Dinosaur King

Spin-offs from Japanese TV shows have pretty much become the norm, with Pokémon, Digimon and Yu-Gi-Oh all having ridiculously successful TV shows in Japan, then in the United States and Europe. Then the card games appear and then the fateful games turn up, as well. In some cases the games are actually better than the card games and TV shows, and in other cases they aren’t.

SEGA’s latest TV show to videogame is Dinosaur King. The title is loosely plotted around the card game and TV show, and shows the two heroes Max and Rex as assistants at a Dinosaur Research Laboratory, the D-Lab. During this time as helpers a major discovery occurs and humans are now able to reanimate the dinosaur kingdom. A special instrument called the Dinoshot allows the Dinosaurs to be cloned from their fossils and into a card. Like with all kids TV, an evil genius turns up and manages to steal one of the cards and Dinoshots, and with that causes a lot of problems for the unexpected heroes. The leader of this gang, called the Alpha Gang, is lead by Dr. Z, and he’s planning to take over the world.

At this point the title splits into two areas: the first will allow the player to explore the main world and start to develop friendships in various towns. During this time the Alpha Gang make a consistent appearance and require a lot of battles to rid them from each town. Whilst at said towns, the player has to analyse any fossils in the local D-lab, and gather information from the assistants there.

The other half of the game has more of a Pokémonesque feel to it. The player has to explore the various towns and the world around and battle other wandering Dinoshot users to try and level up the party, whilst battling random dinosaurs and getting as much experience as possible.

By doing this, more dinosaur fossils are collected, and these need to be taken back to the D-Lab and placed in an archaeological mini-game, where the player has to try and pick away the fossil from a load of mud using the DS stylus. Running the stylus backwards and forwards doesn’t work -- the player has to be careful and choose their strokes carefully. By blowing into the microphone the dust created is blown off of the screen.

This is arguably the best and worst part of the title; it’s intuitive, sensitive and works really well. Unfortunately, as the basis for a large part of the game it’s also very dull, long and unenjoyable in large amounts. The same could be said about the rather questionable battle system. When battling an enemy or a dinosaur the battle options consist of choosing between Rock, Paper or Scissors and hoping that the correct option has been chosen. Advice is given throughout the battles, but sometimes the advice can be a little misreading. It’s enjoyable at first, but the utter randomness of the attacks is a huge letdown, whereas with Pokémon and other similar RPGs, if the player falters it’s their own fault for not being strategic.

Graphically, Dinosaur King is pretty much a birds-eye-view of the entire world, and the characters are all sprites that are well animated and look bright and distinct. They are controlled by the D-pad and a little of the stylus here or there. The cut-scenes and the top screen are often fully animated in an anime style and looks really good -- the characters are all well drawn, although somewhat generic. Everything just makes sense in the art design.

Final Verdict - 5/10
With a tired and clichéd premise, Dinosaur King makes a good use of what could be done. Lots of DS features are used, and the graphics are strong, but it’s just too similar to Pokémon but with too few of the features to capture older gamers attention. Younger gamers will enjoy this title a lot, especially those who follow the series.