More Joy From Endless Ocean 2

Endless Ocean 2 is the game that just keeps giving for the fan of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures in games. Here's how I called it a mere 70 hours in. Put another twenty or so hours into it and there's still plenty of new stuff to see.

But for my purposes the most important new discoveries in this game are the Cambrian predator/poster organism Anomalocaris, pictured above and the Ordovician giant nautiloid Cameroceras. Both of these creatures can be found bobbing around and require a double take before realising that they are creatures out of time. Prehistoric marine life often doesn't get much of a look-in in many video games as most games are terrestrially based. I'm chuffed to bits that Arika really ran with their imagination in this game and found a way to sneak these two prehistoric animals in as cryptids.

Endless Ocean 2: Adventures of the Deep- Wii

What's that coming over the hill out of the deep? Is it a monster? Well sort of. It's a plesiosaur of some kind! Other prehistoric creatures made a bit of a cameo in the first Endless Ocean, the sequel fleshes out them old bones with a live and kicking real virtual plesiosaur. Can you kick with a paddle? Doesn't matter, down to bi'ness.

Dinosauriness: As far as I'm aware there's just this Plesiosaur in the game. I wouldn't like to hazard a guess as to which species. It's fairly big, between 12-14m long and the neck is very long so probably an elasmosaurid of some sort. Don't quote me on it though. You can also find a 'Dinosaur egg' and some fossilised wood as treasures of the deep. Exciting stuff indeed!

Scientific accuracy: The consensus is that plesiousaurs bit the dust at the end of the Cretaceous*.However, there are plenty of myths about extant plesiosaur. The most famous is the Loch Ness Monster but it isn't the only cryptid plesiosaur story about. It is appealing to imagine that plesiosaurs are still hanging on somewhere, however, it is statistically unlikely. Fossil plesiosaurs haven't been discovered in rocks younger than the Cretaceous and no conclusive proof has been found of living plesiosaurs. Quite a lot of the "proof" that has been found has subsequently been debunked as deliberately hoaxed or misinterpreted. Shame.

Buzz Bonus: These photographs were snapped by my lovely wife! Endless Ocean 2 is one of a handful of games that make taking screenshots easy. More games like this please. As an extra extra buzz bonus here's an olden times photo of the same plesiosaur!
This plesiosaur is givin' me the vapours!

*Sure, I know this is a bad way to express it as the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous is used to define the end of the Cretaceous so this is somewhat tautological but you know what I mean right?