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IGN Review of Battle of Giants: Dinosaurs Strike
Normally, I don't talk to my games. But when my powered-up T. Rex, complete with huge spikes on his head, smashed a Velociraptor into the ground like it was a ragdoll, I was on my feet and spitting out, "And stay down!"
Here's the weird part -- Battle of Giants: Dinosaurs Strike isn't even very good. It's a totally clunky dinosaur fighter. It doesn't improve on past attempts at dino brawlers such as Primal Rage. It has very limited move sets for each monstrous 'saur (what, you're still saying the entire word?), and your big special attacks are unleashed by the most basic of Wii remote waggles.
But Battle of Giants, at least for a few moments, tapped right into the piece of me that still thinks dinosaurs are really, really cool. Too bad that magic wore off so soon.
Battle of Giants has a weak story to prop up the action: the cataclysm that wipes dinosaurs off the face of the Earth is coming and they must fight for survival. (Nevermind that every time you fill up your gas tank, you know how pointless this would have been had it actually happened.)
When you start Battle of Giants, you can create a dinosaur to enter into Domination, the main tournament. A lot of dinosaurs are playable, although a handful of them are locked until you beat parts of the game. All of the major players are here, such as the T. Rex, stegosaurus, and two types of raptor. After choosing its colors, your prehistoric warrior marches off to fight through twelve rounds of hot dino-on-dino action as the world around them crumbles.
After each victory, you can upgrade your dinosaur's attack damage, strike speed, or health which in turn physically alter its appearance (hence, I had a T. Rex with spikes on its nose). By the time you reach the top of the ladder, you are operating with an almost fully powered dinosaur. You're going to need these boosts, too, because although you can get through the early stages of Domination through reliance on Battle of Giants' simplistic combos (A+A+B, B+B – you get the idea), big boss dinosaurs forget they're in a kids game.
To complete Domination, you must learn how to quickly charge up Dino Strike special moves and then deploy them with maximum effect. Here's where the waggle comes into play. You either initiate your Dino Strike or deny your opponent's by violently shaking the Wii Remote and nunchuk as if you were trying to choke a cobra. Then rattle each controller component with on-screen commands to complete the special attack. The more accurate you are, the better your Dino Strike attack. There are three levels of Dino Strike, and the only way to complete the bosses of Domination is to unleash a near-perfect third-level Dino Strike.
There's also versus fighting and a tournament where you can enlist any unlocked dinosaur or one of your powered-up brutes. You can even pick pairs of dinos to create a primordial tag team. But even if the idea of a dino tag team and a huge dinosaur death tournament sounds like fun, there is just no way around the simple fact that Battle of Giants' gameplay seems to be an afterthought.
©2010-11-24, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Here's the weird part -- Battle of Giants: Dinosaurs Strike isn't even very good. It's a totally clunky dinosaur fighter. It doesn't improve on past attempts at dino brawlers such as Primal Rage. It has very limited move sets for each monstrous 'saur (what, you're still saying the entire word?), and your big special attacks are unleashed by the most basic of Wii remote waggles.
But Battle of Giants, at least for a few moments, tapped right into the piece of me that still thinks dinosaurs are really, really cool. Too bad that magic wore off so soon.
Battle of Giants has a weak story to prop up the action: the cataclysm that wipes dinosaurs off the face of the Earth is coming and they must fight for survival. (Nevermind that every time you fill up your gas tank, you know how pointless this would have been had it actually happened.)
When you start Battle of Giants, you can create a dinosaur to enter into Domination, the main tournament. A lot of dinosaurs are playable, although a handful of them are locked until you beat parts of the game. All of the major players are here, such as the T. Rex, stegosaurus, and two types of raptor. After choosing its colors, your prehistoric warrior marches off to fight through twelve rounds of hot dino-on-dino action as the world around them crumbles.
After each victory, you can upgrade your dinosaur's attack damage, strike speed, or health which in turn physically alter its appearance (hence, I had a T. Rex with spikes on its nose). By the time you reach the top of the ladder, you are operating with an almost fully powered dinosaur. You're going to need these boosts, too, because although you can get through the early stages of Domination through reliance on Battle of Giants' simplistic combos (A+A+B, B+B – you get the idea), big boss dinosaurs forget they're in a kids game.
To complete Domination, you must learn how to quickly charge up Dino Strike special moves and then deploy them with maximum effect. Here's where the waggle comes into play. You either initiate your Dino Strike or deny your opponent's by violently shaking the Wii Remote and nunchuk as if you were trying to choke a cobra. Then rattle each controller component with on-screen commands to complete the special attack. The more accurate you are, the better your Dino Strike attack. There are three levels of Dino Strike, and the only way to complete the bosses of Domination is to unleash a near-perfect third-level Dino Strike.
There's also versus fighting and a tournament where you can enlist any unlocked dinosaur or one of your powered-up brutes. You can even pick pairs of dinos to create a primordial tag team. But even if the idea of a dino tag team and a huge dinosaur death tournament sounds like fun, there is just no way around the simple fact that Battle of Giants' gameplay seems to be an afterthought.
©2010-11-24, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved