Dinosaurs in Video Games 2012

Not dead. Just coming out of a winter torpor but what is this? It hasn't been a proper winter. Ut ohs. This will cause problems for the circle of life.

Raving Rabbids Travels in Time added to list! Also why didn't you guys tell me about GameBoy Advance game A Sound of Thunder, DS game Digging for Dinosaurs or Dinosaurs Vs Alamo? Are we keeping secrets from each other now?

But enough about the warming globe. How is 2012 shaping up for dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures in video games? Well the last issue of EDGE has confirmed that a popular racing game series will feature a roadside Tyrannosaurus rex. I got a copy of Dino Strike and have played it (review pending) and I'll be keeping my unblinking eyes out for more dinosaurs in games whilst trying to play through Syberia 2.

Wii Play Motion

Wonderfully, over Christmas I found myself with some surprise Christmas money giving me the unusual opportunity for some guilt-free video game purchasing. Normally, splashing out on a video game means taking money away from some other serious and always more important budget (savings, food for the kids, new shoes etc.). Christmas money is guilt free, indeed it is given with the express intent to be spent on something fun, plus the kids could do with losing some weight. So I found myself in a fine Belgian video game vending establishment with euros to spend. 

Oh my lordy! Shop bought video games are expensive. Dreams of a purchase of two or possibly three games with the aforementioned Christmas credits were realistically adjusted to possibly one. My options were either Metroid: Other M (I read mixed reviews but wanted to see for myself), Super Mario Galaxy and some change (I know, I know why don't I own this already), Super Mario Galaxy 2 minus some extra money (why do Nintendo games stay so expensive?) or Sin and Punishment 2. Or it turns out Wii Play Motion. 

You may have gathered I opted for Wii Play Motion. WHY? You might cry. Well yes all those other games are good or very good and belong in any discerning gamer's library but I figured it was time to get on the Wii Motion Train. Plus the Wiimote that comes bundled with it is sexy red to match my sexy red classic controller that came with Xenoblade Chronicles. Also, the swing factor was I spotted this on the back of the box:

What do you mean What the hell is that? That is an unmistakable* screenshot of the mouth of a Tyrannosaurus rex with targets on it probably from a light-gun shooting game. See that marketeers? Nintendo would have missed a sale if it wasn't for the box art. Who says you should never judge a game by its box art? Much to my joy, Tyrannosaurus rex with targets on it probably from a light-gun shooting game is exactly what it turned out to be. New Year Dinosaur gaming in motion plus extravaganza! Also, another nice benefit of buying this game (I mentioned sexy red wiimote already right?) is that some of the mini games are quite good. Like my GOTY 2011 good.

For those of you not au fait with Wii Play or Wii Play Motion, these two games are essentially tech demos for what the Wii and more recently what Wii Motion Plus can achieve. The mini games on offer in both games are a mixed bunch but sadly, it seems other game developers don't take more inspiration from the Wii Play gamelets. There's some tantalising uses of motion controls and ideas in the rather shallow games that others could have taken and run with. Could have run with is operative here, or you know, instead they could make buggy shovelware, poor Wii Sports clones and light gun shooters. Sigh. Tanks!, for example, in the first game is amazing even as a mini game and significantly better than most full price games. Wii Play Motion has some corkers (and some stinkers) on it. I've already mentioned Star Shuttle but completing level 30 of Teeter Targets was tough, emotionally draining and spine tinglingly good in the way that games used to and should be. Human and controller needing to become one in order to master what on the surface looks like an unchallenging premise. 

 Anyway, it also has Dinosaurs in it. Specifically, one of the levels of Trigger Twist a sequel, if you like, to Wii Play's Shooting Range sees your Mii dressed in Safari Khakis and sporting a musket tasked with helping a bunch of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures on their way to extinction. Right about now I'd post an image from the game but can you believe there isn't a single decent screenshot within a quick google? There's plenty of videos on YouTube but I don't want to ruin it for those of you as 'purist' as myself. No wonder the game hasn't flown of the shelves. Rule number one of video game marketing, if your game has dinosaurs in it, put out screenies of dinosaurs and the sales (at least one guaranteed) will explode. You'll have to make-do with this image, again from the box art (IMAGE NOT REPRESENTATIVE OF IN GAME DINOSAURS):

The Trigger Twist game itself isn't particularly innovative. It is a fairly standard light gun shooter except Wii Motion Plus allows you to look around 720 degrees (?) by moving the controller around you. However, this concept is limited in that it is pretty hard to aim when you've got the Wiimote pointed over your shoulder and this is acknowledged by the game makers as targets rarely appear beyond 180 degrees of vision. Still a nice idea that another developer might run with....  So what do we have?

Dinosauriness: There's no 'Dinopedia' but I'm going to hedge my bets with the IDs here. For example I'm going to assume that the iguanodont you grease isn't intended to be Mantellisaurus or Muttaburrasaurus but is in fact a vanilla Iguanadon but if a developer interview comes out that states otherwise I'll be more than happy to change the details here. We appear to have a very typical assemblage: Brachiosaurus, Iguandon, an ornithomimosaur, a Plesiosaur, Pteranodon, Blue, Red and Gold 'Raptors', Stegosaurus, Triceratops and drum roll please....... Tyrannosaurus rex.

Scientific Accuracy: All the usual bum notes- temporally distributed genera appearing together (Stegosaurus I'm looking at you), a classic example of a freshwater plesiosaur is also a highlight. Scale is hard to determine from a first person perspective but as ever it feels a bit off. There's not a feather to be seen either. Lastly, unless a new discovery confirms that dinosaurs were neon coloured, the skin colour seems a bit too 90s rave scene. Did I expect anything different? No. God forbid fun be scientifically accurate. GOD FORBIDS IT.

Buzz Bonus: I've really nothing to say here except I also received a copy of Dino Strike for the Wii over Christmas. Don't worry it wasn't a present I bought it myself. Otherwise I'd never tell you that it is awful. Awful and less fun than Trigger Twist. Expect a full review soon.....!

*Well I do have my eye in for spotting this kind of thing. Endless trawling the internet for smidgens of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures in video games means I can spot a virtual dinosaur in a screenshot from at least 50 paces in a mild fog.

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.

Syberia

After what seems like forever, I finally got around to finishing Syberia. It may seem stupid for a game that's nine years old but I'm gonna put a SPOILER warning up here. If you like Dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures in games then Syberia is definitely worth a play. Then come back here. Okay? I don't know if it is just because I'm a jaded old gamer or because I haven't played a solid point and click adventure for a longtime but I really enjoyed Syberia. Probably more so than normal because it's a dinosaurs game that isn't a Pokemon clone or FPS. It's pretty standard fare really. Point here, click there, pick up this item, give it to this person who'll give you another item to give to someone else. It isn't free of the frustrations particular to the genre and if you played it like I did over a space of months rather than hours you'll need a number of trips to the excellent Universal Hint System for some of the (subtle) clues you end up forgetting between plays.

The game takes you on a fantastical journey in the shoes of lawyer Kate Walker, sent to a weird French town to settle the estate of an eccentric woman whose automaton factory is due to be bought by a big toy company. Unsurprisingly, things don't go as planned and Kate ends up tracking down the deceased woman's brother, a curious savant obsessed with mammoths. The game takes you to some really amazing places and I found myself forgiving the linear nature of the game (item A to place B to get to item C etc..) because the environments you visit are so fantastic, the writing and characters are compelling and solving the puzzles to progress are normally just the right side of head scratching. There's also a snazzy little gimmick in that Kate has a mobile phone and occasionally gets phoned by her boyfriend, mother and best friend. LIKE HOW MOBILE PHONES WORK IN THE REAL WORLD! The phone does a good job of giving an insight into who Kate is beyond the person you mercilessly puppet about the place as well as being key to progressing at times. I've said too much already just go and grab it. Sure, it's dated but it's less than a tenner on Steam,just under 12 for both Syberia and Syberia 2. As a fan of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures in games I really like that this game is palaeontologically themed rather than just a palaeontologically skinned generic game as so many DiGs are. Mammoths, biology and palaeontology run through the game and kept me playing. It's just refreshing still, even from a nine year old game, to see that the Syberia team actually did a bit of research rather than just pick up My First Book Of Scary Dinosaurs, bung in the usual suspects and then copy and paste the "facts" in the ubiquitous dinopedia. Anywho, down to the regular bitness...

Dinosauriness: Remember that spoiler warning? Well you don't actually see any real virtual mammoths in the game, the three screenshots in this post is as near as you get. Early on you find a prehistoric mammoth doll and make a mammoth rubbing (pictured above). At the Barrockstadt University the skeletons of Megaloceros, Mammuthus primigenius, Platybelodon and some other extinct mammals that are hard to identify (speculatively equid and elephantid) can be found. In addition to the amazing statues you can see above there's a pair of sabre-toothed tiger statues although I wouldn't like to guess exactly which 'sabre-toothed tigers' they are (sabre-toothery in mammals is an amazing example of convergent evolution).

