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IGN Review of Fossil League: Dino Tournament Championship
Every little boy loves dinosaurs at some point in his life. Scientists have theorized that it is actually embedded in a male's DNA to adore the giant prehistoric lizards from the age of about six to about 12, when they move on to adoring another vicious, scaled predator: females. Developer MTO has combined dinosaurs with another thing little boys love: games that resemble Pokemon! They ripped off the monster battling game for their new title, Fossil League: Dino-Tournament Championship. The game is nowhere near as good as everyone's favorite pocket monster game, but it has just enough charm and features to keep it from becoming extinct.
Fossil League takes place in what can only be assumed is the future. Or maybe it's an alternate dimension, it's never clear. Regardless, the world has discovered how to travel through time, and they do what any normal society would do with such amazing technology: go back in time and capture dinosaurs for giant prehistoric cock fights! Of course not everyone can go back in time and mess with the past. To be in the Fossil League the person has to obtain a license and meet all the qualifications, namely reaching the age of 12. That's right, years before someone is able to vote, drink, have sex -hell, finish puberty- they can travel to the Cretaceous period and capture dinosaurs as pets. The future (or alternate dimension) is cool! And since it's not enough that players are capturing mega lizards as minors, there's also a plot involving a mysterious terrorist group bent on destroying the human race and the only thing in their way is the main character. Like a game about fighting dinosaurs needed a plot too.
What players will quickly realize as they progress through Fossil League is that this game is actually somewhat educational. Ignoring the whole premise, and the fact that many dinosaurs act like domesticated dogs, Fossil League has over 100 different dinosaurs, complete with hard-to-pronounce names. Players can dig up fossils using the touch screen, and view a Dinopedia to learn more about the creatures on their team. Sure, dinosaurs haven't been cool since Jurassic Park, but every nerdy little boy likes them at some point, and the developers have worked hard to bring them to life and accurately depict their ability to breathe fire or shoot water bombs. With the large amount of creatures to choose from, players are sure to find their favorite dinosaurs or discover some new favorites.
Battling the creatures is a pretty simple procedure, and it's obvious that the game is geared towards those in the same age bracket as the main character. The dinosaurs start off with a couple moves and gradually learn more as they level up. They can only have four at a time though. To catch a dinosaur players have to weaken it by battling, and then feed it the appropriate type of food so that it becomes friendly. If this seems somewhat derivative of every other monster battling game, it's because it is. Fossil League is in no way original. That's not to say it's bad, but the game certainly doesn't bring anything new to the genre, besides the fact that it uses actual dinosaurs in place of made up creatures.
And they're some sweet looking dinos too. All of the prehistoric critters are pretty accurately rendered in 3D. They move fluidly and have some rather nice animations for their attacks. The sense of scale, while not entirely accurate, is definitely there, so when players are pitting a plateosaurus against a raptor, the difference in size is noticeable.
In contrast, everything not related to the dinosaurs themselves looks like crap. The battlefield during the fights is bland and boring. What's even weirder are the character sprites. Pixelated, poorly animated, chibi characters walk around the screen while the player explores levels. A lot of the characters don't resemble their hand-drawn cut scene counterparts very well at all. Going from a 3D dinosaur battle to the flat, wonky main character walking around an overly bright and not very detailed world is a little jarring.
What goes for the graphics goes for the sound as well. The dinosaurs screech, stomp, swipe, and swoop with a plethora of prehistoric sound effects. Unfortunately, that's overshadowed by annoyances like the distinct lack of song variety. The same couple repetitive tunes are all the player has to listen to, making it a good idea to just shut the sound off, since there isn't any voicework or other reasons to keep it on.
©2007, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Fossil League takes place in what can only be assumed is the future. Or maybe it's an alternate dimension, it's never clear. Regardless, the world has discovered how to travel through time, and they do what any normal society would do with such amazing technology: go back in time and capture dinosaurs for giant prehistoric cock fights! Of course not everyone can go back in time and mess with the past. To be in the Fossil League the person has to obtain a license and meet all the qualifications, namely reaching the age of 12. That's right, years before someone is able to vote, drink, have sex -hell, finish puberty- they can travel to the Cretaceous period and capture dinosaurs as pets. The future (or alternate dimension) is cool! And since it's not enough that players are capturing mega lizards as minors, there's also a plot involving a mysterious terrorist group bent on destroying the human race and the only thing in their way is the main character. Like a game about fighting dinosaurs needed a plot too.
What players will quickly realize as they progress through Fossil League is that this game is actually somewhat educational. Ignoring the whole premise, and the fact that many dinosaurs act like domesticated dogs, Fossil League has over 100 different dinosaurs, complete with hard-to-pronounce names. Players can dig up fossils using the touch screen, and view a Dinopedia to learn more about the creatures on their team. Sure, dinosaurs haven't been cool since Jurassic Park, but every nerdy little boy likes them at some point, and the developers have worked hard to bring them to life and accurately depict their ability to breathe fire or shoot water bombs. With the large amount of creatures to choose from, players are sure to find their favorite dinosaurs or discover some new favorites.
Battling the creatures is a pretty simple procedure, and it's obvious that the game is geared towards those in the same age bracket as the main character. The dinosaurs start off with a couple moves and gradually learn more as they level up. They can only have four at a time though. To catch a dinosaur players have to weaken it by battling, and then feed it the appropriate type of food so that it becomes friendly. If this seems somewhat derivative of every other monster battling game, it's because it is. Fossil League is in no way original. That's not to say it's bad, but the game certainly doesn't bring anything new to the genre, besides the fact that it uses actual dinosaurs in place of made up creatures.
And they're some sweet looking dinos too. All of the prehistoric critters are pretty accurately rendered in 3D. They move fluidly and have some rather nice animations for their attacks. The sense of scale, while not entirely accurate, is definitely there, so when players are pitting a plateosaurus against a raptor, the difference in size is noticeable.
In contrast, everything not related to the dinosaurs themselves looks like crap. The battlefield during the fights is bland and boring. What's even weirder are the character sprites. Pixelated, poorly animated, chibi characters walk around the screen while the player explores levels. A lot of the characters don't resemble their hand-drawn cut scene counterparts very well at all. Going from a 3D dinosaur battle to the flat, wonky main character walking around an overly bright and not very detailed world is a little jarring.
What goes for the graphics goes for the sound as well. The dinosaurs screech, stomp, swipe, and swoop with a plethora of prehistoric sound effects. Unfortunately, that's overshadowed by annoyances like the distinct lack of song variety. The same couple repetitive tunes are all the player has to listen to, making it a good idea to just shut the sound off, since there isn't any voicework or other reasons to keep it on.
©2007, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved