Dinosaurs are one of those things that captivate people as kids and remain incredibly interesting all throughout life. There is so much mystery and myth surrounding them that science is constantly having to evolve and correct. But that doesn’t mean storytellers can’t take these larger-than-life beasts and put them in incredible tales.
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This goes for movies, TV, comic books, and, of course, video games, which utilize dinosaurs as both friends and foes. These incredible creatures ARE AS much fantasy as history, and video games know this well. Here are some of the best games that feature dinosaurs.
10King Kong
The King Kong game is based on the Peter Jackson film rather than the recent King Kong movies, but it’s still considered one of the best film-to-game adaptations of all time.
What’s cool about it is that the player switches back and forth between controlling a first-person human perspective and a third-person perspective of Kong. It also involves a lot of dinosaur action both from the human side of things and being able to battle them as the legendary giant gorilla.
9Jurassic Park: The Game
A lot of different franchises have gotten TheTelltaleGames treatment of expanding upon their story and characters through an episodic narrative. It took a while for Telltale to perfect their formula so that the games really excel.
Early games struggled to get this footing, andJurassic Parkwas one of them.Later Telltale games were much better. Still, for fans of the franchise, it was an excellent opportunity to return to the universe and explore another side to one of the greatest films ever made. By itself, it doesn’t hold up as a great Telltale game, but Jurassic Park fans should still check it out.
8Dino Crisis
Dino Crisisis a franchise that’s actually quite larger than most people may think. It has a series of main titles, spin-offs, and adaptations in other media. The storyline more or less follows a standard sci-fi plot of a scientist trying to weaponize dinosaurs and agents going in and having to clean up the mess.
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What makes Dino Crisis stand out from its competition is that it takes more of a horror approach to its action and adventure. It’s an older title that should be revamped for this generation.
7Second Extinction
Second Extinction technically hasn’t made its official release yet, but based on early access alone, it definitely deserves a spot on this list. It has a fairly standard plot line of mutated dinosaurs arriving on Earth and humans having to make a last stand against them.
It has a significant open-world gameplay that connects online all the time. From a pure storyline and action standpoint, it looks similar to a lot of dinosaur games that came before it. But its online approach to its gameplay is going to be a standout.
6Jurassic World Evolution
Jurassic World Evolutiontakes a much different approach than typical dinosaur games. Rather than treating the dinosaurs like an enemy that needs to be overcome in an action setting, it focuses on the business and construction side of the Jurassic World franchise.
It has players construct their own parks and even try to genetically modify their own dinosaurs. It’s similar to the classic Sim City games andthe great tycoon gamesthat have players taking a much more managerial approach to their gameplay, which is a great change of pace for dinosaur lovers.
DinoCity is a bizarre adaptation of the film Escape From DinoCity. The game is more or less inspired by the movie, but it does have a different feel to it that makes the game stand out on its own.
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The premise is pretty wild. It consists of two kids who get sucked into a TV show that’s all about a city of dinosaurs. The game itself is formatted like a platformer with a lot of levels. And the player can switch back and forth between the boy and girl characters, which is a lot of fun.
4Primal Rage
Primal Rage wasa great fighting gamethat didn’t get as much traction asMortal Kombat,Street Fighter, or evenKiller Instinct. Still, it was an incredibly fun game that allowed players to take control of several different kinds of prehistoric beasts in a futuristic, dystopian Earth.
With so many different action and adventure games involving dinosaurs, it was nice to see a different approach to dinosaurs battling it out. The game even has several console versions that expanded its reach and allowed players to see just how fun it really is.
3ARK: Survival Evolved
ARK: Survival Evolvedis an open world sandbox style game that takes place on a large map called The Ark. The objective is to tame beasts, which include dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures, to stay alive in this wild and unforgiving environment.
The game has a robust single-player system, but its true magic lies in playing online multiplayer. Also, one of the great features of the game is that it allows players to actually ride dinosaurs all over this gigantic map.
2LEGO Jurassic World
It’s always a good time whensomething gets the LEGO treatment. It doesn’t matter if it’s Star Wars, superheroes, or Indiana Jones. Dinosaurs are no different as the game adapted Jurassic World and the Jurassic Park films that came before it.
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Given that this game was developed later on in the pantheon ofLEGOgames, it was given a full sandbox-style world to explore as a hub that players could use to travel between movies and different levels. This allowed Jurassic World to really come to life in LEGO.
It’s hard to think of a video game franchise that’s become more synonymous with dinosaurs thanTurok. Based on the comic book character, Turok Dinosaur Hunter had several installments that were immensely popular in the world of action and adventure gaming.
The game eventually got a next-gen reboot that continued the awesome action approach of Turok combating enemies in a world filled with dinosaurs. A lot of games are psychologically taxing and mind-bending. So it’s awesome to just play a straight-up fantasy action game with plenty of dinosaur hunting.
