Nerdicus NES Review #22 : The Adventures of Dino RikI

Title : Adventures of Dino Riki

Publisher : Hudson Soft

Release Date : 1989

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $5-$7

Another overhead shooter, huh? Can you get anymore original, Nintendo? Come on, I bet you have almost 300 in your library. That's almost a 1/3 of all your games being overhead shooters! I mean at least make this one different. But wait - di- di- di- DINOSAURS!?

You sir, have captured my attention. Just look at that box art! Looks like an epic coloring book scene.

Take any overhead shooter you've played on the NES, and just replace the planes or space ships with prehistoric beasts and cavemen. That's it. That's Dino Riki. It may sound like I'm complaining, but I'm really not. Adventures of Dino Riki is a legitimately good overhead shooter. I'm just personally sick of em already. If it wasn't for the dinosaurs, I'd probably be skipping over this. But, I'm a man of my word, and play it I shall. 

And boy was I rewarded.

You take on the role of Dino Riki, hurling axes and boomerangs at your dino foes and vanquishing huge bosses at the end of each level. There's no real story here - you don't know why you're killing so I just imagined myself as a caveman on a dino crazed blood lust rampage. That worked for me.

Besides scenery and enemies, nothing is different from your typical shooter. Upgrade weapons, get bonus lives, and each stage gets progressively harder. And by hard. I mean insane. This game is probably one of the hardest shooters I've played on the NES. There's no easy mode here, and from stage one you are overwhelmed. At times, I wanted to cry. It is just so - damn - frustrating!

But so good....

I still think this game would have been a bit cooler if you were flying on a pterodactyl, but ya can't win em all. Instead you are running on the ground, and do have the ability to jump, which is different. It still doesn't add much to the game besides even more frustration. And its hard as hell to master. I died so many times just falling in the water.

To get halfway to a checkpoint only to fall in the water and die. I wanted to scream. And what's the deal with games having water as an obstacle that kills you? Water isn't a death trap! Agh!

Dino bosses were another way this game took a step outside the box. Okay, I'm a sucker for dinosaurs, but seriously battling dinosaurs at the end of each level made this game so much better. Bosses were another thing that were almost impossible in this game. If you thought the regular enemies were bad, be prepared to get slaughtered at the end of the level.

 I may be wrong, but I don't think a Tyrannosaurs can breath fire. But what do I know?

Final Score (out of 5) :

Until next time. Keep on gaming!