mozidesign.com Unorganized Thoughts of a Game Designer

Dinosaurs…

Video games need more dinosaurs. Yes, I said dinosaurs. You may ask why dinosaurs and my answer to you is that they can make any game instantly awesome.  Some of you out there may be too young to know what this is but look at the image and let it sink in.

What is your initial response? If you said holy shit, that’s awesome then you are correct, it is awesome. That image is from a show back in the 80’s called Dino Riders. Seriously, whoever came up with the idea to put guns on dinosaurs was a freaking genius!

Dinosaurs are not new to video games; in fact there are a slew of Jurassic Park games out there (a few of them sucked, I am pointing my finger mainly at the Sega Genesis game) There is also Turok, and for the life of me I can’t remember the name of it but it was on the PS2, some sort of action adventure game involving dinosaurs. If some knows the name of that game please send me a message on twitter with the name of that game!

Though over the years dinosaurs have been forgotten, video games have gone down different paths, recently of ‘realistic’ war shooters such as Call of Duty, or Battlefield, etc. Not that there is anything wrong with those games, they sell well and there is a huge demand for them, but games these days are not as over the top as they used to be.

That was until I picked up Bulletstorm.  A fantastic game, which is pretty much a no holds bar, in your face, over the top rollercoaster ride of insanity and mayhem! I’ll do full review of Bulletstorm another day but the reason I bring it up is that Bulletstrom has dinosaurs! Whoever at PCF or Epic decided that game needed dinosaurs; you deserve a medal of awesomeness!

Bulletstorm features two dinosaur like creatures, the first of which is Waggleton P Tallylicker, a remote controlled robotic dinosaur!

This thing just tears up the enemy like there is no tomorrow! (Minor spoiler for those that have not yet played Bulletstorm)

Later on in Bulletstorm, you come across Hecaton, who is one mean bitch! Games need more of this, large scale dinosaur boss battles!

Along with other cool stuff in Bulletstorm, dinosaurs just made it even better! Here is another example of how an awesome game became even more awesome with an addition of a dinosaur.

Supreme Commander 2, a fantastic RTS game which features your standard units of land, air, and sea. Along with standard units the game features units known as ‘experimentals’. These things are meant to inflict pain and destruction upon your enemies on the battlefield.  One of these experimental units is the Cybranasaurs Rex, part dinosaur and part war machine!

Not only does this fire missiles, it breaths fire! Another medal of awesomeness needs to be awarded to folks at Gas Powered Games!

Still not convinced that dinosaurs can make videos games awesome? Then check out Dino D-Day! It’s freaking World War 2 with dinosaurs! How awesome is that?!  A triceratops with mounted cannon on its back, SOLD!

So I’ll say it again, video games need more dinosaurs! They add the awesome sauce to video games!