Dino City

About This Game

Gameplay

DinoCity is a traditional platformer-style action game where the player must move their character from left to right across the screen while avoiding obstacles, jumping on platforms, and defeating enemies. Players are given the choice of controlling Rex with Timmy or Tops with Jamie at the beginning of the game as well as at the start of each new level. While Tops can throw darts to harm enemies from a distance, Rex is confined to close combat by punching them or swinging his tail. Each dinosaur character can defeat enemies by jumping on them, and at any point the player may relegate control to their human riders, who can freeze enemies in place by using a special energy device. While controlling the children, the dinosaurs become immobile and may be used as platforms to reach otherwise inaccessible items. The game supports up to two players who are given alternating turns each time the other loses a life. In order to pass each of the game's six levels (and one secret level), players must navigate through a number of screens joined by doors. Each screen resembles a different environment, and can include caves, jungles, grasslands, ice caverns, volcanoes, or cities.

History

DinoCity was developed and published by Irem Corporation in 1992, and was led by project directors K. Okada and Y. Takashima. The game was based on the American film Adventures in Dinosaur City which has been released worldwide earlier that year, with the Japanese title Dinowars Kyōryū Ōkoku e no Daibōken being the same name as the Japanese version of the movie. While many of the game's characters including the heroes Rex, Tops, Timmy, Jamie and villains Mr. Big and The Rockeys were taken directly from the film, they were largely re-designed into a more anime-based style by staff artists using the pseudonyms "Munou no Hito" and "SDR 200".