PixlBit

Imagine a world filled with dinosaurs. Dinosaurs with issues. Social hierarchies. Cliques, even. In this world, everything is awesome for all the dinosaurs involved. There's balance. The big, top-of-the-food chain dinosaurs, the scavengers and hunters, the plated dinos, those with armor on their back, and even the dinosaurs with horns are all awesome friends. One day, though, the Arkosaurus shows up. Meteors fall from the sky! Everyone gets cranky, and so it's time for a leader: one (or more) from each of the main dinosaur families fights his (or her?) way through the jungle and desert, taming their former friends for the chance to take on the Arkosaurus bully and bring peace back to some sort of misshapen globe.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs 3D.

At least, that's the premise of the game. The reality is a lot less like an empowering sitcom and a lot more like a broken record. Entirely historically inaccurate (except perhaps the unlockable dino-facts), Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs 3D lets players play through four different continents, one for each archetype of Dinosaur, so that they may raise four champions to challenge the Arkosaurus, who, for whatever reason, makes life miserable for every other dinosaur on the planet, or at least the ones not subservient to him.

Unfortunately, while each area in the game looks great, especially in 3D, the Velociraptor and Tyrannosaurus Rex champions somehow run through repeat environments. So do the Stegosaurus and the Triceratops champions. This game has been the most visually stunning 3DS title of them all, hands down, with tremendous 3D effects to boot, but the amount of reused and recycled content is by far the most noticeable aspect of Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs 3D. Imagine running through the desert, the same desert, four times. Then, the dino-champ of the hour runs through a forest. The same forest every other dinosaur champion has ventured through already. Did I mention the forests, the jungles, the deserts, are all the same? Did I mention they're all linear, with no pathway deviations or alternate routes? No? There, now I've said it. As beautiful as each environment looks, the fact that aside from aesthetics, there's nothing worthwhile in this world; each stage is a flat line with no surprises or variety, and is totally boring and disappointing.

On the way through the stages, there are three normal dinosaurs and a boss dino, all of the same body type. They all fight against Mr. Dino-champion without much variation, but each one is stronger than the one before. The boss dinosaur is typically faster, and might show off a different attack here and there, but other than that, there's no significant difference between him and the rest of the gang. While on each continent, the mix of antagonist dinosaur and environment seems to be shuffled, every continent has players and dinosaur champions fight essentially the same dinosaur four times to progress through the game. There are five main types of dinosaurs to fight against, the game's final boss, and one strange, random encounter that can occur to make seven unique fights total. However, each of the playable dinosaurs – regardless of body shape and design – plays exactly the same. To make one's way to the final boss, one can expect to get in over 16 fights for each of the basic five enemy body-types!

Gameplay consists of choosing a continent based on the body-type of the dinosaur the player will control, then fighting opposing dinosaurs in a Punch-Out! set-up. Different shapes of dinosaurs have different attacks, all which can be dodged left, right, or backward. The various body-types of dinosaurs also have different weaknesses, from being pushed off the fighting plateau, to being weak to frenzy special attacks available only during certain openings.

Each dinosaur's skin has three customizable colors, many of which are unlocked by running through literal piles of junk --piles of bones, dung, and rocks-- in the stages, as well as a multitude of skin patterns, from dino-like designs to zebra stripes and a flame pattern. Pairing the large number of dinosaurs in each body-type with the wide variety of customization makes for a winning combination. Designing a dinosaur is likely the most entertaining activity in the game after the completion of a single continent, since afterward, the game is otherwise the same three times over.

Would this be a valid review if I just repeated the first paragraph three more times? No, it wouldn't. Given that dodge windows and attack tells are more forgiving and obvious than Punch-Out!, don't expect much fun after the first round, and even then, only if fighting the same fight four times in a row before moving on is fun. While the gameplay is somewhat enjoyable for one round with a single dinosaur champion, repeating the cycle three more times to reach the final stage feels lazy. Even worse, the handful of environments never change. The story isn't terrible, considering it's just an excuse to have a bunch of dinosaurs beat up on each other, but it isn't anything special beyond that. Truthfully, the game would be much better if it were half (or a third) the length and price, but for now, it isn't very worthwhile.