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Iíll spare you all the scientific inconsistencies, which are many, and Iíll just tell you this
is one of the weirdest d*mn games Iíve ever played. This is Dinosauríus for the Game
Boy Color...and thereís no reason a diplodocus would attack an iguanodon!
You do know this, RFX Interactive.
Perhaps inaccuracies like that are the reason this game never made it to the States. Dinosauríus
was only released in Europe, but this copy was actually sent to us by our friend Felicity
in the United Kingdom. So thanks a lot, Felicity. Iím a bit of a dinosaur enthusiast, so I
was pretty anxious to get my hands on thió
Oh, wait. Thereís turn-based combat? Come on!
You know, thatís another scientific inaccuracy. A dinosaur would never wait its turn to attack
its prey. Thatís strike two, Dinosauríus.
So the game is this weird RPG platformer. Your baby dinosaur hatches from an egg, and
from there, itís basically just life in prehistoric Earth. You walk around, you eat the mammalsówhoís
laughing now, lizards?óand of course, you platform. Because the iguanodon, with its
ponderous bulk, could platform.
Iím sorry. Thatís strike three.
The game looks great, considering how old it is. But one of the problems I had with
Dinosauríus is...your dinosaur takes up, like, a third of the screen. So you canít
see a d*mn thing. You have no idea whatís ahead until itís already falling on your
head. The perspective was definitely an issue for me.
Iím also not a big fan of random battles with turn-based combat, but whatever. Thatís
more of a personal preference than a criticism, I suppose. You occasionally come to a stop
because some invisible dinosaur decided to attack, at which point you can either fight
back or make a run for it.
The combat is really simple and kind of arbitrary. You can attack with either your tail or claws,
their effectiveness seemingly totally random. You can also use elemental attacks, because
dinosaurs could do that. You collect those during the platforming and can use them in
battle to throw fireballs or summon rocks or whatever.
But you know, the thing is...none of this stuff is all that captivating. The platforming
is really tedious and awkward, and the combat is repetitive. So although there are some
good ideas here, the resulting game is a bit of a letdown.
So itís a pretty game, but itís slow and boring. And although there are eventually
six playable dinosaurs and it supports the Game Boy link cable for multiplayer, itís
hard to care all that much. Dinosauríus is an interesting concept, but itís easy to
see why this game went extinct.