A puzzle game with a tropical aesthetic

Dream Island is a free puzzle game themed around jewels and islands. Once the glamorous hostesses have greeted you, your job will be to catch falling gemstones and add them to your points. Be careful not to drop any, or you might lose.

The game’s promotional images suggest a sexy visual novel about beautiful women on a tropical island. However, the game turns out to be something totally different — a falling block puzzle comparable to Tetris and Block Puzzle Jewel, though much simpler.

A simple puzzle game

As puzzle games go, Dream Island is very basic. Over the course of the game, gemstones will appear and hover in the air. Eventually, each one will turn into a blue heart and fall. You control a box that slides left and right and must catch all the blue hearts before they slide off the screen.

Drop three hearts and you lose

The player is afforded three chances. If you drop three blue hearts, then you lose the game. There is no specific reward for catching a lot of hearts. You simply watch your score steadily grow, with one point per heart caught. If you make three mistakes, you end up losing. After that, you will go back to the start.

A game lacking variety

While some puzzle games might add variety in terms of special items, bonus modes or background changes, Dream Island has none of these. The gameplay will remain exactly the same, no matter how long you play. For instance, waiting for blue hearts to appear and then catching them.

A test of patience

Despite being rated 19+, presumably because of its sexy hostesses, Dream Island has the kind of gameplay that’d only suit younger children. Older players would typically prefer a more sophisticated puzzle game, and there is no shortage of those around, even free ones.