Cocolani Island: Join a Tribe on Cocolani Island Company: GameSamba It seems like there are more and more browser-based games every day. This is a good thing since, as a general rule, there's little or no install required. You can log into as many different places as you want and still log into the same account. Cocolani Island is no exception. It is a browser-based game that works on IE, Firefox, Chrome, and more. You can simply hop in from wherever you are and pick up where you left off, which makes it a very convenient game to play! After you sign up, you'll select from Yeknom (forest dwellers) or Huhuloa (volcano dwellers) tribes and then you choose male or female. Each tribe is going to have different things available and different looks. You can venture between tribes though, for a price, so you can experience everything without starting a new character. After choosing your gender, you customize your mask with face decorations and colors. There are quite a few choices available, so you can create a relatively unique character. After you're done with character creation, you'll just hop right into the game! Once you start the game, you might wonder what exactly you're supposed to do. It's not really obvious, but to get to the next areas, you simply click to walk to the very edge of the current map. There is an auto-pathing that you can turn on that will help you find the paths easier. There are NPC (non-playable characters) everywhere. These guys run the shops and games and sometimes give you quests to complete for them. You want to talk to everyone that you meet to find out what they do. You should probably start with the games first to earn some money. There are a whole lot of various games available like Cactus Sweeper (Huhuloa tribe), Sheep Shelter (Huhuloa tribe), Aerial Defense (Yeknom tribe), Mahjong (Yeknom tribe), Lunch with a Mole (Yeknom tribe), and many more. The games vary in length and amount of money you earn. The better you do, the more money you'll get. If you get one of the top 10 scores, your name will be added to the high scores list. Once you have some money, you can spend it to rent a house, buy furniture for it, buy armor and weapons to battle with, buy accessories to decorate yourself up, and more. There's a lot that you can buy, so you'll want to earn as much as you can. The weapons and armor are going to be especially important. The battles are interesting, but can be quite long. You and your opponent will start on opposite sides of the board. On your turn, you have a very few seconds to move, aim your shot, and shoot. Your opponent will then do the same. You won't get to see where each other moved until the action happens. Your characters will both make those moves at the same time and depending on how lucky or skilled you are, you might hit your opponent. You can get multiple hits at once if you manage to make your projectile roll or otherwise strike your opponent more than once. Right now there aren't a lot of people on the game, but it's a lot of fun to be one of the first there. You can add other players as buddies so that you can trade with them, private chat with them, and more, no matter where they physically are in the game. Having buddies makes it a lot easier to find someone to battle with right now but as time goes on there, will be more people. Other than battling, there are quests for you to complete. When you talk to them, some of the NPCs will ask you to help them find some things. You'll need to search everywhere to find these things. You'll have to pick up various objects, use them to move other things around, put things in places, and several other tasks. These tasks will allow you to continue further in the game. So far, Cocolani Island has been an interesting little game to play. My one complaint is that I'm still stuck trying to find a piece and there aren't any characters around to give me a clue. More NPCs that will give you hints at things would be nice. There are still some bugs in the game being that it is still in beta, but the team has been very good at patching things as quickly as they're reported. Given time, I think that Cocolani Island is going to be a very addictive game. You can get a key for the closed beta at the link below, so I recommend you all check it out now! -Cyn, GameVortex Communications AKA Sara Earl Related Links: Cocolani Island Closed Beta Key Giveaway on GameVortex.com Cocolani Island Official Site