Basic educational game
If you want an educational title along the lines of the Carmen Sandiego series or Museum Madness or are just really into dinosaurs, then this is a basic but fun introduction to the prehistoric world. The game includes four different episodes, each set in different periods of history or types of prehistoric creatures such as Ice Age Mammals and Jurassic Dinosaurs, but all four revolve around the same concept. Gameplay is turn-based, with players moving their dinosaur around a grid, avoiding predators and hunting prey. Information about the various plants and animals is obtained by clicking on them (this is where the educational bit comes in), while points are gained and lost for successful and failed hunts. If you can get enough points then you can start to move diagonally, making it easier to catch your prey or to run away from the nastier beasts. Points can also be gained by answering a series of questions which are designed to test your trivia knowledge and which add a further educational element. Dinosaur Predator is basically the same as Animal Quest but the problem here is that due to our lack of knowledge of dinosaur behaviour, gameplay becomes overly simplistic, with animals being strictly herbivore or carnivore, and which reduces the game's appeal. Our understanding of dinosaurs has come on a lot since the time of the game's creation, so some of the 'facts' are out of date too, which further renders its educational value. If you're not too worried about this aspect, then Dinosaur Predators is an amusing, if short-lived, experience that is obviously best suited to the very young.
