The Dink Network

Mystery Island

DDC goes boating Trouble, indeed. A mysterious well on the mysterious island.
April 30th, 2013
v1.01
Score : 9.0 exceptional
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A continuation to Dink's saga of hapless hackducking, by two of the creatores of Dink themselves! (Seth Robinson and Greg 'Pap' Smith)

Since Mystery Island is included with the freeware version of Dink, some assume it's the first dmod ever released. This isn't true, Mystery Island was released on July 1st 1998, and by that time several other dmods already existed.

The game combines elements of action, adventure, mystery, even cyberpunk! At a few points, it feels like a horror game, and the atmosphere is always tantalizing, thanks muchly to the awesome original soundtrack by Mitch Brink and plethora of new high-quality graphics.

The story of Mystery Island is interesting, if a little bit nonsensical at the end. You can tell the authors were just having fun and threw together a bunch of cool ideas, without worrying too much about explaining things or getting some point across. Worth noting is the humour, which is the same twisted wit that made the original game so brilliant.

The problem with Mystery Island is its length; the dmod only takes about an hour to complete. Especially with it marketed as part 2 to the original adventure, you'd expect much more. An hour or two at most simply isn't enough to get your fill of maritime adventure, killer robots and mating with ducks.