Scientific Accuracy: So far so good. You don't see any real mammoths although the game foreshadows an encounter in Syberia 2, apparently there's a cryptic population of mammoths possibly alive on an island called Syberia. More outlandish is the automatons, wind up robots, you meet throughout the game. But this is Dinosaurs in Games NOT Robots in Games.

Buzz Bonus: There's so much to say, there's a sequel that's on my to play list and the sort of announcement of a third one to be released for PS3 and PC with the demand that Sony stop their Syberia PS2 denial.. This game was also released on the DS in 2008 and was the version I originally wanted to pick up but the handful of sites that reviewed it all recommended picking up the 2002 PC version. My last buzz bonus is that in the Barrockstadt University library you can see Aristotle's principle 'Natura non facit saltus'- nature does not make leaps a famous proposition invoked by a number of the brightest luminaries in science throughout time and just one of the biology geek references that endeared this game to me even more.

Dino Strike and Zoo Entertainment

Sad news about Zoo Entertainment. Let's hope it doesn't affect our preorder of Dino Strike which has already been delayed by a bit. I was expecting it sometime next week. Theit website still ists it as avialable "February 2011".

Ahh, gotta love game companies and their bad websites...

Dinosaur Games on Android

I've been desperately trying to breathe some life back into the ol' PC in order to finish Syberia. Whilst I was waiting for loading and installing bars to go up and down I thought I'd hit the Android market to see if there was any Dinosaur Goodness to be had. Over 700 hits for "dino"! This could truly be the future of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures in games?

Of course, I'm not going to pay for any of them! Why risk paying for something that might be awful? So I downloaded a couple of free ones. The first game I tried  was called Dino Attack Hunt (screenie above). The "game" involves prodding the dinosaur pictures as they scroll down the screen. If you correctly prod them you are rewarded with a shotgun noise and the dinosaur's heads pop off. The game is fun for a little bit less than it takes to download. It was a really really quick download too. Annoying too is that the background is clearly a well looked after park. Is this really the future of games? There may have been a point where something other than prodding the three dinosaurs shown above happened but I just couldn't bear to see it through. Life is too short.

Next up is a game/app simple called Dinosaurs!. I was excited about this one. Somebody had undertaken some serious research into the ways that dinosaurs could possibly make different noises by looking at laryngology as well as a comparative analysis of vocalisation in reptiles from throat rumbles, specialised resonating chambers through to beak clacking. From this academic research they were then able to upload authentic sounds of 45 dinosaur (and other prehistoric creature) genera including relatively obscure genera like Herrasaurus (an apparently new genus to science, the first to be described in an app and surely definitely not a typo of Herrerasaurus), 'Parsaurlophus', Monolophosaurus and everyone's favourite Chirstenote(?!). Of course, I am being facetious here. Somebody has simply uploaded 45 random roary noises and attached them to 45 misspelled and poorly researched dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. Accuracy alarm bells started to ring when the picture for Ankylosaurus, one of the most recognisable dinosaurs after Tyrannosaurus rex, Triceratops, 'Brontosaurs' and Stegosaurus, instead depicts the sauropod Amargosaurus. The image below shows some of the errors on the first page. There are more, believe me. 

So there we have it. I'm not going to make a habit of looking at every single dinosaur (and/or other prehistoric creatures) app/game because most of them will be a pile of rubbish like these two but when I do there's a new section on the left here where they will be listed.

Disney's Dinosaur

Disney's Dinosaur was a game that was released on virtually every single platform at the time, Game Boy Colour, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Dreamcast and Windows. I've been meaning to pick up a copy of this game for a long long time.

It's a Ubisoft game, when Ubi wasn't so fussy about not for making awful games before the days of Assasin's Creed. That being said, this game (the PS2 version at least) isn't as bad as I expected. It isn't as good as it could have been either. The game plays like a bit like Baldur's Gate is as much as it an isometric 'dungeon crawler', although the water isn't as good as in Baldur's Gate. A nice twist on the dungeon crawling is that you need to combine the specific skills of Aladar the Iguanodon, Flia a Pteranodon and Zini a lemur to make it through levels that roughly follow the plot of the film. There's a neat little squad organising mechanic that makes it easy to split your team of three or to combine them all together. Aladar can give out and take a lot of damage, Zini can climb up ladders and hurl stones at enemies and to create walkways and Flia, who has been created specifically for the game, can act as a scout, access areas the land dwellers can't as well as being able to pick up and carry objects. The game occasionally falters in that unintuitive and cryptic mechanics are sometimes introduced in order to progress through levels requiring a number of frustrating failures in order to work out what you're supposed to do. Some sections also suffer from the classic problem in that bridges and ledges require a careful navigation that simply isn't possibly with the unrefined controls. I had to restart a couple of the escort missions because I'd fall off a ledge and respawn to find my escortees blocking the way through. As you can see below, the game isn't exactly a looker but it deserves some credit for not being a Pokemon clone, RTS or light gun game as so many of these Dinosaurs and other prehistoric creature games are.

