3.8 /10 1 Votes
3/10 IGN Genre Adventure game | 4.6/10 GameSpot Initial release date 19 May 2000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Release date(s) Game Boy ColorNA: May 19, 2000EU: October 6, 2000PlayStationNA: August 29, 2000EU: October 6, 2000DreamcastNA: November 24, 2000EU: November 24, 2000PlayStation 2EU: December 8, 2000JP: February 15, 2001Microsoft WindowsEU: December 15, 2000 Developers Ubisoft, Disney Interactive Studios, Backbone Entertainment, Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft Paris Publishers Ubisoft, Disney Interactive Studios Similar Chicken Run, Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers, Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX, 102 Dalmatians: Puppies t, Primal Carnage | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Disney's Dinosaur is a 2000 video game released as a tie-in to the Disney film of the same name.
Contents
Story
The game loosely follows the story of the film, starting with Aladar, Zini, Suri, and Plio on the Lemur Island. The island is destroyed in a meteor shower, forcing Aladar and his friends to flee to the mainland, where they encounter a herd of dinosaurs led by the ruthless Kron.
Gameplay
All versions of the game are played from a third-person top-down perspective. Most of the game consists of puzzles. The player's goal on each level is to complete tasks, such as defeating all carnivorous dinosaurs in an area, or locating and leading lost dinosaurs back to a herd. Enemies include Velociraptor, Oviraptor, Albertosaurus, Dryptosaurus, Spinosaurus and Carnotaurus.
The PlayStation version of the game features 11 levels, while the Dreamcast version features 12 levels. Checkpoints are featured in most levels. The PC and console versions allow the player to separately or simultaneously control three characters: Aladar, Zini, and a Pteranodon named Flia that was not seen in the film. The console versions feature clips from the film, which play before and after each level.
The Game Boy Color version supports use of the Game Boy Printer and features 27 levels, as well as six playable characters from the film: Aladar, Eema, Url, Zini, Plio and Suri.
Reception
The game was met with very mixed to negative reviews upon release. GameRankings and Metacritic gave it a score of 51.62% for the Game Boy Color version; 51.89% and 44 out of 100 for the PlayStation version; 49.20% and 53 out of 100 for the Dreamcast version; and 45.75% for the PlayStation 2 version.
Adam Cleveland of IGN gave the PlayStation version of the game a 3 out of 10 and said, "The game isn't exciting, the levels are drab, and the graphics are outdated. Dinosaur's objectives can be accomplished quickly, and the levels speed by. Before you know it, it's all over." Anthony Chau of IGN gave the Dreamcast version a 5.8 out of 10 and criticized it for "horrible collision detection, tedious fighting sequences, and an overall gameplay experience that just isn't fun."
Marc Nix of IGN gave the Game Boy Color version a 4 out of 10 and criticized the game for "an unfortunate lack of good puzzles" and gameplay that "quickly becomes droned and boring." Nix also criticized the game for bad collision detection and controls, as well as three of its playable lemur characters: "You end up playing most of the game with a leaping monkey. That may be fun elsewhere, but I want to stomp, to swim, to fight. [...] If the game box says 'Dinosaur', I want Dinosaurs. [...] Even Aladar, the film's star, sees little screen time in this game."