“Mom told me about something called Time Island. It’s cool.
I like the games in it.
It is about when you are on an island and go adventuring.”-Cassidy
Time Island is an online adventure game that’s basically “Survivor” in interactive, animated form. Kids hone their survival skills on a tropical island, banding together to form tribes, seeking out food, keeping energy levels up and keeping tabs on personal hygiene.
You also need to avoid the big green baddies, the Goggs. I, apparently being a slow learner and the type who doesn’t like to read directions, spent ten minutes trying to “talk” to the Goggs. Don’t. It’s hazardous to your health.
There are mini-games around every corner and behind every bush, designed to be educational or to strengthen hand-eye coordination, spatial reasoning, music, logic and mathematics.
Kids can design their own avatars, and parents can control the speech settings to only allow pre-selected phrases if they are so inclined. You can even create a parent’s account that reports on what activities your kids are participating and for what length of time. Curse words are banned from Time Island; this is monitored by site managers who also ensure that Time Island is a safe and fun cyberbully-free zone.
New additional games, activities and features are in the works.
Thoughts:
Cassidy and I both had some trouble figuring out what to “do” at first on the island. She was fine just poking around, but as a Final Fantasy junkie and RPG fan used to a strong storyline in general I was frustrated. Also, there were some slowness loading and small glitches, but it’s important to note the game is still in beta. That stuff will likely be worked out.
The graphics are very cute, and I enjoyed the whole survivor theme (and the strangely soothing background sounds). What really wows me is that this is basically the pen pal equivalent of this generation: my kids can interact with kids all over the world in a safe environment. Dude, the internet is amazing.
Maverick threw in his two cents while helping Cass navigate the island, saying that the gameplay feel was very similar to Club Penguin. He definitely could see the potential for fun, but there needs to be more people to interact with to get the full experience.
So join up, people! The more the merrier!
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My kids were extended an early invite to try out and review Time Island from BSM Media, and received a goodie bad full of temporary tattoos, bracelets and stickers. No other compensation was received and all opinions are our own.
We have been testing this out in our home as well. I also got frustrated and felt the same way as you. I couldn’t figure out what to ‘do’ either. Neither could my teen daughter. I tried changing the settings for the captions would be read out loud for my younger children but it never worked. I plan to give it another try this week.