Dinotopia: The Sunstone Odyssey
There is a world where you can walk with the dinosaurs – but would you want to?
Tags: Dinotopia: The Sunstone Odyssey Categories: Game Cube Reviews, Reviews, Xbox Reviews
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Sep 16th, 2003
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Dinotopia: The Sunstone Odyssey (title page) | |||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Action | No | ||
 |
Fans of the Dinootpia books have lamented the poor treatment the franchise has received on television. While the show emphasized flash over substance, the videogame that was recently released seems to try and put things right.
Dinotopia: The Sunstone Odyssey has players taking on the role of Drake Gemini, a boy who was stranded on the lost island of Dinotopia with his father and brother. Now, 10 years later, he wishes to do what he can to help protect Dinotopian society from The Outsiders, a group that wishes to disrupt the harmony between humans and dinosaurs.
Given a weapon (a rarity in this world) and charged with being a Guardian, Drake sets out to collect various SunStones that provide power to the world of Dinotopia that The Outsiders have stolen. The learning curve is pretty gradual giving the intended audience time to become familiar with new attacks and combos as they become available.
 |
The plot is paper thin, but that’s neither a benefit nor detriment – some of the best (and worst) games in history have had little to no story at all. What this game seems to try to do is recreate the world of Dinotopia, which is where the success of the game lies.
While the gameplay won’t challenge those used to a Final Fantasy style combat system, for a straight ahead adventure title, it gets the job done. Drake is given a mallet, and there are different heads which can be collected throughout the game, each with different properties. There are sunstones to be collected as well, each with their own properties. Combining the two, well, you get the picture.
 |
Attacks are pretty basic, and as the game progresses, combos are learned. The learning curve won’t tax you brain too much, nor will the combos that are learned as Drake gains experience (yes, slight RPG elements).
The gameplay consists mostly of exploring (such as it is) various environments, battling outsiders and various smaller dinos with the mallet, and a few puzzles (nothing too hard – remember who this was made for). The variety may not be great, but what there is, is solid.
While Dinotopia isn’t the prettiest game, it at least does a decent job of conveying the different environments that players will visit throughout their adventure. Textures are flat, but otherwise nice looking.
 |
Many of the character’s mouths don’t move when speaking, and the animations aren’t as smooth as they could be in some instances. Basically, the visuals aren’t finished.
The voice acting leaves a bit to be desired, but it isn’t bad. The score is also a bit on the standard fare. For a “budget” title, the visuals and audio seem to have some degree of care given to them. While somewhat lackluster, this is a “budget” title, so you get what you pay for – and thankfully, the gameplay of Dinotopia: The Sunstone Odyssey had some care put into it as well.
 |
There isn’t any difference between the GameCube and Xbox versions – it’s a matter of choice of controller. Selecting which mallet head to use is done via the D-Pad, as is throwing rocks and Hobi Peppers (a native plant that can blind certain enemies). I personally find the Nintendo D-Pad to be too small and inconveniently placed, but that’s me. Depending on your controller preference (or even which console you have) should determine which version of the game you pick up.
It would have been nice to see some more development time, maybe deepening the gameplay, and even extending the playing time (less than 10 hours). It would be worth a few extra bucks to be able to continue the game – but as it is, there really isn’t any replay value here. With a short play time, this really feels more like a rental than anything else. At least for fans of the Dinotopia franchise, they won’t be steered wrong by playing this.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
Gameplay Short completion time |
6.4 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
Flat textures Short completion time |
|
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Fans of the books should get a kick out of renting this for the weekend | |
[ Post the first comment | View related posts ]
Tags: Dinotopia: The Sunstone Odyssey
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Sep 16th, 2003 and is filed under Game Cube Reviews, Reviews, Xbox Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
