Don't Starve: Pocket Edition
By Paul Semel,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Morbidly fun survival game with fighting, hallucinations.
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Don't Starve: Pocket Edition
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Based on 1 parent review
Good, Kinda spooky.
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What’s It About?
In DON'T STARVE: POCKET EDITION, you play as Wilson, a scientist who mysteriously finds himself alone on a deserted island and has to forage for supplies and food to survive. Once you're on the island, you're too busy trying to find helpful items and avoiding all the bees, spiders, and pig people to have any other adventures. You gather resources and craft survival items such as shelter, tools, and weapons and fight all manner of monsters. Through day and night cycles, players must maintain their health, sanity, and hunger levels and keep a light source to fend off the darkness and deadly creatures.
Is It Any Good?
What sets this engaging point-and-click survival game apart is its TIm Burton-y style, whimsical creatures, and mysterious atmosphere. Set on a small, open island that has a wide variety of flora and fauna, Don't Starve: Pocket Edition has you picking carrots, collecting sticks, gathering rocks, examining trees, scaring off birds that are trying to eat your food, building traps, and basically doing whatever you have to do so you won't die. In addition to the standard crafting elements are the creepy shadow creatures and sanity maintenance, which are unique features that add to the overall atmosphere. Because this was a PC game first, there's a well-established community and online resources that kids can lean on. While it's rather challenging, especially at first, it's also so compelling and darkly funny that kids likely won't mind trying over and over to explore and conquer all this rich world has to offer.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about violence in games. Does it make a difference when the violence is cartoonish in a game?
Talk about survival techniques. What can this game teach us about surviving in a deserted place alone? What skills and character traits help overcome obstacles?
App Details
- Devices: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad
- Pricing structure: Paid
- Release date: June 29, 2016
- Category: Role-Playing Games
- Topics: Adventures, Bugs, Science and Nature, Wild Animals
- Version: 1.07
- Minimum software requirements: iOS 8.0 or later
- Last updated: October 7, 2021
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