Hello Time Wasters!
Country isn’t exactly my favorite when it comes to music. Growing up in a bit of a backwater town I heard enough country to last me a lifetime. I also have a bit of a fear of the ocean. There are creatures in the ocean that easily dwarf me in both size and teeth count. That’s why I was surprised when I sat down to play Margaritaville Online and found myself really getting into the game.
The idea is simple enough. You’ve just moved to Isla Margarita home of Margaritaville from the Jimmy Buffet song. Being that the island is filled with friendly people the owner of a local bar retires and gives you the bar as a gift. First order of business, fix up the bar. Second order of business, relax. Okay so there is more to it than that.
Gameplay is like an old school top down RPG. You’ll navigate the isle by clicking around and interact with your environment in the same way. Of course to interact with objects and the environment you’ll need energy. Margaritaville follows the typical Facebook formula of limiting the amount of time a game can be played unless you want to put real money toward paradise. A few dollars here and there are easily worth it in Margaritaville. Sometimes the energy for the day just isn’t enough to satisfy.
The only real thing that hurts Margaritaville Online is that the game is choked full of fetch quests. I remember when fetch questa were the standard in every RPG to stretch out the time of the game. Console gaming is a little bit past this point (for the most part) and casual games are just now hitting their spike in this fad, so don’t expect them to disappear anytime soon.
Moving on from the bad though, let’s talk about the graphics of Margaritaville Online. Well, to start off they’re above what I expected. Not to be outdone by other Facebook games, Margaritaville gives us full 3D rendered models instead of those pieces of paper found in normal Facebook games. Overall it’s a nice look that shows there was some extra effort put into this game.
Moving onto the audio of Margaritaville Online I found that it’s much the same as the graphics. The nice tropical tunes go well with the graphics and create a good feel for the game. One thing that was obvious to me was that Margaritaville Online had a Zelda fan or two working on it. For example, when you obtain a new item your character will hold it above their head and the famous do do do doo will play. I know it isn’t a major factor and I’m sure lots of casual gamers will miss the reference, but it set off my nerd sense in a good way.
Despite some repetitive gameplay, Margaritaville Online is a fun adventure in paradise. It’s easy on the eyes graphics and relaxing audio makes for a great experience that may well be worth spending a few bucks on. The game is free to play, but you can spend money on in-game items, which again, are probably worth it if you end up kicking back and relaxing here often, which I think you will.
Margaritaville can relax soundly with 4 GiN Gems out of 5!