Dinosauriness: The game departs slightly from the film including some dinos that didn't make the cut. Creatures featured are: Albertoaurus, Ankylosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Carnotaurus, Champsosaurus, Dryptosaurus, the bat Icaronycteris, Iguanodon, Oviraptor, Parasaurolophus, Pteranodon, Quetzalcoatlus (misspelled Quetzelcoatlus in the game), a' raptor', Spinosaurus, Styracosaurus (misspelled Styrachosaur in the game) Talarurus and of course a Lemur. A number of other genera appear in cutscenes including Pachyrhinosaurus, Struthiomimus, Stygimoloch and possibly Ichthyornis.

Scientific Accuracy: Where to begin? First off talking animals loses some accuracy points. Secondly, a lot of the dinosaurs have been found continents apart, Carnotaurus remains have only been found in Argentina, Styracosaurus is only known from Canada, Oviraptorin Mongolia and possibly China. This is not to say that they couldn't have met but current evidence doesn't suggest they did. Also many of the creatures represented weren't coeval. Champsosaurus resembles a giant lizard and is found roaming the desert rather unlike a Choristoderan really. Lastly, the lemurs (and similarly Icaryonecteris) really throw a spanner in the works. Not only are lemur fossils only known from Madagascar, Asia and continental Africa conflicting with the Dinosaurs from the Americas but even the most immoderate estimates for the appearance of lemurs don't go as far back as 75 Ma. However, most irritatingly in the game is that Zini sounds like some kinda New York wise-guy. Having been forced to watch the film again for fact checking, bizarrely this accent has been added specifically for the game. Thanks guys. Someone should really publish a paper on the independent evolution of NY wise guy accents in sidekicks.

Buzz Bonus: It seems almost obligatory for dinosaur games to have a 'dinopedia' and this game is no exception albeit with a shocking number of typos. This makes my life a lot easier because I don't have to keep quite so many notes. The dinopedia in the PS2 version is a nice little three-dimensional diorama that you can whizz around and discover various dinosaur (and other prehistoric creature) facts.

What no Turok?

My little gaggle of followers may have noticed a recent spate of posting. Unfortunately, I seem to be fighting a losing battle when it comes to covering all the games listed under "THE GAMES" over there on the left because as soon as I get round to playing through one of them another three pop up. Not that I'm complaining. We all know there aren't enough dinosaurs in games. The more the merrier! To infinity!

However, eagle-eyed readers will have spotted that the Turok series remains greyed out for the time being. Can't be fussed checking, here's the proof:

So what's the deal? Shirley, Turok is an obvious place to start when it comes to dinosaurs in games? Well I'm inclined to agree but I want to play through them all in order to get a better sense of the " "Storyline" ". At the moment I've been playing them in reverse order. I played the Xbox 360 one then Turok: Evolution. I want to start playing from the beginning but you know what it is like. Finding all the cables and setting up the N64 is such a pain... I was secretly hoping that they'd appear on the virtual console but alas that doesn't seem to be something that is planned to happen.

Tl:dr the short story is, I'm getting around to it, I'm not ignoring the series or anything jeez!

Planet Dinosaur

Planet Dinosaur was oh so briefly on the TV recently and as with Walking with Dinosaurs, an accompanying game has been made. You can go and play it right now, right here.

It's a fun little browser game. You can breed a number of species from the television series then let them loose in your own little panorama. It won't be breaking any records for looks. Or playability. But hey, it's free. Oh and it has achievements if you like that kind of thing. It is quite slow and if I was being cynical I'd say it was a cheap way to get people to keep coming back to the website. In fact, there are achievements for logging in every single day.... Here's my panorama so far:
Nuffin but a couple of Spinosaurus at the moment. They don't get up to much. They stomp around. There's a little sawfish catching mini game you can play for in game credits to buy more dinosaurs, food to help your babies grow to adulthood and extra bits of scenery to enrich your panorama. I'll hold off the final judgement when I've unlocked more of the dinosaurs and mini-games. If you decide to give it a go, let me know what you think in these comments.

A Bumper Crop For Mammoths Today

A Hirsute* of mammoths if you will. Typical! You wait for ages for a mammoth to come along and then two appear!

