Lolapps Launches Critter Island, a Polished Tourist Sim Game for Facebook
The latest game from LOLapps is out, an island management game called Critter Island. It’s the company’s first title since early this year, and a significant step away from its earlier brand-oriented games.
Critter Island is quite similar, in its broad objectives, to plenty of other island games. You start out with a small parcel of land, which needs to be filled with businesses and attractions to make incoming tourists happy. However, the smaller details and grace notes of the game make it clear that LOLapps has paid close attention to how social games are evolving.
When you first start out in Critter Island, your little green isle is empty. On the south side sits a small dock; within moments, this will be receiving boatloads of tourists. So the first step is to put down some buildings, of which three general types are available: food, fun and drinks (shopping comes later). Part of the game is keeping these buildings stocked with supplies.
Tourists will immediately stream toward the first building, which if you’re following the tutorial will be a bar. This is where the “Critter” part of the game’s name comes into play. A few of your visitors will be ordinary humans, but the majority are an assortment of odd characters: drink-swilling, huge-beaked birds, bobble-headed sharks, scuba divers, and so forth.
Each incoming tourist will have a particular kind of attraction in mind; as long as they find what they’re looking for, your island will make money and become more popular, especially if you also put down some decorations. There’s also a mini-game of collecting the stars that pop out of satisfied tourists. Once enough are collected, tips are multiplied by three for the rest of the day.
For the most part, that’s the game — LOLapps is planning an expansion involving multiple islands later, but for now the game involves managing just one. There are a few things that make Critter Island stand out from the pack, though.
The first of these you’ll probably notice is the sound. Critter Island is accompanied by a gentle looping track featuring guitar and steel drums that’s a step above the average. That may seem like a small point, but the music keeps the constant dings, jingles and joyous outcries from tourists from becoming annoying.
It’s easy to zone out to Critter Island, just watching the action of tourists moving around and clicking to pick up stars and refill inventories as necessary.
There’s also a third action that comes up quite often, too: collecting earnings. That just takes a single click, but the result is money pouring from the building to your coin counter that’s satisfying to watch every time. Like the music, these little touches don’t seem like much, but a similarly high level of polish is typical of most successful social games, at this point.
One notable absence from Critter Island is any sort of pop-up asking you to invite friends to play. That’s a refreshing change of pace, but could end up affecting LOLapps’ rate of growth for the game, too. And maybe the developer will add more invites into the game at some point in the future.
Of course, there are still social features to the game. The bottom bar is reserved for adding friends, and you can help out when visiting a friends’ island by restocking a business for them or giving tourists flowery leis. Unfortunately, that seems to be about the extent of it for now.
Overall, Critter Island is a solid new game. Island management games have faded in recent months as a popular category, so LOLapps may be a bit behind in that regard; however, the game’s strengths should help give it a fighting chance. With luck, LOLapps is working on some additional social features that will make Critter Island stand out even more.
September 10th, 2010 at 7:59 am
[...] from Lolapps that has players entertain furry, scaly and otherwise generally oddball tourists. We reviewed it recently on Inside Social Games, where we’ll also cover the rest of the games on the above list this [...]
October 4th, 2010 at 6:25 pm
Does Critter Island work with windows 7? Can’t seem to invite or send gifts. Other FB apps work just fine.
Thanks
Bob
October 5th, 2010 at 8:32 am
This is a great little game but there are many of us that are having issues with it loading and have been for days. No one has gotten back to us about the issue or even let us know they are trying to work on it. Rather disheartening.
October 5th, 2010 at 6:57 pm
please fix my critter island, somebody: please!!!!!!! I want to play and it won’t load, Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Stephanie
October 15th, 2010 at 12:50 pm
Critter Island is GONE!!!!!! No link, no news, no NOTHING!!! *wipes a tear* My favorite game!
October 15th, 2010 at 12:54 pm
What happened?? I was on a friends Critter island keeping it up while she is out of town, then i log on to my page and its gone. I cant find it anywhere. When i look it up on facebook it says the page cannot be found….Is it gone completely now or what??
HELP!!!!
October 15th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
Internet 8 said there was a problem with the game and it changed it and now i can’t play!!!!!!!!! Can u fix it?
October 15th, 2010 at 3:06 pm
why has critter island disappeared from facebook it is really annoying and loads of people are asking the same question ??????????
October 15th, 2010 at 3:08 pm
My gardenlife and Critter island vanished overnight where are they please are they down for maintenance or gone for good? both lolapps apps I note here !!!
October 15th, 2010 at 4:39 pm
whats up with critter island o cant find it nowhere what they just put it up for a couple of weeks and then its done that not right please fix it
October 15th, 2010 at 5:23 pm
Please update us on this application. It was one of the most enjoyable apps on FB.
