Magical Dinosaur Game? I've seen it all now.. (Dinosaurus (GB))

Member Name: thole09

Product:	Dinosaurus (GB)
Date:	24/01/09 (55 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Graphics

Disadvantages: Gameplay, Audio

A true child's fantasy, "Dinosaurus" fuses elemental magic spells with the prehistoric beast to create an exceptionally sub-standard game that would likely leave even the most imaginative child uninspired.

Players control what appears to be a Tyrannosaurus Rex and guide him through the wilderness. The creature will be met, at random, by a fellow dinosaur with hostile intents leading to a battle until elimination. When the player's dinosaur is not in battle it will be on a hunt to gather magical orbs. These orbs contribute heavily to the battle process as the dinosaur will have an option to make use of these orbs and cast varying spells; including blasts of ice and fire. This appears to be the crux of the game and I was not able to discern anything past that.

Gameplay is simple by the way of guiding the dinosaur through simple "platform" areas. There was no obvious objective to this title besides collecting the previously mentioned magical orbs and the player finding himself or herself randomly in combat with another dinosaur. The battle system is somewhat like "Pokemon" titles, offering the choice of "Attack" "Elemental" or "Run". The player simply chooses an attack of preference and it will be executed. I never found attacks to "miss" or the run function to fail, as would be standard protocol in other games. I would suggest that this game could be grouped into the "roleplaying" genre but I did not see any use for the experience points gained from battle (besides the standard "attack increase, defense increase.."). Controls are standard with the arrow buttons guiding, "A" making use of the dinosaur's jump and "B" interacting with the nearby environment, such as consuming a mushroom from additional health points.

Graphics were pleasantly coloured and featured acceptable details on the character's dinosaur. The environmental features were also acceptable but slightly "blocky" in comparison to the well rendered character.

Audio in this game was sub par, featuring extreme levels of music over the near mute sound effects. There was a clear imbalance in the sound and I'm not quite sure if this was simply a technical fault or on purpose; Perhaps due to the younger target market it was intentional.

This is not a title I would openly recommend to any player. While it is an interesting idea, it was very poorly executed and would have likely reaped extensive rewards from additional time in the design phase.

Summary: Avoid