Benji Rosenbloom is an average young man, with an average life. There is nothing really special about Benji. He arrives at the airport one day, ready to board his plane for destinations unknown. He goes through airport security, and then takes his seat on the plane (next to a very nervous passenger). Little does Benji know that his life is about to change... forever!

Benji's plane crashes on an island. Benji is okay, but it seems that he is the only survivor. But what is this place? Where has he landed? There's nothing else for it - Benji decides to explore the island, and try to find a way home. It isn't long before Benji realises he isn't alone on the island. After a troubled start (where he was tied to a tree), he soon meets up with a group of survivors who have been stranded on the island for several years. The group befriend him, and help him get used to life on the island... but there is much more to this island than meets the eye. And as Benji gets acclimatised, he finds himself involved with natives, pirates, treasure hunting, strange experiments, and more.

Island is a wonderful point & click adventure game that takes inspiration from the likes of Lost, Monkey Island, and Treasure Island. It's a great story, full of witty dialogue and jokes. Benji's first meeting with the Shaman is a good example. Benji assumes that Shaman is throwing things into he cauldron, to make some native potion. But in reality, the Shaman is just tossing things in, because he is bored.

The controls are nice and simple - right-click your mouse to scroll between 'Look' or 'Pick Up \\ Use', then left-click your mouse to carry out the required action. Inventory is hidden at bottom right of the screen (just move your mouse down there), and you can easily see what items you are carrying, simply by clicking on the box that appears. I should point out that the game can randomly freeze, or Benji can even leave the screen for no reason. When that happens, just press 'R' to reset things, and bring Benji back. Don't worry though, you won't lose any progress in your game. Another bad point is that the dialogue is not skippable. So if you accidentally ask the same question twice, or you accidentally examine an object twice, you have to sit through all the dialogue again, without being able to skip past it. A minor inconvenience in an otherwise excellent game. You can Save, Load, Restart, or Quit the game by pressing 'F5' to bring up the main menu. There are 3 Save \\ Load slots, which you can overwrite as many times as you wish.

The graphics in Island are wonderful and cartoony, and strong bright colours are used throughout the game. I love how all the characters have such huge eyes. Inventory items are shown as wee icons, and each icon is very clear, so you know what it is. Dialogue is shown as text at bottom of screen, and characters mouth their mouths as they 'talk' so it's easy to keep track of who is saying what. Coconut Gary made me giggle, and I was glad that he kept re-appearing. The useless pirates were impressive, as were all the Natives. But my favourite has to be the Shaman sitting on his skull chair.

The game has some wonderful music, that changes every so often, depending on where you are in the game. There is a good variety of music, but also, you will notice the same themes running through some of the songs, but just a different variation. I love music in the Native Village, with all the heavy drums. Sound effects such as jungle birds squawking and twittering away, ocean tide coming in and out, and Gerald whacking the fish all help to bring the game to life.

Island is a wonderful game, that I thoroughly enjoyed. The story began with Benji stranded on an apparently deserted island, and gradually, he gets involved in this huge conspiracy. It's easy to interact with the game's world, simply by using your mouse, although it was mildly annoying that I couldn't skip through dialogue. As I said earlier, the game can sometimes freeze. But that is easily fixed by pressing 'R'. Cartoon-style graphics are impressive, and the strong, bright colours make it a fun game to play. Music and sound effects are used to great effect - especially in the Native Village. I highly recommend this game to any adventure-lover.