Disney's Dinosaur

"Buy this, and you'll wish you were extinct."

Video games based on movies are often about as fun to play as cleaning the sticky floors of a movie theater. Companies are often rushed to finish a game in order to meet the release of the film, and some are content to simply throw a piece of crap out there to cash in on a movie’s popularity. There are a few exceptions out there, but Disney’s Dinosaur isn’t one of them. I would like to believe that this game falls into the former category of being a rushed product, because the designers, Sandbox Studio working with Disney Interactive, did try to integrate some interesting gameplay elements here, but the end result is a very unappealing experience.

Though I consider myself a Disney fan, the release of Dinosaur barely registered on my radar. All I know about it is that it features some incredible computer animation and lots of dinosaurs. Despite my lack of knowledge of the movie’s story, I know that the game doesn’t follow it; that’s because there really isn’t any story in this game. It’s basically a series of a dozen unrelated missions to be completed, involving (for the most part) characters from the movie. There are scenes taken straight from the film sandwiched between each level, but their connection to what’s going on in the game is often tenuous.

What the designers did try that’s pretty bold is giving the player three main characters that must be used effectively as a team. You’re introduced to them on the first level and given chances to control each of them in turn to get the hang of things. Each character has unique abilities, and the whole setup reminds me of Interplay’s excellent The Lost Vikings games, which also used a three-pronged attack. Here’s a rundown of the characters:

Flia
Flia is a Pteronodon, and she’s the only one of the bunch who can fly. She’s best used as a scout, as she can cover the entire screen without running into anything save the invisible walls that line each board. She can also pick up branches and swoop down to attack enemies, but she’s so weak that I wouldn’t advise doing that unless you really have to.

Zini
Zini is a lemur, and his primary function is collecting stuff. He’s the only one who can hold fruit, and he’s the only one who can climb trees. He has a jumping kick attack, and he can also throw rocks that he picks up. Zini can also be used to lure both enemies and allies with a jumping “yoo-hoo.”

Aladar
Aladar the Iguanodon is the heavyweight of the group, and he’s best suited for the majority of the combat duties. His tail attack is strong, and it can be used on enemies, boulders, and small trees. He’s big enough to wade through rivers, and he serves as transportation for Zini, who can’t swim. His biggest drawback is that he’s pretty slow, but I still used him the most.

The three characters have a special team-up attack mode that is helpful for keeping them together, but the actual attack is rather haphazard. Each character also has a special attack that are available after you’ve collected lightning bolts(?!), and there are certain areas where that’s the only way you can attack an enemy.

Overall, I like the approach the designers took here, but the game doesn’t ever really exploit it effectively. I spent the vast majority of my time using Aladar for getting through the missions, using the others only when absolutely necessary, and that wasn’t all that often. The game’s difficulty mandates this tactic: Dinosaur is a pretty tough game, at least initially. The first level is actually the hardest, because the characters are very weak to begin with, and you have to get them stronger through beating enemies and gaining experience. This rudimentary RPG element would have been better accomplished with some easier enemies early on, but Dinosaur throws you into the fire immediately. Some of these enemies can take out Zini or Flia with just one hit, and if you don’t have any life crystals (continues), you’ll be covering the same old ground over and over until you get it right. This is extremely frustrating, and it’s a terrible thing to find in a game that is mainly targeted at a younger audience.

Once you get past the first couple of levels, and your team is a little bulked up, the game gets pretty easy. The only real difficulty is understanding some of the more strange mission objectives. There are missions where you have to lead some extremely slow and stupid friends of the team around the board to accomplish goals, and the game isn’t always clear that that’s what you have to do. The fifth board really left me irritated because of its cryptic mission description, and it took me a while to figure out that you have to use Zini to lead one of the dinosaurs to these cracks where water would spew forth. They didn’t exactly spell that out for me, and I can imagine that quite a few younger gamers will just give up on the game right here.

Most of the time, though, the mission objectives are simplistic and border on makework. The game’s level design is uninspired and very linear, but at least you’ll never get lost for long. It took me about three to four hours to get through the entire game, and the replay value is nonexistent.

What I liked most about Dinosaur was the game’s music, which is appropriately light and bouncy. It’s not outstanding, but I never got sick of it, either. Of course, that may be because I spent so little time completing each level. Anyway, Dinosaur features a good bit of dialogue, mostly from the three main characters. Their banter really got on my nerves. In team-up mode, whenever a character is separated from the group and is off screen, he or she will begin chiming in every few seconds with some innocuous blurb to remind you that they’re not with you. That happens a lot, too, and I just wanted them to shut up. Also, when there are friends that you have to help, they’ll contribute some unhelpful and annoying commentary. The quality of the voice acting varies: I liked Zini, but I hated Flia and Aladar.

Graphically, Dinosaur is a mess. With the exception of the CG scenes straight from the movie, which are understandably very nice, the game looks like it could have been released four years earlier than it was. The textures are all bland and limp, and some of the effects such as lava flows are laughable. The characters look OK, but their animations, particularly Zini’s, are obviously missing some frames.

What finishes Dinosaur off completely is the game’s awful control. Aladar controls the best, but that isn’t saying much. It’s nearly impossible to properly utilize Zini’s jumping attack, rendering them useless, and it’s no walk in the park aiming his rock throws. And then there’s Flia. Man, her attacks are totally random and uncontrollable, so using her in combat is like a box of chocolates (I’ll let you fill in the rest of that overused allusion). Further complicating matters is the abysmal hit detection in the game. Getting stuck on slopes and invisible walls is routine in Dinosaur, so just getting around can be an exercise in frustration.

I actually believe that Disney’s Dinosaur could have been something special with a little more effort on the part of the designers. I’d like to think that this a result of not having enough time, but when you get down to it, it isn’t worth contemplating. Avoid this one.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 10/16/00, Updated 10/16/00