No sooner do I bemoan the lack of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures in games when I discover the excellent Tyrannosaurus run, free to play in your browser right now right here.
Remember that bit from Jurassic Park when the T.rex runs after the little JP jeep thing, Goldblum mutters his "must go faster" line, then there's a bit with the mirror and "objects may appear larger". We all know that scene right? Well it turns out that 10 second scene is enough to inspire this lovely little Shockwave Game reconstructed from fossils by Silent Bay Studios. The game is fairly straightforward. You are a land rover. There's a T.rex behind you. GO! The game has a nice little twist however, playing homage perhaps to the mirror in Jurassic Park as you can see your rear view mirror and I won't spoil it but you actually need to use it unlike 99.89% of all rear view mirrors in video games. Hey, perhaps I should start a new blog about rear view mirrors in games? Also like the movie, which spawned a million average or worse video games, you have to collect gems for points.
Dinosauriness: There's a single dinosaur in this game. There's no cash prizes for guessing which one and in the blurb for the game it is actually speciated it is our old buddy Tyrannosaurus rex.
Scientific Accuracy: Since Henry Fairfield Osborn first described Tyrannosaurus rex in 1905, amazing discoveries of related dinosaurs, revolutions in the technology available to palaeontologists striving to unravel the mysteries of the rock record and paradigm shifts in the understanding of dinosaur anatomy and physiology have painted a vivid picture of how Tyrannosaurus rex may have lived, moved and how it would have looked. Unfortunately, a great deal of this knowledge has been overlooked by practically everybody who ever made a video game with a dinosaur in it.
Buzz Bonus: Scraping the barrel for a buzz bonus today but Silent Bay Studios seem to specialise in games about things going forward. Not just land rovers; rally cars, horses, bikes, spy cars, snow cars and even soccer mum wagons. Check 'em all out here.
No comments:
Post a Comment