11.29.2010

Dinosaur Slayer


I think they are more like Dragon's than Dinosaurs...

I picked up Dinosaur Slayer randomly from the app store couple days ago. At 1st i wasn't digging it because of the Patapon-wannabe kind of art style -- not that I hated it, I love it it's a great style, but I've just seen too many developers try it and all the characters look more or less the same.

But boy I was surprised.

First of all, the game is a bit deeper than your average castle-defender I think. I've been through a couple castle-defenders but usually they get the "tap, hold, hit the (x)" treatment within a day. However, this game has managed to achieve dead-easy interaction & mechanics with interesting upgrades throughout.


Badass Boss

The main interaction in Dino Slayer is simple all you need to do is frantically swipe your finger from left to right nonestop to hunt dragon's down with your arrows that's IT. There are quite a few upgrades that helps you in the process though:


- Magic spells that cast with the touch of a button (on a cool down timer)

- Arrow shot power (how much dmg your arrows do)

- Multi-shot for your arrows

- Auto-fix for your castle (so you generate health automatically)
- Dudes who sail out on a fishing boat collecting tasty dragon meats

And the list goes on.

What Money Can Buy

At the end of each level you will receive gold based on your kills that can be used for upgrades. BUT, there's a catch and that's "Men hired". Basically every upgrade you do will add to your "hired men" count and this count in return consumes food (which you can buy with gold, or collect from the dino corpses) -- because when you have slaves working for you, you gotta feed 'em to keep them happy. If you don't have enough food then you will end up paying with your gold, which reduces your income (upkeep), so there is a tricky choice you have to try and balance throughout the game. My advice is to save the upgrades until A LOT later (also for achievements, if you want to upgrade everything) so you don't waste too much $ $ early on for slavery.

Whirl of magics Die die die!

To add to the fun, every 20th level or so there's also boss encounters that are actually pretty epic and fun. The bosses do insane damage and are invincible to regular attacks unless a timed-yellow circle comes up for you to give 'em the low-blow. It took me 3 days to get to level 100 and I got completely RAPED by the last boss because I don't have enough upgrades (I think??) so it had me starting all over again (sigh) in order to do enough upgrades this time while getting more achievements.

Black Magic that insta-rapes all the on screen dragons Badass Boss!!
During frantic times, 2 taps will save the day Scoring screen at end of every stage

Anyway without spoiling too much you guys should just pick this up and give it a try it's definitely one of the best castle defenders I've played I think!


!! UPDATE !!


Dammit, you guys have missed the FREE period I guess and now it's $0.99 on the app store : (  but still worth picking up I think!

AppApps Rating




Game Play:
Simple, catchy, with good intensity -- just don't hurt your fingers!

Graphics:
Been-there, seen-that type of style, but OH THE COLORS