Just in via RPS it's Trine 2. Is this mammoth skeleton nought but a Checkov's Gun for the real thing? I'm hoping it is. Even if it isn't it's nice to see such a lovely mammoth skeleton.

* Sadly, not the actual collective noun.

UPDATE: Apologies if this post keeps changing. I've had to edit this post about five times for typos. I'm just too excited.

Dinosaurs and/or other prehistoric creatures in games spotted!

Spotted this screenie over on Capcom-Unity from Strider 2.

Yep. That's a cyber-mammoth if I ever did see one. Capcom have always got some love for dinosaurs and or other prehistoric creatures in games from Cadillacs and Dinosaurs through to the excellent (except maybe the third one) Dino Crisis. The question is, is it worth hunting down and getting? Or is this the only dinosaur or other prehistoric creature in the game? File this under needs more research.

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?

Jurassic Park: The Game

I've mentioned the any day soon release of Jurassic Park: The Game and how I'm quite excited about it. I was excited about it. Having caught up with the available information about it, I'm struck by five things.

1. It looks quite QTE heavy. Like Heavy Rain but with dinosaurs. No biggie though. I prefer being explicitly told to "press A to win" rather than be given the mere facade of agency a la Modern Warfare 3 single player. Plus hopefully that'll mean the journey should be quite fun because it is so controlled? Not that you get to take in much of the action sequences when your scouting the screen for the next button to press.
2. The characters are still worryingly reminiscent of the characters in Timesplitters 2. Not the style of the characters in Timesplitters 2 but as if somebody had transplanted the characters in from that nine year old (and excellent) game. The dinosaurs look mighty shiny too. Too shiny. Like early days of the Xbox360 shiny. Bad shiny. Not that I'm a graphics snob, as long as a game has dinosaurs in it I'll happily play it, but I can't imagine that this game will be pushing the 360 or PS3 not to mention the PC and Mac. Confusingly, I thought that one of the main advantages of making a QTE game was that you could make it look beautiful because the player is limited in their interactions with the game and environments......
3. The Wii version was either never announced or dropped. I can't tell which, Telltale's own site says it'll be on "all major video game platforms". To not be on the third biggest platform (after PC and Mac) seems to make that sentence untrue. Sad because I think there's a lot of love in the world still for Jurassic Park. With some decent marketing I imagine it could have been a big hit on that particular platform. Ho hum.
4. This game is another great example of how poorly game makers serve their potential consumers. Telltale's own website isn't very useful on actual information about the game. The game itself is confusingly described as episodic by some sites and others don't mention this at all. Also, that lovely deluxe PC edition we told you about? If you want it in Europe before Christmas, ermmm there's no guarantee you'll get it for Christmas. You know, Christmas, that time of year that people like to spend lots of money on expensive presents for each other, possibly on video games, possibly on video games that come out at the end of the year. Even friends of fans of dinosaurs in video games like to splash out on video games with dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures for their dinosaur fan friends. Not if it won't be delivered on time they won't though. Oh also aren't we in the middle of an economic crisis or something? Telltale not bothered in maximising their profits at all? Good on you.
5. On that note, why is the limited edition for PC only? Xbox 360 owners get a free virtual T-rex for their avatar. Wait whilst I feign a yay. yay. Presumably it is the same game? Now I'm torn as to which one I contemplate getting (if I get it all straight away). Do I want to get it as quickly as possible with all that extra stuff to put in my big 'ol pile of limited edition game junk I've never opened or used? Or do I wait so I don't have to mess around with PC settings and get stuck with looking at Xbox 360 button prompts for my QTEs. I've not seen a video without Xbox pad prompts, presumably the mac version will be changed at least? A professional games company might clarify these things days before it is due out. Oh well.

Sorry to gripe. I like to keep this site as a happy place normally. Takes some doing to bring a dark cloud over talking about dinosaurs in games. Especially when talking about the biggest high profile dinosaurs in game release for a long long time.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park

Well I tried guys but I'm afraid I'll have to phone this one in. It's hard to believe we used to put up with games like this in the 90s. Okay so today we are somewhat wrapped in cotton wool with quicksaves, infinite continues and restarts but boy this game is tough. The first chapter sees you playing as a Compsognathus. Each level has a double helix hidden in it if you get them all you unlock gallery artwork. The DNA in the first level is a real pain to get requiring you to do a bunch of fiddly jumps over a bottomless pit and then get the DNA, drop back down and do the fiddly jumps again. The characters also have a really weird momentum making tight, accurate jumps nigh impossible. You only get three lives and then thats it. Game Over. Start again from the beginning. So it was only the first level, what kind of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures in games fanatic would I be if I missed out on some artwork? 30 lives and 10 restarts later I finally get the DNA and make it out of the stupid jumping and bottomless pit area to discover that's area 1 of level 1. There's a load more levels to play through before you get given an end of chapter password (no saves here). Two lives later and it is back to the menu screen. Do it all over again. I quit after two hours of losing a life or two to get the DNA, getting it and then getting mauled/falling from a height/glitching through platforms on the third area. Sorry guys. I tried.

