Like many games in my NES collection, Dino Riki was a hand-me-down. Even at an early age I knew no one wanted this game, but being I didn't have a ton of games at my disposal just yet the Adventures of Dino Riki was a staple in the NES's gaming rotation. Those were very dark times, very dark. But, I digress. As you can probably gather from the game's title, you play as a cave man named Dino Riki. You throw rocks, torches, axes, and boomerangs at things that are supposed to pass as dinosaurs while you hunt for power ups that cause our small cave man to turn into a hulking man beast. Sounds OK right?

  Unfortunately, not so much. The Adventures of Dino Riki is full of annoyances that will make even a season gamer go into a fit of "nerd rage", as the game's mechanics are just...off. One of the biggest flaws to this game is the fact the player has little control over Dino Riki's movements. Like many classic flying games, the game continues to force a player to move forward as the game continuously scrolls upwards. Dino Riki uses these same technique, but fails to pull it off successfully as the game just feels clumsy. With the lack of control of the character's movements, the player is constantly bombarded with attacks from these so called dinosaurs as they shoot pellets at you. At times, these attacks are easy enough to avoid, but the game often throws you a curve ball as countless enemies appear from nowhere. The player's life bar only allows three hits, so good luck avoiding a screen full of those little white pellets of doom. The game will often speed up at certain intersection within a level, these boost of speed also increase those pesky dinosaur's attacks. Advancing to another level doesn't quite bring the enjoyment one would expect either. Each level is essentially just a carbon copy of the original, with minor differences like bosses and backgrounds. The Adventures of Dino Riki quickly becomes repetitive. The only real piece of amusement I was able to get from this game, is the light hearted music, but we don't play games just for the music now do we?

  Despite the Adventures of Dino Riki's difficulty, with a bit of patients the game is beatable. But for a game to be a success, all of its elements must come together in a complete gaming package. No matter how many times I've played this game, it continues to just fall short. Even replaying the Adventures of Dino Riki for review purposes was like pulling teeth. I can say with absolute certainty, this is a game best left in the stone ages.

Written by RB

Over and Out

_______________________________________________________