Should have been called craposaurus! (Pavilion Dino Hunt)

Member Name: karalouk

Product:	Pavilion Dino Hunt
Date:	27/05/09 (81 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: My daughter loves whacking the hell out of it

Disadvantages: Dinosaurs are almost impossible to catch, stopped working already, rubbish quality

I was looking around in Toys R Us for a game for my daughter. It was going to be her first proper game so I wanted something that was fun but simple to play. A game called Dino Hunt caught my eye. It was packed in a medium sized cardboard box with an animated picture of the game on the front along with a couple of children looking like they were having a great time playing it! The game was made by Pavilion and was priced at an affordable £7.99.

When we got it home and opened it, I realised I'd failed to read the box which states that batteries aren't included. The game takes 1 x C battery which is one of the big ones that nobody ever has at home so I had to go out especially to buy one.

Dino Hunt is suitable for children 3 years onwards as the box states the product contains 'small magnets'.

The game itself is a green plastic platform which has grass embossed around the outside, a couple of stickers on top and holes in. There are 10 little plastic dinosaurs (5 purple and 5 yellow) which fit into the holes and 2 plastic hammers (1 purple and 1 yellow, which means only 1 or 2 people can play). There are are also 2 smaller holes on the platform to stand the hammers in when the game is not in use. There is an on and off switch, when turned on the game automatically starts. Inside the box also comes a set of simple instructions and some stickers to stick on the underside of the dinosaurs.

There are 3 ways to play the game...

First game: Each player should choose a hammer and then hit every dinosaur of the same colour. The first player to strike all the dinosaurs of their colour is the winner.

Second game: Players strike all of the dinosaurs (any colour). The player that removes the most amount of dinosaurs is the winner.

Third game: Players strike all of the dinosaurs (any colour). When all of the dinosaurs have been removed, check the numbers which are on the undersides. Whoever totals the highest score is the winner.

There are so many flaws with this games it's a joke. For one the dinosaurs don't pop up very far so it's quite hard to know when to hit them and they go up and down really fast so you can't keep track of which ones and popping up and which ones are going down (from a childs point of view).

The hammers have tiny little holes at the ends and the dinosaurs have tiny little bobbles on their heads. Rather than hitting the dinosaurs back down you have to retrieve the dinosaurs from the game by whacking them with the hammer so that the bobble goes into the hole and you can pick the dinosaurs up. The dinosaurs need to be hit with some force to get the bobble to into the hole and they also need to be hit about 20 times each to get on target.. and that's from an adults point of view, my poor little sprite doesn't stand a chance!

So instead of playing the game like it should be played my daughter is forced to just whack the hell out of the game (which admitedly she does seem to enjoy!). I don't even think older kids would grasp it, even if they wanted to.

The game also stopped working after a total of around 20 minutes playing time. I don't know whether it broke or whether the battery run out (it was a brand new battery when I put it in) and to be honest I don't really care. At least I don't have any reason to get it out of the box again!

Summary: What a dissapointment. Avoid.