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Review: Dinosaur King

Posted by Graham. Filed under G, News, Nintendo DS, Review. Tagged with Anime, Dinosaur King.

My only contact with the Dinosaur King world was playing the kiddie arcade title at ATEI 2007, but that didn’t do much to explain the story or anything about the franchise.  From what I have been told, it is a little bit like Pokemon/DigiMon, with kids using dinosaurs to fight instead of random cute creatures.

But I was ready and willing to step up and check out the DS title, and see what all the fuss is about.

You play as one of two kids, Max or Rex, who are helping an organisation called D-Lab with a special gun, the “DinoShot,” which can take fossils and transform them into living breathing dinosaurs.

Unfortunately an evil group, Alpha Gang, steals one of the DinoShots and decides to harness the power of the dinosaurs to take over the world.  So it is up to you to go and stop them.

Gameplay:

Possibly one of the most shocking things (for me) was just how much fun the gameplay actually is.

You have essentially two main modes of play.  One is the very generic exploration side, where you walk around the world in a top-down view talk to people, help them with random side quests and find new places to explore.  You are also given a radar and drill, to help find hidden treasures and new fossils - which can be turned into dinosaurs (through a quick mini-game).

The second mode is the combat, and while the exploration is very standard, the combat is pretty unique.

The actual fighting in the game is ridiculously simple.  It’s a basic game of Rock, Paper, Scissors (fans of Alex Kidd should love that).  Each symbol represents a specific move the dinosaur will pull off, but in order for you dinosaur to make the attack, you need to ensure you pick the symbol that will beat your opponent’s choice.

Your DinoShot can hold up to three dinosaurs, as you unlock more you can switch them around.  Most enemies only have one dinosaur to beat, but the bosses tend to have three as well.  When one of your dinosaurs dies you automatically bring out your next in line to the fight.  Battles are always one vs one.

Dino-challenge:

At the very start of the game I was almost ready to quit playing, the combat was so simple, it was terribly boring.  You were basically told exactly what the enemy was going to use and there was no challenge at all.  But, I am very glad I kept on with the game. 

Very soon after the opening fights, the combat becomes increasingly enjoyable.  You are no longer told what move they will make, you are just given hints to what move they might make, and it makes the combat a lot better.

Then, later on than that a whole new addition is made to the combat, when certain enemies start using attacks which have elemental powers added to them - essentially the equivalent of magic in most RPGs.

For the most part, the enemies you meet in the world are fairly easy to defeat, but you do need to concentrate for most fights.  The bosses are the real kick in the pants, and they are very tricky and use elemental powers the best.

For what is meant to be a kid’s game, I was surprised by how complex the combat becomes.  But I was also pretty happy, because as basic as the idea sounds, Dinosaur King has possibly one of the most original and enjoyable battle systems I have used in an RPG for a while. 

Visuals:

While none of the visuals are bad in the game, it still doesn’t utilise the system’s power that much.  The exploration, top-down, mode in the game is colourful and clear, but really it’s no better than a lot of GameBoy Advance titles.

The fights are seen in full 3D, with two dinosaurs duking it out on your top screen.  The detail for the 3D fights isn’t the best example of DS technology, but what impressed me was how well animated the dinosaurs are - they have fast, fluid movements.

But the most enjoyable moments come when you unlock new attacks for your prehistoric pets.  At the start of the game you are given very basic attacks, like a tail whip; where you dinosaur will spin around and slap the other with its tail - basic and not that amazing.  But you soon unlock attacks which you just have to sit and watch.

Possibly one of my favourites throughout the game is one where your dinosaur will run forward, use its head to flip the other dinosaur (really) high into the air, and then charge forward, head butting the opposing dinosaur, just before they hit the ground, sending them smashing through a large boulder - rocks flying everywhere.

Too much of a good thing:

This is a similar issue I brought up with Sonic Chronicles.  While I think Dinosaur King’s combat is a lot of fun, there is simply too much of it.

The game has random battles, except they aren’t that random at all.  To me the phrase “random battle” signifies that a player can walk around a world map, and will be thrown into a battle at any arbitrary moment.  The player might be walking around untouched from anywhere between 20 seconds to 3 minutes (maybe longer).  Basically enough time to actually look around and not so long that the player gets bored.

But in Dinosaur King the battles happen so regularly you can literally set your watch by them.  I worked out that the average time between battles is just eight seconds.  If you are super lucky you can go a whole 10 seconds without attack.  But for the most part all you get is eight effing seconds to advance your exploration in the world, before jumping into another fight!

Because of this the game is heavily flawed.  Simple advice: If you are going to make a game with “random battles,” make sure they are f&*king random, or make sure that players are given enough time to think before being attacked again!

~Fortunately enemies don’t attack in towns~

Not only is it annoying, but it also means that exploration is actually no fun.  If you see an area on the map you haven’t yet explored (but don’t need to go to) you are immediately torn with the prospect of possibly finding a hidden treasure/new dinosaur, or having to face about 15 battles on the walk there and back.  In all honesty I tended to avoid unnecessary trips, and not for any fear of death, but just because what is 12 inches of game screen to walk across, can end up taking a good 10 minutes of wasted time.

I think the developers realised this might be an issue, as one of the items you can buy/collect is a potion which stops enemy attacks for a short period of time.  And by “short period of time” I mean about five seconds (maybe eight), and then you will either get another eight seconds to wait before an attack, or (what normally happened to me) you would be thrown straight into another battle as soon as the potion wore off - so if anything, the potions are completely pointless!

One (slight) saving feature is that you don’t need to watch all the battle animations, and you can cut the battle times down to less than a minute, if you are lucky.

Everybody rock that dinosaur:

As well as the battles, another thing I actually liked about the game was the music.  The battles have a rock backing and it’s really addictive, especially the boss battles - you could hear me humming them for quite a while after - something that a good game soundtrack should be able to do.

Unfortunately the exploration side doesn’t have such a catchy music selection.  It’s acceptable, but it’s mostly ambient backing, and no way near as fun as the boss tunes.

Quite frankly I am disappointed with the way Dinosaur King turned out.  And that is not because I’m a fan of the franchise nor that the game is terrible.

It’s a disappointment because the game is actually enjoyable, but is let down very badly in some key areas, and could have been really good.

The story, characters and style of the game are targeted at kids - which isn’t a bad thing.  But because of this, a lot of adults won’t find the game appealing at all.   However for a ‘kiddie’ title this is actually fun and the things it does right are very good.

If you have a younger sibling or cousin who likes anime or Dinosaur King, then this game is actually a very good choice.  It’s simple enough to pick up and play for most ages, but there is also some enjoyment for older gamers.  But for hardcore gamers this is not a must-buy RPG.

Pros:

+ Cracking battles
+ Catchy battle music
+ Plenty of dinosaurs and moves to unlock
+ Easy to pick up and play for all ages

Cons:

- Infuriating frequency of battles
- Story: not very deep (even for a kids game)
- Too kiddie for most gamers
- 8 seconds till the next battle - arrrghh!!

~G~