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GoNintendo 'End of Day' thought - Fossil Fighters - A GoNintendo reader review

by cortjezter
17 September 2011
GN Version 4.0

ENDOFDAYTHOUGHTS 01

Time for me to call it a night, my friends. This week has been a nightmare as far as coverage goes. It's just non-stop all week long, and I'm spent! Couldn't be happier to have the weekend here. I hope you all have something fun planned! See you in a few, short hours.

How charming... seriously. How many of you would dare write a review for a game like this, and put yourself out on a bit of a limb? Freezair did, and you have to respect that. Do you have to respect Fossil Fighters? Read on and see.

We're starting to run a little dry on new reviews... so once you're done reading this one, go write one of your own, d****t! —cortjezter

Hello. My name is Freezair. I am 23 years old, and I FREAKING LOVE DINOSAURS.

I'm throwing this out there right from the start, because it honestly colors a lot of my experience with this game. There have been a decent number of dinosaur games released in recent years, and I've even played a few of the more shame-inducing ones. But the instant I heard that Nintendo themselves were publishing a first-party game about dinosaurs? I knew it was a day-one purchase for me. It wasn't a question of whether or not I'd enjoy it; it was a question of whether it was going to be awesome, or REALLY awesome.

So you have to understand. These are the words of a die-hard dinosaur fanatic speaking. I can't promise you'll agree with everything I say. Though it is my vague hope that this review will reach some other dino-fan out there, and convince them this game is worth a look.

So, this game! You're a kid, and you're going to an island shaped like a T-Rex head so you can learn to be the best dinosaur fighter ever! Only they're not really dinosaurs, they're "Viviosaurs." See, in order to get dinosaurs, you have to dig up fossils. And there's a lot of fossils on this island, in many cases more than have ever been discovered in real life, but we don't care because it's a video game and we just want DINOSAURS. But they're not dinosaurs--right--because you put the fossils in a machine that revives them, and the machine is a little weird and gives them magical powers! Hence why the game calls them a different name. Also, you can keep them in little medals, and then you summon them out to fight other people! Yeah, it's kind of like Pokemon.

Except not really, because the game mechanics are totally different! There's no random encounters, you choose to fight people. And instead of catching a bunch of different Pokemon, you only have one of each viviosaur, and you work on leveling that one up so they're more like units in a strategy game or something. And speaking of strategy! All the battles are three-on-three. And you've got one main attacker and two supporters, and the supporters give you stat boosts! And some viviosaurs are better suited for supporting and some are better suited for attacking, but they're all awesome because they're all DINOSAURS. And some of them have special abilities like getting more critical hits, or automatically doing damage back when they're attacked, or giving you more FP! (Oh yeah. You make all your attacks from this pool of points called Fossil Points, or FP. See, it's a dinosaur joke.) And you can gain experience by fighting, or by digging up fossils. But you only gain stats by leveling up. If you want new moves, you need new fossil parts! So buy new equipment to help you find more fossils! More of them! DINOSAURS!

It's really great that you can choose when to battle, because it means fights stay fresh! And it's also great that you only have one of each viviosaur and they're all the same, because it means that if you find one you like, you can stick with it and not have to do any weird breeding stuff to get a "perfect" one or something because it's as perfect as it's going to get already. But they're all perfect because they're all DINOSAURS. But it can get a bit annoying having to spend a bunch of time just digging in the same spots for more fossils. Especially early on when your inventory is super-small, so you have to go back and forth a bunch to find stuff. And it can be a bit tedious cleaning them all by hand, though eventually you get a robot buddy who you can pawn all your fossils off on. Dinosaurs and robots, together in harmony!

Graphically, admittedly, the game doesn't look super-great, with big fat polygonal characters with really limited animation. The backgrounds are kinda meh too. Oooh, but the dinosaur models look good! They are DINOSAURS after all! And they're really pretty and colorful and some of them are really creative! And there's puns, like Kronosaurus has Roman numerals on it because it's like a clock! "Kronos" has to do with time, get it? The music is pretty nice though! Some of it's really forgettable but there's some catchy stuff. Like Greenhorn Plains; that's nice. And Rivet Ravine is nice too! And there's other nice songs!

Is there a plot? There is! At first it really, really, REALLY looks like Pokemon, because you're trying to be a master dinosaur fighter, and you keep getting heckled by a trio of bad-guys made of one smart girl, one dumb guy, and one animal. There names are Jess--I mean, Vivian, Ja--uh, Snivels--and Meo--actually, Rex! And there's a girl named Rosie who's your sidekick and I guess love interest or something. But then the plot changes, because you actually become a master and defeat the bad guys HALFWAY THROUGH THE GAME! Ooooh! And then what happens? Well, a couple things, actually. But aliens are involved. Yup, aliens. And then things actually get kind of Earthbound-ish! Robots, and aliens, AND DINOSAURS! How is this not awesome? There's a ton of post-game content, too, and sidequests, and stuff. And you can always just fight dinosaurs!

And those such as myself with an affinity for dinosaurs will be no doubt pleased to note the large variety of species represented within the game's viviosaurs; far beyond the usual standbys of T-Rex, triceratops, and pterodactyl. Indeed, the game contains, among others, multiple representatives of the rarely-seen therizinosaur family, obscure ceratopsians like Ceratosaurus, strange offshoots of the long-necked dinosaur group (raise your hand if you actually know what an Amargasaurus is), and even the enchantingly-named "hypsilophidon." Minor paleontological quibbles aside (such as the fact that the game's starting saurus, Altispinax, is now masquerading around the world as "Becklespinax", as well as the presence of other disputed species), it is a veritable buffet of delectable dinosaurids.

...Woah. I don't know what came over me for a second there. I think it was an overload of DINOSAURS.

Anyway, for the average person, I give this game a 7. And I guess it's probably an average person reading this. But if you love DINOSAURS as much as I do, seriously, this game's like a 9 or a 10 or something. It's the best game involving dinosaurs to come out in, like, ever.

...DINOSAURS!

My score: 7