Dinotopia: The Sunstone
Odyssey is that new breed of console game that has been appearing
on store shelves lately to counteract the cookie-cutter $50 titles (many
of which are not worth the cost of admission) – the $20 budget title.

These
budget titles, for the most part, don’t have all of the bells
and whistles that console gamers have come to expect for their half
a grand per title. While many publications find it necessary to judge
these budget titles according to the standards set by AAA titles such
as Grand Theft Auto: Vice City it must be kept in mind that
not all games are created equal and sometimes the deciding factor
should just be whether or not the game is fun.

For those of you who are
wondering why we have appended a date of 2003 after the Dinotopia
title, it is because there was an earlier, now very rare Dinotopia
adventure game released in 1995. You can also read more about this
game in JA’s Top
10 lists.

The
newest incarnation – as is common to today’s marketplace
– is an action/adventure game, but the source material for the
game has remained the same, James Gurney’s Dinotopia series
of books. Dinotopia is an uncharted island where a society of dinosaurs
and humans have learned to co-exist. Outside the city of Dinotopia’s
main walls, however, a group of humans known as the Outsiders plot
the violent overthrow of the dinosaur run government.

Ten years before the game
begins, a shipwreck abandons a father and his twin sons, Drake and
Jacob, on the shores of Dinotopia were they are befriended by a downtrodden,
blind dinosaur. A bond is formed that encourages both boys to forge
respect for Dinotopia’s cold-blooded residents. But now, as
our story opens, the father has been attacked and killed by a renegade
Tyrannosaurus Rex and the grown boys’ loyalty is split with
Jacob leading the Outsiders against Dinotopia and Drake attempting
to solve the problems within Dinotopia society that led to his father’s
murder. It’s a story as old as the bible, pitting brother against
brother.

Now
let’s be upfront and admit that Dinotopia has its share
of problems. The graphics at times are less than stellar and on a
few occasions my character became stuck requiring a reload. The A.I.
– well there mostly isn’t any, you can sometimes beat
on one enemy while two others patiently watch the mayhem, waiting
their turn to be conked in the head. Almost every npc in the game
repeats the same stock phrases ad nauseam. Even worse though is that
many hoary standards of adventure gaming are present – seemingly
endless mazes and a stream of fetch and return tasks.

But there are also moments
when the graphics border on brilliance – catching a glimpse
of a lowering brontosaurus head out a window and a beautiful (but
too difficult) flying sequence on the back of a pterodactyl.

There
is also a nice balance of adventuring and fighting in the game. The
battle sequences are more attuned to someone like myself who doesn’t
want to learn multiple attack and defend commands. Drake’s weapon
is limited to a staff that can be equipped with different mallet heads
each providing a different power and different colored sunstones that
will increase the damage levels of the individual mallet heads. Drake
also has at his disposal a seemingly unlimited supply of Hobi Peppers
and swamp rocks to throw at enemies but they become less useful as
the game progresses and grows in difficulty.

For those who might think
this world and it’s inhabitants too simplistic well, yes it
is, but it’s also a simplicity that is missing from too many
of today’s complicated games that are a jack of all genres and
master of none.

The characters are etched
in black and white, the plot is unfolded before you in a linear pattern
and the puzzles are the standard ‘bring me some apples to bake
a pie and I will reward you.’ While I would be hesitant to recommend
Dinotopia to an experienced gamer, it is exactly the type
of game that would serve as a nice stepping-stone to a newcomer. So
it appears that the deciding factor here is yes, Dinotopia is fun
in an old-fashioned sort of way. It’s nice to be able to occasionally
lose yourself in a game world without worrying about multiple endings,
complicated controls or which weapon to choose among dozens to defeat
an enemy. It’s a $20 investment well spent.

Final Grade: C+