DinoBlits

I beat the game on my second day of playing it. And let me tell you, (and no, this isn’t faked) this is probably the best game I’ve ever played. I love the art style too! There are a couple things I would like, though. Some stuff is that I would like something to do after I beat the game. Perhaps a daily challenge? Also, a bestiary. That’s all. And finally, a setting that lets you turn off the tutorial. I just thought of that actually. Otherwise, definitely worth the 3 bucks. Game of the year!

Overall, it was a decent experience, but not worth the price due to lack of balance, unclear progression, and lack of help information. Positives: The game looks great; colorful with a unique art style. Controls are okay, and it’s easy to clean up a mistake. Gameplay loop is really fun (until it isn’t). Negatives: The game timing ruins the entire experience. There is some mechanic which makes the game go from building to fighting. Triggering that mechanic is based on ‘sound’, but the game doesn’t define what increases sound. Additionally, there are character types to add to help your village, like a chef, but adding in these units excessively increases the trigger. Adding even 1 reduces your time to breed new settlers. If you add more than 2 special units, the trigger goes off and the fight starts. Since these units are your fighters, you can never actually have enough plus they abandon their primary job to fight. Each battle just becomes a hope that your settlers can kill the enemy before it kills them. Additionally, progression is non-existent. There are upgrades you can get, but these are randomly unlocked each run. Your goal is to get settlers to support upgrades and defeat the enemy on each island to then repair your boat. You go to a new island and start over. After a few islands, the credits role. If you lose all your settlers, you just go to a new island with no consequences & hope you win the ‘base race’. There seems to be a lot of variety in the game, but due to the lack of balance and unclear progression, there becomes 1 single build pathway you must take to have a chance. Lots of promise fumbled by unrefined execution.

This game has some of the most amazing visuals I’ve seen in a mobile game in forever, and it’s all oozing so much character too. Honestly I bought it off of the visuals alone, almost instantly. The game itself too is incredible. Simple in concept but it ramps up a bit later on yet always lets you know what’s happening so you won’t be lost. And the ui for everything is very mobile friendly and easy to use. Settings for making the game faster too if you feel like anything’s taking too long. Honestly for the price this games a no brainer and a very good show of what mobile gaming can be and look like with enough passion behind it.