October 15th, 2010 at 5:41 pm
I love this game and have been playing faithfully every day and now it is gone. Please tell me it will return to facebook soon!
October 15th, 2010 at 6:42 pm
OK…SO I JUST ADDED THIS CRITTER ISLAND TO MY FACEBOOK TWO DAYS AGO…I UPGRADED MY ISLAND TODAY AND ALL IN ALL I SPENT 15 DOLLARS ON THIS APP IN THE PAST TWO DAYS…NOW ITS NOT ON MY FACEBOOK ANYMORE…WHY? AND AM I GONNA GET MY MONEY BACK OR WHAT?
October 15th, 2010 at 9:01 pm
was on facebook was playing critter island . and now it’s gone . internet 8 said it was under attack and changed it . i want it back it was my all time favorite game.
October 15th, 2010 at 9:09 pm
i like playingcritter island but i cant samething happen so can you please fix my game
October 15th, 2010 at 9:55 pm
Spent ages on my critter island and now it’s gone, I really like this game too!
Is there any reason why it just suddenly disappeared? Will it be coming back?
I think it would be nice to hear why it’s gone especially the people that paid money for items, thankyou.
October 15th, 2010 at 10:21 pm
was playing critter island and really liked the game and now its gone please give it back to me. if u can’t get these games figured out i will go to playing another and no more zynga games
October 16th, 2010 at 3:26 am
why is the game no longer on facebook just started it about 4 days ago and now poof its gone..why
October 16th, 2010 at 3:44 am
Where oh where has my critter island gone??? I have been playing for a few weeks now and I logged on last night to play and there is no critter island on my page anywhere!! So Where has it gone and why???
October 16th, 2010 at 7:17 am
I have lost my island off of facebook and i did have it bookmarked so where did it go, I need it back soon!!!!!!!!!!!! thanks
October 16th, 2010 at 7:29 am
Didn’t spend any money and I’m glad b/c Critter Island is completely gone off of my apps list. Is it coming back?
October 16th, 2010 at 7:58 am
what the heck… where did critter island go?? please bring it back.. i go out of town for a few days and come back to find my critter island gone, i finally find a game i like to play and now i cant.. lolapps please bring critter island back
October 16th, 2010 at 9:05 am
Love this game and am furious it has been removed without any warnong or explanation.
October 16th, 2010 at 10:07 am
what happened to critter island? i just recently added it like about 4 or 5 days ago, i was getting into it, until last night when i came back from work and logged in to facebook, i don’t see it. so please tell me it isn’t so, i hope its just going under maintenance
October 16th, 2010 at 10:22 am
OMG critter island is gone!!!! I was doing SOOO GOOD!!! i was on level 15 :( the link is gone and the game is gone and..and.. *wipes a tear* 1 of my fave games…. in the top 5….
:O maybe there done with beta and putting out real version!!! (but then our items coins, ect will be gone….) all we can do is hope..
October 16th, 2010 at 10:40 am
BRING BACK CRITTER ILAND I MISS IT
October 16th, 2010 at 12:07 pm
I spent money on my Critter Island on Facebook…am I going to get my money back because it’s no longer on Facebook…I’m really ANGRY!!!!!!!!!!
October 16th, 2010 at 12:36 pm
oyun geri gelecek mi ve ne zaman ben 75 dolar para harcadım bu oyuna lütfen bilgilendirin beni bizide mahçup etmeyin lütfen critter island
October 16th, 2010 at 12:36 pm
and when the game will come back to this game I spent $ 75, please inform me, please do not embarrass our Critter Island
October 16th, 2010 at 9:16 pm
[...] midday on Friday, comments began to stream into our Critter Island review complaining that the game had disappeared. It’s now a day later, and Critter Island is still [...]
October 16th, 2010 at 10:17 pm
http://venturebeat.com/2010/10/16/why-facebook-unplugged-lolapps-games-with-150m-users/
October 17th, 2010 at 3:18 pm
HEY PLEASE BRING CRITTER ISLAND BACK MISS IT ALOT
October 27th, 2010 at 8:16 am
where can I get more neighbors?
February 1st, 2011 at 5:56 pm
THE WHOLE REASON I JOINED FACEBOOK IS FOR CRITTER ISLAND NOW THAT IT IS GONE I AM FORCED TO PLAY OTHER GAMES SO PLEASE BRING BACK CRITTER ISLAND AND I DO NOT SPEAK FOR JUST MYSELF, BUT FOR MILLIONS OF OTHERS!!!!!!