If you would have told me ten years ago that paying to
download games with no physical copy of them would become a common thing I…
would have believed you. At the time, I was playing Flash games online,
downloading free games from sites and even trying to make my own. However, if
you would have told me that phones would be recognized as a gaming platform, to
the point where one is sitting on GameFAQs’s quick search bar, that’s where I
would have drawn the line. How would I have known they’d eventually be
accessible enough to allow people to easily play games on them? So I thought
today I’d talk to you about some of the games I’ve played on my phone that
revolve around dinosaurs. Why dinosaurs? Why not? Let’s start with Chop Chop
Caveman available for the Android, but I’ll be playing it on the iPhone (also
compatible with iPad and Ipod Touch, but not all generation and blah blah blah.
Just check the iTunes store for each iPhone game I talk about to see if you can
play it).
I’ll be honest here and just start by saying I think Gamerizon
ripped off of the Wario Land games for Chop Chop Caveman (though, it’s more
linear). The similarities start off at the premise: you play as a gluttonous
and greedy man who scours the land looking to satisfy his selfish desires. Once
we get to the game play, the similarities continue, as the controls start out
with your basic run and jump stuff, but the main attack is to charge forward
and if you’re in the air, you can do a ground pound. There are even points
where you’ll need to pick up objects and throw them in order to advance.
However, the physics and in game style are different. Wario
Land is more about exploration, whereas Chop Chop Caveman has more to do with
just platforming. This also affects the physics of the game and makes it feel
more loose and free: the distances you jump and run are sometimes astounding.
This might a bit too loose though, because as much fun it is to go through a
stage as fast as possible, it sometimes gets weird when trying to be precise or
a piece of meat you’ll need to gain health can go flying. Still works within
its own world, but a small bit of tightening up could have improved this.
Our next mobile dino game is by a company named Trinity
Interactive. I’ve downloaded quite a few titles from this company, mostly
because they have a selection of free games that are simple beat-em-ups or
platformers. Today’s game is no exception: Dino Cap 2. You play in a world that
is overrun by dinosaurs (and eventually cyborg dinosaurs) where you have a
selection of missions. They’re mostly standards, such as run a certain
distance, survive a certain amount of time or kill a certain number of
dinosaurs, but they are pretty well executed and shouldn’t cause trouble if
you’re well stocked. You’ll also get money in this game so that you can upgrade
your weapons or buy ammo.
However, upgrading your weapons seems to have very little impact
on the game, but you’ll do it anyways as this game has little to offer
otherwise. Again, the missions are all pretty similar and it can get a tiresome
(especially since there’s an achievement for doing 500 missions). This game is
also just set on a 2D plane, so the game play can become really mindless very
quickly as dinos can only come from one of 2 directions. Not to say this game
is easy, but rather there’s not enough variety in the core game mechanic.
Chop-Chop Caveman and Dino Cap 2 are two games
that each have a flaw that prevent them from being great games. Again, Dino Cap
2’s problem is a sever lack of variety that boarders on monotony. Chop-Chop
Caveman’s problem is that it is simply too short; the levels are big, but don’t
feel like they offer enough, so it seems like it’s over rather quickly
(especially considering your speed). However, since this is a downloadable
game, it’s likely that there will be more levels added later on to fix this
(they have before). Dino Cap 2’s problem is so ingrained in its game play that
it would be hard to fix: they’ve added a character in the past, but it still
leaves you doing the same thing. While Chop-Chop Caveman is a really good game whose
only problem is “I want more from it”, Dino Cap 2 is fun but easy to get tired
of. I give Chop-Chop Caveman 8 levels and Dino Cap 2 6.5 levels out of 10.
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