Mystery Stories: Island of Hope

Journalist Michelle Deanfield is enjoying her vacation in a tropical island when she learns about a cursed Mayan artifact that recently went missing, and decides to search the island for it.

Mystery Stories: Island of Hope is a hidden object game where the player must search the screen and collect all the objects from a list. The game has a normal mode, and a relaxed mode with a more generous time limit.

Certain locations have variations on the basic gameplay. In some places the player has to find several instances of the same object. In other screens the list of names is replaced by a list of sounds the object makes, or their silhouettes. Some of the locations are darkened rooms, where the player must search the items using a flashlight. There is a variation called quick search, where a object has to be found in 30 seconds or less.

Mini-games occur between chapters of the story, and include standard games like concentration, jigsaw puzzles and lockpicking. These mini-games are optional, and can be skipped.

Power-ups can also be collected and stored on slots at the bottom of the screen for later use. The magnifying glass highlights the position of one object, the binoculars show (for a few seconds) where several objects are, the hourglass stops the timer for a while, the stack of coins doubles the points received with each find and the chronometer adds some minutes to the time left.

Gameplay for the Nintendo DS version involves using the console's stylus to tap the missing objects (which are then crossed off in a list displayed on the top screen), while the control pad is used to move around the current location.