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IGN Review of Dinosaur King
For some, strange and entirely unknown reason, Dinosaur King and I are kindred spirits. Maybe it's the fun everyone remembers as kids looking at dinosaur books and wishing - much like I did so many years ago - that they had a pet raptor in their garage, or maybe it's the fact that Dinosaur King harks back to the classic Japanese beetle fighting games known as Mushi King, a series that I believe I'm the only actual fan of here in the states. Whatever the case may be, this odd little role-playing game, Pokemon clone, touch-based excavation adventure, Mushi King-inspired battling mess of a deceptively fun game caught my attention, and while Dinosaur King isn't going to do much for people that aren't into the TV show, it's actually a pretty inspired little package. Polished? No. Interesting? Absolutely.
The Mushi King design has been around in Japan for years, so it's no wonder that a new series based on collecting and battling dinosaurs - in nearly an identical fashion to the beetle fighting games that steal quarter after quarter in Japanese arcades - would find inspiration in the design. Really, it's that, or Pokemon as far as core monster-battle designs go, and with the Dinosaur King brand already hitting arcades as a similar "collect the cards, battle friends" quarter jerker, this direction makes sense for a DS role-playing game. Dinosaur King tells the tale of the game's main protagonists from the show, Max and Rex, as they chase down the illustrious Dr. Z who is on a quest to harness the power of dinosaurs for his own evil doings. Standard affair as far as story telling goes, and it doesn't get much better as the experience goes in. Instead, it's going to be all about collecting dinosaurs, fighting against AI opponents in the main story mode, and then taking your characters online.
The story itself doesn't do much to push you, and in fact, the mechanic itself isn't exactly well-implemented in adding any skill to the matches. Dino King's gameplay is a direct template from Mushi King, so you'll have three different attacks of varying power attached to your character every time you go to battle. They are literally labeled with a picture of a rock, paper, and scissors, with one of the three having a star boarder around it, indicating the dinosaur's special move. As you play, your dinosaurs will level up, and you'll learn stronger moves. In the end though, whoever wins rock/paper/scissors the most is going to go home with the gold.
In arcades, this design is perfect. Certain opponents have AI that you need to learn, but if you screw up, another free card (which holds your moves and beetle information on it) and free try at winning the game is just a few coins away. It is, after all, more of a card collection hobby than a full game in arcades, so the fun comes with gaining more unique cards, and less about beating a few opponents in arena battles. The same ends up being true here, as we had more fun collection dinosaurs than going through the actual story.
Since battles are mainly AI-focused, it's no fun to battle unless you're online. In order to keep the game going , opponents all but straight up tell you want attack they are going to do, starting off by saying things like "You'll never beat my special attack!" and ramping up the difficulty with more coy comments, such as "Think you can get away with that move again?" You know the three possible moves, and the characters in the game tell you - almost all the time - which attack they're going for. They say they're using the special attack, you look up at the top screen and see that his special is "rock," so you do paper. Watch the fight, rinse, and repeat.
There are a few core aspects in the presentation that still make Dinosaur King fun. For starters, the dinosaurs themselves are beautifully modeled, and fight in full 3D after each attack. Honestly we're baffled, as it really is some of the best 3D out there on DS. The excavation elements are also a nice touch, as players can scan for more fossils all around the world, and then will have to chip away at the rock in a mini-game to uncover the skeleton underneath. You only get a certain amount of rubs or taps though, and if you don't uncover the whole thing (blowing away dust as you go to clear off the playfield a bit) you'll end up breaking your pick, and end up with a dinosaur that isn't as powerful as it could have been. That means that while games like Pokemon inevitably have amazing players reaching level 100 with most of the same moves attached in the end, Dinosaur King actually varies it up a bit more. Is that guy fighting with a level 35 T-Rex that stacks up against your same dino, same level character? It may come down to who had the better start with the fossil itself. Nice.
In addition there's also a large amount of actual dinosaur information in the game as well, with a whole encyclopedia for each specimen you find, including a huge evolution flow chart and family tree, the location of that dinosaur in the world, a model viewer that puts the dinosaur next to your player to show off scale, and a short bio on the creature. The game has its issues as a generic, fetch-quest RPG, but it has charm too.
©2008-10-16, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
The Mushi King design has been around in Japan for years, so it's no wonder that a new series based on collecting and battling dinosaurs - in nearly an identical fashion to the beetle fighting games that steal quarter after quarter in Japanese arcades - would find inspiration in the design. Really, it's that, or Pokemon as far as core monster-battle designs go, and with the Dinosaur King brand already hitting arcades as a similar "collect the cards, battle friends" quarter jerker, this direction makes sense for a DS role-playing game. Dinosaur King tells the tale of the game's main protagonists from the show, Max and Rex, as they chase down the illustrious Dr. Z who is on a quest to harness the power of dinosaurs for his own evil doings. Standard affair as far as story telling goes, and it doesn't get much better as the experience goes in. Instead, it's going to be all about collecting dinosaurs, fighting against AI opponents in the main story mode, and then taking your characters online.
The story itself doesn't do much to push you, and in fact, the mechanic itself isn't exactly well-implemented in adding any skill to the matches. Dino King's gameplay is a direct template from Mushi King, so you'll have three different attacks of varying power attached to your character every time you go to battle. They are literally labeled with a picture of a rock, paper, and scissors, with one of the three having a star boarder around it, indicating the dinosaur's special move. As you play, your dinosaurs will level up, and you'll learn stronger moves. In the end though, whoever wins rock/paper/scissors the most is going to go home with the gold.
In arcades, this design is perfect. Certain opponents have AI that you need to learn, but if you screw up, another free card (which holds your moves and beetle information on it) and free try at winning the game is just a few coins away. It is, after all, more of a card collection hobby than a full game in arcades, so the fun comes with gaining more unique cards, and less about beating a few opponents in arena battles. The same ends up being true here, as we had more fun collection dinosaurs than going through the actual story.
Since battles are mainly AI-focused, it's no fun to battle unless you're online. In order to keep the game going , opponents all but straight up tell you want attack they are going to do, starting off by saying things like "You'll never beat my special attack!" and ramping up the difficulty with more coy comments, such as "Think you can get away with that move again?" You know the three possible moves, and the characters in the game tell you - almost all the time - which attack they're going for. They say they're using the special attack, you look up at the top screen and see that his special is "rock," so you do paper. Watch the fight, rinse, and repeat.
There are a few core aspects in the presentation that still make Dinosaur King fun. For starters, the dinosaurs themselves are beautifully modeled, and fight in full 3D after each attack. Honestly we're baffled, as it really is some of the best 3D out there on DS. The excavation elements are also a nice touch, as players can scan for more fossils all around the world, and then will have to chip away at the rock in a mini-game to uncover the skeleton underneath. You only get a certain amount of rubs or taps though, and if you don't uncover the whole thing (blowing away dust as you go to clear off the playfield a bit) you'll end up breaking your pick, and end up with a dinosaur that isn't as powerful as it could have been. That means that while games like Pokemon inevitably have amazing players reaching level 100 with most of the same moves attached in the end, Dinosaur King actually varies it up a bit more. Is that guy fighting with a level 35 T-Rex that stacks up against your same dino, same level character? It may come down to who had the better start with the fossil itself. Nice.
In addition there's also a large amount of actual dinosaur information in the game as well, with a whole encyclopedia for each specimen you find, including a huge evolution flow chart and family tree, the location of that dinosaur in the world, a model viewer that puts the dinosaur next to your player to show off scale, and a short bio on the creature. The game has its issues as a generic, fetch-quest RPG, but it has charm too.
©2008-10-16, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved