitely motivate you to make it stop by consuming some food. |
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Gameplay:
In Youda Survivor, you play a castaway who finds himself on an island. The native tribe on this island believes that you have come to fulfill their long foretold prophecy and will save their island from an onslaught of pirates. To that end, you must prove yourself by cultivating a variety of products and simply surviving. Initially, the levels will be really easy and you'll simply be watching over a few birds of a single type and making sure they are fed so they produce eggs. Eventually, you'll get different types of birds and mammals who want different foods to eat, and you'll be required to take the by-products like eggs and meat and use them in equipment to make other products. Between levels, you'll use the money you've earned in levels to buy upgrades to your equipment. In order to use your newly purchased equipment in the level, you'll have to "build" it which will cost you some of your health points, which are displayed in a bar on the left. Your water level is also displayed, so as you progress, you will have to maintain hydration by drawing water from the watering holes in your area.
You can also combine the products you gather using recipes, which yield more powerful potions, which, in turn, yield more health when you consume them. You'll purchase all sorts of equipment for processing goods, like machines to make eggs into powder, or to prepare salads, potions, coconut oil, and all sorts of goodies. You'll have a cook to prepare recipes for you and she is upgradeable to a faster cook, for a price. There's also the diver who obtains goods from under the sea for you. He gets algae and shrimp for the birds to eat, plus he can get bags of sugar from shipwrecks to aid you in your recipes.
Your ultimate goal is to work your way through over 75 levels, upgrading your equipment and becoming the tribal leader the natives have been waiting for. |
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Difficulty:
When you first begin Youda Survivor, there is no selectable difficulty. The levels begin fairly easily, with very reachable goals and such. You'll only have to collect a few items and the types of animals you'll be caring for will be quite limited with limited needs. Eventually, your goals will build, such that you'll need to earn base products, then use those products to create other products, then use those created products to make even more elaborate products. I never found the pirates to be too difficult to beat, as they go down after a few whacks. There were a few levels where I didn't watch my water and health and I died because I allowed myself to get too low on one of those, but those were few and far between.
What occurred more often, but not excessively, was when I didn't earn quite enough money in a level to move on and unlock the next level. When this happened, I would simply go back to an earlier level, replay it and earn more coinage. While I was never held up for too long, I felt like the levels should have afforded me enough money to progress without me having to backtrack. |
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Game Mechanics:
Youda Survivor is all about the finger tap. You'll tap to buy upgrades, tap to collect items that have been left by your animals or have blown off the trees, you'll tap to build or purchase equipment and upgrades and you'll rapidly tap to stun and kill enemies like pirates, crabs and vultures.
To help you along, you'll have things like the Rain Ritual which can be used to refill your ever-drying water holes, the monkey, which can help you by collecting objects on the ground to free up your time, the wind, which can be selected to blow goodies in from the surrounding areas, and the bird, which can be selected to protect you. All of these options take health to activate, only last a limited amount of time, and take time to regenerate, but can be upgrade to do so more quickly.
Overall, there's a lot of game to Youda Survivor. There are many levels to work your way through and some of the game is a good deal of fun, while some is a bit more tedious. It reminded me a lot of Farmtopia, which I reviewed for the DS. If you enjoy time management games and simulations, you should check out Youda Survivor. I ended up enjoying it a great deal.
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-Psibabe, GameVortex Communications AKA Ashley Perkins |
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