As an admitted “vintage gamer” you’d think that I’d probably have familiarity with just about anything from popular culture that someone would decide to stick into a game. I know I made that assumption, but this is a title that has thoroughly proven me wrong, and I’ll admit that I find it kind of baffling why they went with this and not just something like it, but not directly tied to the property. I’m absolutely familiar with the name of Lost in Space (the television show and not just the movie that bombed decades later at the box office), and I know the same “Danger Will Robinson” quote from the robot most people who’ve heard of it do know. That said, I don’t think I’d have ever thought someone would make a modern video game based on it, but here we are…

The thing is, having played loads of middling on down to terrible adventure games that don’t make the cut, in general where it counts the game works. Played more as a third-person active adventure rather than the older-school point-and-click, I think that style suits the setting better, and at least helps it feel a little different than many competitors out there. Another surprise? In a genre pretty much notorious for featuring either terrible inventory management issues, or bizarre puzzles that will require combining items you find in unusual ways to move forward, most of the item-oriented puzzles here make sense. Sure, I’d argue that in a few cases you’d imagine your character could come up with a solution to their problem another way, but when you combine items or need to work through how to get to your goal, most of the leaps of faith needed here are merely more like hops, and that’s refreshing.

Of course, it isn’t all amazing news either, and the game does have areas that don’t work as well as some others. The biggest issue is simply that its puzzles that don’t involve solving a problem with some object you’ll find, ones that are just some mini game sort of puzzle in between, tend to be disappointing. While the issue with a number of them is that the ideas behind them aren’t very fresh, most of the time my concern is that they’re more about brute force trial and error than some clever methodology or hook that you’ll need to identify. That moves them from being engaging and stimulating to merely being an obstacle in your path to jam your way through, and given the strength of other aspects of the gameplay that shortcoming is disappointing. While I’d think that the target demographic who still remembers this show, let alone thinks of it fondly, is thinning by the day, despite a lack of familiarity I’d say there’s plenty here for anyone who enjoys well-made adventure titles.