DinoCity (SNES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
399A playthrough of Irem's 1992 license-based hop-and-bop platformer for the Super NES, DinoCity.
DinoCity, like Rocky Rodent (another Irem SNES platformer), is one of those games with which, despite its high quality, very few people seem to be familiar. It's a fairly typical platforming title - you jump on enemies' heads, collect items, and run toward the right side of the screen almost the entire time - but it's extremely well put together. And for those that might be interested, it was based on a 1992 movie DinoWars, though the game was renamed to DinoCity when it was released outside of Japan.
The presentation on this one is really nicely done - the game takes on a motif somewhat similar to Joe & Mac and Congo's Caper with its tropical/prehistoric theme, and it features some really nicely done backgrounds and its loaded with color. There's some flashy use of Mode 7 at a few points for some neat effects with enemies and rotating backgrounds, as well. For as well produced as it all is, though, I can't help but feel that the graphics are a tad bit generic - the main character's sprite is about as boring as it could possibly be, and the enemies are cloned a bit too often throughout. It doesn't hamper the playability at all, but it seems a bit at odds with everything else. The same complaint could be leveled at the story, until you see just how awkward and hilarious the story really is. Seriously, watch that intro - that super slow text crawl might lead you to question where the game is actually heading with a few of its lines...
The gameplay itself reminds me a lot of Blue's Journey on the NeoGeo, but you control both your character and the dinosaur. To reach higher jumps or to make yourself a smaller target, you can jump off the dinosaur at any time - just be careful, since if you kill your dinosaur, you'll instantly die with him. There are a number of moments that require switching back-and-forth, and I really enjoyed the variety that the mechanic brought to the action.
The platforming is quite standard, but the controls are tight, and in classic Irem fashion, it's unbelievably difficult. Seriously, Dino City makes Super Mario World look like absolute child's play. It will kill you over. And over. And over. It's merciless. And that's exactly why I like it so much. All too often the cutesy platformers are all style with no teeth, and that's certainly not the case here. It feels far more in-line with the arcade platformers than the console ones at the time.
DinoCity may look like just another Mario clone, but there's a lot to it beneath the hood. I can't recommend it highly enough to anyone that wants a legitimately challenging platformer that manages to stay fair, no matter how infuriating it might get at times.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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