Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie-Almost every platform

Widely (and rightly) ridiculed for it's ridiculous name, this game was released on a shed load of platforms. Some of them were surprisingly good considering the film tie in (PS2) and some were pretty bad (GBAand the DS version ). Either way dinosaurs were a feature of the films and games and they are a delight in this title. Fans of dinosaurs in games should endeavour to pick this title up (on the consoles) as rarely have nicer dinosaurs been seen on the little screen.

Dinosauriness: A number of dinosaurs with very silly names. Quite why the silly names I'm not too sure. Perhaps it is so that know-it-all palaeontologists can't later poo poo some of the made up dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures as they are want to do. Perhaps there has been some crazy isolated insular evolution going on on Skull Island which led to the total loss of feathers. And silly names. Anyway there's some sauropod ones, theropod ones, some hadrosaurs, some permian mammal-alikes, ancient giant crocodiles, some pterosaurs and the very silly named Vastatosaurus rex.

Scientific Accuracy: I quite like the idea of making up some dinosaurs rather than lazily skimming described species. This gives you a lot of artistic freedom and a way to ignore the palaeontologists who go to cinemas and concentrate on biodynamics and scale rather than the action/drama etc. I'm giving it a 5/10 but only because it could be a 0/10 (they are all made up) or a 10/10 (they made them up so how can it be inaccurate?).

Buzz Bonus: All dinosaur fans should play this game. It has some nice settings some cool set pieces and spear throwing. Who doesn't love themselves some spear throwing?

Animal Crossing, Animal Crossing Wild World, Ape Escape

Animal Crossing- GamCube & Animal Crossing :Wild World-Nintendo DS
Dinosaurs you say? What now? Well good friends Animal Crossing has dinosaurs a plenty. Your town in Animal Crossing has an empty museum and you can decide whether to donate any fossils, insects, fish or paintings you find. Blathers the museum curator is always happy to identify fossils and accept donations. Alternatively you can erect the fossils and skeletons in your house or sell them to Tom Nook, the village trader. This could be seen as condoning the illegal trade in fossils readers! Be wary! Here's a screenshot (above from gamespot).

Personally my house has a Stegosaurus skeleton with a mammoth head! Such larks. Wild World is pretty much the same with the option of going online and showing of your fossil collection or contributions to the museum! Glory!

Dinosaurness: Well there are a range of fossils of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures including Amber, an Ammonite, Ankylosaurus, Apatosaurus, Archaeopteryx, Dimetrodon, Dinosaur droppings, a Dinosaur Egg, Dinosaur Footprint, a fern fossil, Iguanodon, Mammoth, Pachycephalosaurus, Parasaurlophus, Peking Man, Plesiosaurus, Pteranodon, a Fossil Shark Tooth, Seismosaurus, Stegosaurus, Tyrannosaurus rex, Triceratops and a Trilobite.

Scientific Accuracy: Pretty frickin comprehensive fossil set however the Animal Crossing Town must have a very unique geology what with all these finds from such a limited area. The fossils can be found with relative ease and without extensive excavation so perhaps the geology of the basin in which the town is situated is complex. WHO KNOWS! It's difficult to say without a full survey. However, as can be seen above you can see all the major bones in the skeletons. Well done Animal Crossingss

Buzz Bonus: Due to the drawing tool in the game there is plenty of scope for creativity. YOU COULD MAKE THE TOWN FLAG A DINOSAUR FLAG or YOU COULD DESIGN A DINOSAUR THEMED T-SHIRT. Very exciting indeed.

Ape Escape-Playstation

Clarification is needed on this one. My long time gaming buddy, Chuff_72 alleges that on one level

"I mean there's a huge dino in ape escape, and I think it's pretty much based on a real one"

Verdict: TO BE CONFIRMED. Although already I am very excited about the possibility

UPDATE: With this exciting screenshot from Gamespot it looks like the rumour is true! Put Ape Escape on my need list

Timesplitters, Timesplitters Future Perfect and Tomb Raider 2

Timesplitters 2 and Timesplitters: Future Perfect-Playstation 2, Xbox, Gamecube

The original Timesplitters was one of the greatest games of all time. Seriously! But they then went and made the sequel infinitely better by adding a dinosaur character to the roster. He is just called Dinosaur.

Dinosauriness: Well surprise surprise it's just another T.rex. This species seems to be overwhelmingly popular with game makers.

Scientific Accuracy: I highly doubt that T.rex could fire or even hold automatic weapons. Indeed Bakker even says so much in the seminal volume the Dinosaur Heresies (Bakker 1986) in the chapter: Gun-toting, how sauropods and large theropods are at a serious disadvantage in all out gunfights. But it is Timesplitters 2 so I'm going to stick my neck out and say that this version of T.rex is perhaps the most accurate reconstruction ever to grace the screen. 10/10

Buzz Bonus: Timesplitters 2 was and still is the greatest game of all time. Timesplitters Future Perfect is and will always be the worst sequel of all time. This isn't the place for this rant but take my word for it. However, Dinosaur was in both games so we can thank the God of small mercies at least. Oh, also, according to the character gallery in Timesplitters 2 Dinosaur: "breathes fire and has vestigal forelimbs". I think the breathes fire bit might affect the scientific accuracy but it's too late to change it now. *sigh*

Tomb Raider 1

Tomb Raider 2-PlayStation & PC
On the first level, the Great Wall of China, right near the end of the level after the gauntlet and before the death slide to the Goon with a "Tommy Gun" on his keyring there is a pit with TWO Tyrannosaurus rex in it. There is also a secret with a grenade launcher.

Dinosaurness: Once again just T.rex the Jimmy Carr of TV for dinosaurs in games.

Scientific Accuracy: Low. Very Low. How two Tyrannosaurus rex got into the big pit is a mystery. Were they transported as babies and then fed until they grew into adults? In that case how come they aren't etiolated there isn't much light in an underground valley? Also who put them there? Why did they put them in the pit and not by the gate? Where did they find T.rex? All these questions and more. Also a population of 2 isn't going to be enough to keep a constant population of T.rex in the pit after a couple of generations, assuming that a)There's a boy and a girl, b)They aren't Homeosaurs ha ha ha and c)It doesn't matter anyway they aren't real and Lara kills them.

Buzz Bonus: I saw a real life T.rex in a pit once. I didn't go in though- too dangerous.