Also to note, now that publishers are pretty much forcing boxed products into extinction, I'm going to miss BACK OF THE BOX LIES. Here's what it says on the back of the box of The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

• 40 levels of gripping gameplay
• Interact with 20 dinosaurs accurately modelled from the movie
• 25 unique 3-D environments with secret locations to explore

Being as charitable as I can, the first three levels I played were brutal and full of stupid jumps and poor collision detection. Not my definition of 'gripping'. As nice as it is to see them in the game, I don't recall Leptoceratops, Baryonyx or Orodromeus from the movies so I'm doubtful of the "modelled from the movie" claim. Lastly, I only got to the third level and already I saw some environments "uniquely" recycled. Anyway, on to business. A nice range and some dinosaurs unique to this game!(? needs checking).

Dinosauriness: Like I said, phoning it in. I only saw six of these in game and a further two from the rolling demo when you stay on the menu screen. Here's what the book says: Allosaurus, Baryonyx, Brachiosaurus, Carnotaurus, Compsognathus, Deinonychus, Dimorphodon, Euplocephalus, Leptoceratops, Orodromeus, Pachycephalosaurus, Parasuchus, Staurikosaurus, Stegosaurus, Tricerarops, Tyrannosaurus rex, and of course Velociraptor.

Scientific Accuracy: Of the handful of species I saw, seems alright. Didn't get to the Velociraptor levels to complain about them being somewhat oversized as they are want in the JP universe. Didn't even see any coelurosaurs to wheel out the old feathers issue (although from the book they're all naked) sad to say. Leptoceratops was a very unlikely neon teal colour. I'd advise that if you want to go into dinosaur palaeontology there are probably better references to draw on than this game when it comes to interpreting these wonderful creatures (fossils, books and journal papers perhaps?).

Buzz Bonus: This was a Dreamworks game and as such has the little boy on the moon logo at the beginning. Various Dreamworks games would vary what the boy would do (in Medal of Hono(u)r he parachuted off) and this is one of a couple of JP games to see the boy come to an unfortunate fate. See for yourself.

Too Many Dinosaurs In Games

There are too many! Orion Prelude seems to be coming along nicely as does the new Jurassic Park: The Game, not to be confused with the game Jurassic Park. Just look at this a super sexy deluxe edition. In other prehistoric creatures news, we've spotted a Plesiosaur in Endless Ocean 2: Treasures of the Deep and some of the cutest dinosaurs known to games in Kirby's Epic Yarn. Dino Strike for the Wii is out this month (not to be confused with Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs Strike also for the Wii and out this month). We've been so inspired by excitement for the new JP game to play The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

SOME TIME LATER

The Lost World Jurassic Park isn't very good. Expect a full review soon! I'll be the first to admit I've been bad a keeping up with indie and/or browser games. Soooo many indie and/or browser dinosaur games.

Dinosaur Zookeeper is an excellent game with dinosaurs in it. You can play it for free right now here. It's like a browser Jurassic Park Operation: Genesis, including "accidental" visitor deaths n'all. Full review sometime soon!

Seen any dinosaurs and/or other prehistoric creatures in games in the wild? Drop a comment and I'll add them to the to do list!

Animal Crossing; Let's Go To The City

As with the other two games, Animal Crossing; Let's Go To The City (AKA City Folk in other regions) brings with it a world of crazy ass geology and dinosaur goodness. You can excavate fossils, donate them to the museum, show them off in your house, sell them for cash or if you are feeling particularly generous, you can give them to fellow villagers who will put them in stupid places in their house, try to sell them back to you and then move out. Make no bones about it readers (and loyal followers) this post is but a mere ruse so I can show off my sick Wario threads and the completed palaeontology halls.


