GENRE
	Action
	DEVELOPER
	Vicious Cycle
	PUBLISHER
	TDK Mediactive
	NUMBER OF PLAYERS
	1
	CONNECTIVITY
	no
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Dinotopia started off as a well-known and much beloved series of children’s' books before moving onto a popular but poorly received television mini-series. After becoming the ill-fated series, TDK has released Dinotopia: The Sunstone Odyssey, the next generation follow-up to last year's GBA title, Dinotopia: The Timestone Pirates. This action adventure title gets an A for effort as it breathtakingly captures the atmosphere and beauty of the Dinotopia series of books. However, due to a fairly drab storyline and gameplay that is about as fun as a 4-piece puzzle, Dinotopia doesn't deliver anything a casual gamer would go out of their way to get.

visuals

As mentioned before, Dinotopia: The Sunstone Odyssey captures the look of the popular book series with great detail. Unfortunately, the attention to detail could have used some work, especially in the atmosphere. The books were always filled with beautiful foliage and rivers as well as plenty of life. However, many of the environments in this title are devoid of any life forms other than the ones you are fighting. The overall look of the levels is great, but could easily use more detail and more ambient characters. The characters they do have are well designed, but the strapping young lad who plays the hero of the game looks to be in his mid-40s. The dinosaurs seem to be fairly well done and would be rather impressive if not for the extremely limited animations. Considering their available resources, Vicious Cycle seems to have done an okay job with the visuals.

audio

I recently came to a conclusion that Dinotopia would make an excellent drinking game. Every time the main character says "Seek Peace", you would take a shot. Believe me, you'd be unconscious by the time you've reached the third area in the game. While the voice acting is clean and the writing tends to be angled towards the comedic, it can be fairly bland at times, if not repetitive (hence the drinking game). The sound effects, while solid, don't lend any depth to the title at all. It isn't surprising to hear such generic sounds in a licensed title, though. The music is probably the best part of the game. With a smooth mix of tribal beats and Celtic tunes, the soundtrack in Dinotopia is enjoyable even when just left on pause. The music may be too relaxing, however, as it doesn't compliment the action when it is on screen.

gameplay

The combat in this title is extremely weak and features little to no depth other than smack-smack-smack-bang. Repetitiveness is the final nail in the coffin for many other action titles and Dinotopia is no exception. While you can lock onto your target and smack it around with your giant staff-pole-stick thingy, doing so to 300 more enemies is just asking for the gamer to fall asleep unless it gets remotely interesting. There is, however, a fairly large number of combo moves that you can perform, but nothing as cool as you'd expect from a guardian of Dinotopia. There are also plenty of puzzles which serve to break up the monotony of the combat, although they can prove frustrating. While the puzzles are simple in design, carrying them out seems to be more of a chore than anything else. Thankfully, while there is a jump button, there isn't a whole lot of platform jumping which would be annoyingly difficult in its own right due to the lack of control over the character. The main character controls nicely, but actually moving around a tight environment can be a bit unnerving due to the faulty camera. You shouldn't expect the greatest camera setup in the world for any videogame, but the one used in Dinotopia causes slight hair loss. Fortunately (?) the sloppy, mildly fun gameplay only lasts a small handful of hours.

multiplayer

N/A

overall

Fans looking for a good representation of the Dinotopia series will find another disappointment in The Sunstone Odyssey. The budget price may counter it's average nature, so anyone who is mildly interested in a fantasy-based action title or a fan of the books/show may want to check it out before going for a purchase. As it stands, this isn't a licensed title that can stand on its own.

5.9/10