Lost in Blue (aka Survival Kids) is about kids shipwrecked on a desert island who must learn to survive. The franchise began on Game Boy Color but is mostly known for its trilogy on Nintendo DS and was last seen on the Wii in 2008. The core always tried to survive with limited resources, relying on character-specific skills and solving some puzzles.
The tone of these games was fairly grounded so that young gamers would take the situations seriously. Flavor text typically emphasized the gravity of being marooned, and there were multiple endings, many of which were pretty dour.
Kids today crave instant gratification and can’t be bothered to grind at survival slowly, and would not appreciate the finer aspects of the original Survival Kids. Can a shipwreck sim be re-imagined, capturing the ADD-rotten brains of modern youth? Is this the most obscure launch of a Switch 2 exclusive? Find out in our Survival Kids review!
Survival Kids
Developer: Unity Technologies
Publisher: Konami
Platforms: Nintendo Switch 2
Release Date: June 5, 2025
Price: $49.99
It’s the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2, and chances are you got Mario Kart World for it and maybe one of the other many older ports. Some people wanted to get Cyberpunk 2077 complete on a cart. If you were some freak, you probably got one of the several games on a key cart. There was always a good chance that it was an old port, no matter what you picked as your supplemental game.
If you wanted a true Switch 2 experience and went for an exclusive that isn’t Mario Kart World or the goddamned Welcome Tour, you picked up Survival Kids. The first thing players will note when the game abruptly begins is the overwhelming feeling that they might have bought a Switch 1 game because of the middling graphics.
Survival Kids has a very generic Westernized take on an anime art style. The player-created avatar is a neotenous, androgynous blob of a human, designed to fit a formless template. Even more disappointing is that for such an interchangeable character model, customization options are woefully limited. The avatar’s entire gender is based on their hairstyle, and there are no face choices.
After slapping together a stock-looking character, an overly enthusiastic narrator referred to as a “lighthouse keeper”, explains how the protagonist set out to find some treasure. Almost instantly, the hapless hero has a run-in with a massive sea turtle that causes them to shipwreck on the land formation on its gigantic shell.
Either alone, in local 2-player co-op, or online with three other players, Survival Kids plays out as a level-based puzzle adventure. If you came in expecting a game where resources dwindle and survival hangs by a thread, then you will be sorely disappointed. Survival Kids is not much of a survival sim at all.
The gameplay unfolds like a gauntlet of environmental puzzles where players must gather items for a thing, to put into a thing, and use a tool to acquire another thing to open the path to the next area. Player must always transport their camp to designated areas and find the missing pieces of their raft. Once everything is set in place, the level is completed, only for the dimwitted protagonist to wreck this raft again and restart the cycle on a new level.
The pace of the game moves quickly because there is almost no friction at all. Players won’t need to worry about hunger, thirst, bacterial infection, shelter, hypothermia, heatstroke, or even HP. Falling off the island or getting shot by an annoying placed turret leads to an instant respawn a few paces away.
Survival Kids is meant to be played with others, and the developers intended to keep everyone working toward a goal without getting bogged out with the survival simulation aspect of what the franchise is known for. This is undoubtedly going to disappoint fans of the Lost in Blue games, but there is merit to what this reboot brings to the table. Streamlining the simulation and dressing it up as a puzzle game lends itself well to young gamers.
The tools are cleverly designed and have multiple utilities. The fishing rod isn’t just for fishing; it also serves as a portable crane to move large objects up cliffs. The fan isn’t just for blowing into wind catchers; it can also blow objects through areas you can’t reach. While the survival gameplay is non-existent, the ingenious puzzles make up for their simplicity.
While nourishment is a non-issue, you still need to level up your stamina gauge by cooking food at the mobile camp. Buried key items and objects needed to proceed sometimes need players at a certain stamina level to dig them out, or enough stamina to climb a net. This is the most complex the survival gameplay gets, and the fact that it gradually levels down over time creates just enough pressure for the kiddies to move quickly.
Survival Kids manages to be fun when you’re left to your own devices, trying to figure out how to move objects from one area to another and coming up with solutions that make you feel smart. The only problem is the obnoxious narrator who gleefully tells you what to do most of the time, and the onscreen guides showing where to go.
In an already simplified adventure game that is no more complex than one of the LEGO movie tie-ins, Survival Kids goes too far with how it hand-holds players. There isn’t an option to disable the guides or to shut up the narrator, whose enthusiasm sounds dishonest and sarcastic.
When Survival Kids hits its stride, it’s genuinely enjoyable and hard to put down. It’s a relaxing and feel-good experience that is fun to play with young gamers. Its price is surprisingly steep for such a Spartan game with a lack of replay value. The unlockable outfits and hats hardly feel worth it when they all look lame.
Where is the Naked Snake outfit? No Bomberman costume? No Alucard or Simon Belmont threads? Not even a Pyramid Head mask? Konami has a massive catalogue of fun intellectual properties they could have pulled from to make the outfits more whimsical and worth the effort.
The islands themselves are generically themed and could have drawn inspiration from Konami’s greatest hits. A level inspired by Contra or Castlevania seemed like a no-brainer.
Survival Kids will be a hard sell for long-time fans of the series, especially since it’s the same price as Clair Obscur. If you get it on sale and have children, this is a wonderful and underrated Switch 2 exclusive that’s hard to put down. Its cozy and low-stakes ambiance, combined with fun puzzles, will make it a hit with young gamers.
Survival Kids was reviewed on Nintendo Switch 2 using a code provided by Konami. Additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy is here. Survival Kids is now available for Nintendo Switch 2.