Dinosauriness: ACLGTTC boasts the most dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures of all the Animal Crossing games, if this trend continues then the 3DS game might justify the purchase of a 3DS just to absorb the dinosaur goodness. If you dig for victory, you will eventually find; Some amber, an ammonite, Ankylosaurus, Apatosaurus, Archaeopteryx, a coprolite, Dimetrodon, a dinosaur egg, a dinosaur track, a fossil fern, Ichthyosaurus, Iguanodon, Mammoth, Pachycephalosaurus, Parasaurolophus, Peking Man (Homo erectus), Plesiosaurus, Pteranodon, Velociraptor, Sabertooth tiger (Smilodon), Seismosaurus, fossil shark tooth (megalodon), Stegosaurus, Styracosaurus, Tyrannosaurus rex, Triceratops and a trilobite.


Scientific Accuracy: Well it's hard to judge scale when a human child is the same height as talking racoons, elephants and oh-so-elusive talking octopus people. Of more concern is the unique geology of Gaywood (insert the name of your town here) Town that seemlessly rolls all these strata of different ages into one. Unless of course Gaywood was previously an isolated paradise, protected from the extinction events of the rest of the world so that at one point in the near geologic past trilobites lived alongside mammoths and seismosaurs. It's best not to overthink these things, if you are really concerned there is probably a fan fiction about it.


Buzz Bonus: Close examination of the Archaeopteryx fossil shows that the fossil appears to be similar, albeit cropped slightly losing the tail, to the juvenile Archaeopteryx specimen currently on display at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin. A museum I was very lucky to visit just last week

Street Fighter X Tekken

Good news dinosaurs and fighting games fans. Looks like Street Fighter X Tekken has a stage set in what superficially resembles Jurassic Park.


Alex has been spotted hopping around in the background with his bigger cousins and has been announced as a returning character.


I haven't been this excited about dinosaurs in fighting games since DoA 4 although we suspect this level was only included to get some free publicity from this blog WHICH IS FINE. Looks like A Brachiosaurus in the background there and probably a Tyrannosaurus rex (again!).

Jurassic Park: Naked Dinosaurs Edition

Watch people talk about the new Jurassic Park: The Game.

Hmm it looks like the graphics aren't up to much. For a start all the people look like Timesplitters 2 characters and a bug they need to fix is that the engine is accidentally showing all the dinosaurs without the feathers. Woops! Naked dinosaur action. Come on guys sort it out.

Legendary Wars: T-rex rumble

Some lovely dinosaur flavoured DSiWare from Interplay. I'm sure you've all wanted to "build villages inhabited by up to 20 men" right? WELL NOW YOU CAN!

Errors aplenty here but I'll forgive them just this once. In an alternative universe somewhere, mankind is on the brink of extinction. Fortunately, there's melons to collect, magic to use and Tyrannosaurus various theropods dinosaurs to fight whilst building sausage-fest villages.

Expect a full review......pah sure, right. Look at that massive list on the left.

Primal Carnage

I sink maybe there is a renaissance in ze dinosaur vs man FPS non? Ave a look 'ere at ze primal carnage.


Whatever mystical forces are at play which conspire to bring us more of this dinosaurs versus gunny men appear to be in full swing. Although they all seem to have similar source material.

1) Character wearing Robert Muldoon hats despite the limited defensive capacities? CHECK.
2) Big Fences? CHECK.
3) STOMP STOMP REVEAL? CHECK.
4) A character says "Shoot her! Shoooooot her!"? Well not in this trailer but here's hoping.
5) Yeah but Spinosaurus is bigger innit? CHECK.

Also, some feathers would be nice guys. It's a definite fact that most dinosaurs had feathers let's keep up now shall we? Primal Carnage ladies and gentle spoons. Indie developers too which is always nice to see.

Pokemon Black and White

Pokemon Black and White is the next Pokemon game to introduce even more critters to the mix. We've previously blogged the mon inspired by dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures that are normally revived from fossils and B&W introduces two new 'uns.


Archaeos which, we hope you'll agree is an homage to fossil extroardinaire Archaeopteryx.

And here is Abagoura who, we hope you will agree again is an homage to super fossil turtle Archelon. Two of my favourite palaeontological classics pokemonised. Good work Game Freak.

HEART Spiral Game Studios

HOW QUICK WAS THAT? Following yesterday's ORION prelude post, the guys at Spiral Game Studios have already changed the details of the dinosaurs (and pterosaurs) in their game.

That's what we like to see. A commitment to excellence in dinosaurs and other prehistoric reptiles in games.

More of this please.

ORION Prelude

Check out Spiral Game Studios page for their new game, or a prelude to another game: ORION Prelude? There's even a trailer!!



It isn't a great trailer there are only a maximum of two dinosaurs on screen at any time. I'd be interested to see how they've contrived their dinosaurs into the game because there are jet pack people which could mean time traveling people but then there's also a lot of grass which suggests time traveling dinosaurs? Maybe clones? It could be any of these. Or all of them. Time traveling people travel a little bit back in time and meet time traveling dinosaur clones who have also time traveled. I'd buy that for a dollar.

