I think it's ambitious that there exists a survival game on the GBC and for that makes it quite a unique game for the platform. Ignoring that though, I think Survival Kids is an ok experience if you're looking for simple and cute survival game. Visually, it looks good and its comparable to Link's Awakening. A thing I do respect this game for is its replay value because it features 8 endings. I didn't get all the endings mainly because I wasn't really interested in playing more of the game. This is probably due to the fact that I'm not intrigued by GB games like I used to be when I was a kid. Still, the gameplay in itself is like ok or kinda whatever. You manage your hunger, thirst, and sleep meters. So, you can progress more throughout the day(s). I do somewhat dig that every step you take matters in accordance with your meters as they drain as you take each step. I think it's neat. Although, I think the game can be a little annoying at times. Mainly when combining items because you combine stuff together and get some useless item in return. The pop-ups for getting reminded of your meters can be a little annoying too, but I understand why it prompts to happen. At the end of the day, I believe Survival Kids is an alright time if you're looking for something ambitious on the GBC. It's not a bad game by any means, but it's certainly a neat novelty for what it is.

First GOTM finished for November 2022. Really neat little survival game with some replayability due to the multiple endings. The amount of crafting materials (and sometimes useless combinations) and obtuse map would make completing this game without a guide a struggle, but luckily there is little in the way of events rushing the player through. Managing hunger/thirst/fatigue can be annoying as with any survival game, but there's a plethora of items on the island (many of which respawn with each in-game day) that should make it pretty easy to stave these off throughout the game.

Also, you get a monkey companion!

Pros: An actual survivor game, where you're a kid stuck on a deserted island, where you have to craft tools to hunt, to create fire, to eat, and yeah, there's a hunger system and everything. It's all about surviving, and I was particularly interested in this game after playing the Harvest Moon series, it seemed right up my alley! And it kind of is, the strategy gameplay for surviving and thriving is pretty rewarding, it's a cool challenge to overcome, but certainly, it's a lot more stressful than Harvest Moon.

Cons: So yeah, it's stressful, haha! As much as I enjoyed the crafting mechanics (which were a pretty novel idea for the time), the hunger system weighs you down and such, and well, as it turned out, I don't find a game about surviving on a desert island all that fun. The monkey is cute though, I'll give ya that.

What it means to me: So I was somewhat mesmerized by Nintendo Power's coverage of this game, and really really wanted it. But never managed to get my hands on it til many years later, when I did a little deep dive and liked it well enough, to the point where I even got the sequel 'Lost in Blue' on Nintendo DS. But, it's not a game I can easily go back to...

Very nice art and some funny humor with the useless crafting results. Remarkably hard to progress in without a guide - you have to craft stuff like torches to make your way further into the game, but it's often unclear what exactly needs to be combined. The process is often trial-and-error, and worse, you can craft a useless item like a baseball bat, which makes you lose the items...

The loop of the game involves managing hunger, thirst, health and fatigue. It's quite perfunctory to manage most of these. Thirst is extremely boring: you can fill a water bottle 3 times or drink from a river. Hunger is not much more interesting: you either have to grind for a piece of meat, then grill it, or eat berries. Fatigue limits how much you can explore to a few minutes, unless you have berries.

I didn't find balancing any of this to be very exciting or fun to manage, most of the time I was cutting my exploration short by having to attend to a system. And then there's health, where you get murdered instantly by night pigs or something.

I'm not very experienced with the survival genre but this doesn't seem to be a great representative of it!

On the plus side though, the general progression of the game is a nice, cute adventure game. Finding the 7 shape gems to restore some magic ship, and apparently there's a dating-esque part to the game where you find another kid? I didn't get there yet.