First the disclaimer:
Whatever time shows up on my playtime stats, it's considerably lower than the truth. I've actually been playing a pre-Steam-release version of Surfasaurus off and on since last summer (2016), so ignore the time stats.
I was also given a Steam key as a courtesy to my support of this game in the past. But I would've paid for my copy anyway!
Now the facts:
This game is great, but you need to consider a couple of factors before you choose to buy it (and let me just say that you should choose to buy it, but I digress...well, no I don't; you should buy it, but still...)
1. This is not the kind of game you can just binge on. Well, you can, but not without cheating. Let me explain.
-Surfasaurus is designed with mobile play in mind. No, not that stupid pay-to-play freemium stuff. None of that here. No, it's designed as "potato chip gaming," in that you only need to play about 15 minutes a day to get the full effect of what this game is. I'll explain more in a moment.
2. You should play the mobile version if you haven't already, but the Steam version is bigger. No, not longer with more features. I just mean you can see the screen better. Unless you're playing on a six-inch monitor. Then maybe the phone is better. You should really get a bigger monitor.
3. It's designed on the OHRRPGCE, which means that resolution is limited for now. Suck it up. It's a fun game.
4. The price is way too low for its quality. I keep trying to convince the designer to raise the price to $4.99 or higher. I don't think he'll do it. Take advantage of the low price! It's worth it.
5. This game fits in the same world as the designer's other games, including one that's already on Steam, called Mr. Triangle's Adventure. I haven't reviewed that game yet, but I will. It's also worth playing. You don't need to play Mr. Triangle's Adventure to appreciate this one, but it does help if you want to "get" some of the references.
You get the idea.
Now, the way this game works is that you play the game in real time, which means, if you're playing on a Thursday night between 5pm and 9pm, you can visit the cafe in the game to play its Trivia night. The game "lives" parallel to our own world and time, so the game exists at whatever time and day you're playing in real life. That's both a positive and negative.
The positive is that you can plan your gaming time around the events that would happen at the same time in the game. In other words, if you're playing on a Sunday, then you can probably visit the kiosks and buy costumes, since the town's vendors show up on Sundays. Same thing with trading cards. Want to listen to one of the island's special guest bands at the cafe? Play on a Friday or Saturday night, instead of going out to the bars and clubs with your real life friends. It's cheaper.
The negatives are basically identical to the positives. If you have Thursday night commitments, for example, you might miss out on Trivia night. This is why the mobile version is more accessible than the desktop version, even though it's smaller. At least you can play trivia with gorillas and parrots the same time you're doing whatever you'd normally be doing on a Thursday night. It's a bit harder on the desktop, unless you have some useful way to lug your desktop around everywhere.
Or you could have the best of both worlds and play it on your laptop. Tnat works, too.
Gameplay is simple. You just talk to townies, pick fruit, collect trash, and interact with others in order to collect bonuses, buy things, trade things, etc. There's also a social element, where you can learn about the townies through trading card collection, and find out their likes, dislikes, and birthdays. Knowing these things improves your social standing around town. You can also visit the gym to make yourself stronger, but you have to make sure you visit it consistently. Don't treat it like your own gym, the one you have a membership for but haven't visited since last August. You need to actually show up at this one consistently if you want to get far in the game.
Oh, and of course, there's surfing. Eh, you'll figure it out. It's easy, but important.
So, on the surface this game doesn't look like much, and if you expect to play the whole thing in one sitting, then you're not going to get much out of it, especially since playing the whole thing in one sitting will mean playing for a month straight--I hope you don't have that kind of free time. But, when you think of it as a lifestyle, and a consistent adventure (use your imagination), you'll find that there's a lot to mine from this little gem of a game. All you have to do is play a little here, play a little there, then get back to the grind of real life.
Or, you could just mess with your computer's system clock and marathon the thing. Do what you want.
Just get the game and give it a chance. It's smart. And it's grossly underpriced. Take advantage of that. One of these days the developer might actually take my advice and raise the thing to $4.99 or higher. And pick up Red Triangle Games other titles, too, if you want the complete experience. All of his games exist in the same universe, so you'll get more out of each if you give each a chance. You can get the whole series for hardly anything.
Oh, and just for trivia, this game is a contest winner. Look it up.
I could say more, but I don't want to ruin any surprises.