The website confirms three genera of dinosaurs, Pteranodon, Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor. Can't say I'm surprised by any of those except Pteranodon but only because they aren't dinosaurs. Also, it should be Tyrannosaurus rex, not Tyrannosaurus Rex. WHEN WILL THESE DEVELOPERS OPEN A BOOK ABOUT DINOSAURS? We've emailed them about it.

1993

Was when Jurassic Park was released. We all pretend that the second and god forbid the third one don't exist but that doesn't stop the IP from getting flogged like a dead horse. RPS have the low down about a new game inspired by Jason-'em-up Heavy Rain.

In other news have some lovely palaeo-themed concept art from Donkey Kong Country Returns. Isn't it wonderful?
In other less interesting news both Fossil Fighters and Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs have sequels coming out in the future. CoD (see what I did there) is even on the 3DS. I was pleasantly surprised by CoD afore however, we know it is going to be middling isn't it? Isn't it hey Ubisoft? Middling to average to par. For shame.

Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter

One day, descendants of the dinosaurs that invented space travel and set off to explore the universe in the late Cretaceous will come back to survey the planet they evolved on and to check to see how the hairies have done since they left the primitive beasts 65 million years ago.
"Avert your eyes crewmates! They've ruined the birth planet. Look at it! It is sick and dying yet still they rape and pillage it." "We should destroy them with our space dino lasers and wipe their fragile little existence off of the face of the birth world. Give me that order sir and it will be done without a moments hesitation" "Belay that order! Let them revel in their own filth, dirt and dust until they suffocate themselves. Let the last remaining hairy ones look each other in the eye under a scorched sky and realise that they have doomed themselves into extinction. They won't last another century I'd wager.""Sir! Our scans have shown that they... I can't believe it sir! Our scans of their limited technology shows that have desecrated the remains of our ancestors and recreated them in virtual play pens where the hairy ones hunt down our naked ancestors. They depict our glorious lineage as nothing but featherless savages who exist only to endlessly fight each other in desert and jungle type localities.""Why would they simulate the hunting of our poor defenceless brethren? What perverted race creates such sycophantic fantasies? Imagine if they ever created technology that allowed them to escape this hell they have created for themselves? This seals their fate. Ready the space dino laser!"

"One last question sir! Why do we call ourselves dinosaurs? That would make no sense?"

"FIRE!"

Attack of the Verbose Dinosaur

Who says games are all evil? Who says games can't educate? Who says that the shocking pulsating bag of creations that game designers call 'dinosaurs' seem to be accurate according to fifty year old scientific consensus? ME. ME ON THAT LAST ONE. For example, let's take a look at the Xbox Live marketplace title, Attack of the Verbose Dinosaur.
Mother of the mechanisms that lead to the improbable evolution of life as we know it! What is that? Look at that posture? Why is it in a city? Why does it want to affront the street creole that now passes as the language known as English? According to the official trailer this is the last of the dinosaurs and he lived at the bottom of the sea and learned to read from the books that would fall from shipwrecks. He was happy until he got the internet whereupon he decides to seek vengeance on those who abused the beautiful language. Sounds reasonable I suppose. Makes more sense than the plot of Jurassic Park.
Here's the scoop:

Dinosauriness: One incredibly arthritic, overweight internet surfing, book reading, angry marine 'dinosaur' that is some kind of carnosaurian-godzilla love child.

Scientific Accuracy: Unfortunately, the teeth seem to be built into a continuous bar, one on the upper jaw and one on the mandible. Apart from this single slip up this is a pretty accurate recreation 9/10.

Buzz Bonus: I cannot spell dissappear, tommorrow or suprise. I used to be able to but my brain cells are starting to die from playing all those awful Land Before Time GBA games.

Sonic and the Secret Rings

If I was a lazy games hack I'd start this post going on about how Sonic used to be so great and how recently the games haven't been a patch on the older games and how Sega's flogging of a dead hedgehog is retrospectively ruining my childhood memories. I won't though because Sonic Rush was actually alright and OMG SONIC AND THE SECRET RINGS HAS Triceratops in it. Egg on my face, only earlier today I was bemoaning the lack of dinosaur love on the Wii.



My exclusive hands-off review: A return to form for Sonic the hedgehog! Sonic, Sega and Dinosaur fans belatedly rejoice this three year old game! Huzzah! Hurrah! Sonic is back. Sure Triceratops can run that fast. And sure carnosaurs were bright pink. That's reasonable. 10/10