User Reviews

I have never read the comics or watched the show, but I have seen this beat em up game featured on several lists and it was on my emulator so I gave it a shot and it was a lot of fun! I liked the visuals, the music and the game play. Though it is a beat em up and those have the nasty habit of being nearly impossible to play through without getting hit a lot, especially arcade ones as they were made to munch on quarters; however that being said this one is a bit more fair than most aside from a certain boomerang throwing boss...

The story, not sure, but three guys and a girl are out to beat up a lot of bad dudes who are poaching dinosaurs. Seems a mad doctor (doctors are always a bit mad in video games) is trying to create bizarre human/mutants. He seems to be succeeding, even creating Blanco from Street Fighter fame. Well that won't make our heroes quit on their quest to stop him, even using their Cadillac to take them out!

The game play is a beat em up, but it has a few nice touches as you can get firearms and blast enemies, there are dinosaurs present making the visuals more unique than most beat em up games and a nice number of health items and one ups to keep you going. The cheapest boss though is this boomerang guy who is tough and then you have to fight two of them later. Suffice to say if I were spending quarters, that second encounter with two of them would have been the end!

So a fun game, I only wish I could have played this with another person; unfortunately, I do not have any friends aside from my cats and they cannot play. I have been playing a lot of beat em up arcade games of old and there is such a wide variety that I feel cheated as the arcades I generally frequented only had the basics like Double Dragon or maybe Final Fight. Two good games, but it would have been cool to play this one.

This is another one of my favorite video games of all time. It's also one of my favorite beat em up and license games. As usual the company Capcom comes though, when it comes to most licensed properties, they always seem to know how to do it right and this fortunately is one of them.

This game was based on an animated show in the 90's which I feel is an under the radar gem. However, it's also based on the graphic comic book miniseries "Xenozoic Tales" in which the animated show is derived from so that's cool on two counts, a game based on both an animated show and comic book, let alone both are favorites of mine. You could even say this video game sort of predates the "Turrok Dinosaur Hunter" video game franchise; if that franchise ever had a beat em up entry, this game would be it.

The gameplay is great, it's the usual beat em up mechanics you would see. You have four characters to pick from each with strengths and weaknesses and each have a different emergency power. Personally, I like to pick the two main leads Jack Tenrec and Hannah Dundee as both are a bit more balanced. Their pretty much are like who Axel and Blaze are in "Streets of Rage", with Jack he's sort of one the medium side as he has medium speed and strength, and his power is flying multiple fists which is useful in draining out the enemies energy quicker. Hannah is more based on speed and swiftness; her power is the cyclone kick which can take out multiple attackers all around you.

There are a good variety of enemies and bosses to fight, from dino poachers, corrupt government soilders, but also suppringly mutants and dinosaurs. Yes, you actually get to beat up dinosaurs from the raptors to the big ones like the stegosaurs and T-Rex, I know it's absurd but hey it's a beat em up game you just roll with it, this also give the game a comical sensablity as like with most video games isn't one to be taken too seriously.

The pacing is tight and right as you're not in one area for too long, and each area you venture to is different, this really helps keep the game fresh and going. Even like the music which is very good there are a few memorable tracks.

The game stands out in its unique setting, I really love the post-apocalyptic world in the game it's true to the one from the show and graphic comic books. It's a truly fascinating and also really strange world as it's one where dinos and humans coexist, there is some technology mainly from what they were able to gather and the records of the past that survived; though a few refinements which our own never got that far like mutants being created, and we see only few remnants of our present world which have become ancient lost civilizations.

The other thing is the violent nature of the game which I'm surprised of as you do see some blood in it. As I said before the game is based on an animated show but it mainly more based on the graphic comic book miniseries which was more for adults as it was a little more grittier and violent, so it makes sense the violence would be there, which makes me all the more glad.

From the fact this game allows you to use guns and when you gun some people down you do see some blood spurts. Or with the use of explosives there is the typical incendiary grenade that produces the burning body effect, but with a bazooka and dynamite when close enough you actually see them blown to smitherns with just little pieces of body flying everywhere and even eyeballs, I kid you not.

There is even one level where your maneuvering your Cadillac which is cool and running over poachers that are in your way, kind of like with the film "Death Race 2000" (another movie that have a video game); hey their poachers they had it coming. And just plenty more craziness as you just get further and further in the game, which makes it better and better.

If you're a beat em up fan or licensed video game fan, this is a dino safari worth driving into.

Rating: 4 stars

I've never read the comic-book on which this game is based, nor have I seen the animated series. But the game was fun enough for me to consider checking out the comic-book whenever I get the chance.

As a side-scrolling beat-em-up it's nothing spectacular. The dinosaurs are not really in it as much as typical human villains. And the Caddy hardly makes and appearance at all. It had the chance of being a strange kind of Mad Max kind of game but it never really came together. Still, the graphics and gameplay are above average and the satisfaction of beating up lunkheads is still there.

As arcade games go it's worth the money if you've not really much to do or somewhere else to be. You'll finish it easy as there are not really many levels. And, obviously, the 2-player mode is more fun.