We previously reported that the prolific indie retro publisher Ratalaika Games would be re-releasing the 90s 16-bit pinball title Dino Land, which theey did, back in November of last year. Since its release, we’ve had the chance to give Dino Land a spin.
Dino Land is, perhaps, an odd choice of a retro game from the 1990s to be re-released in the 21st century. The game is a pinball game that was originally released on Sega Genesis/Mega Drive and the Sharp X68000 computer back in 1991, and it’s a game that’s almost certainly not been given much consideration at all since that initial release over 30 years ago.
The game was developed by Wolf Team, who were a Japanese studio who would later be merged into Namco Bandai Games.
As a pinball game, Dino Land isn’t without its charms, even though it’s far from being up there with the best 16-bit era pinball games, such as Pinball Dreams and its sequel, Pinball Fantasies. Dino Land’s physics, while imperfect, are adequate enough, with the pinball itself being perfectly playable, even if the controls are perhaps not what you’d expect, with the Xbox version using the D-pad or left dumbstick to operate the left flipper, rather than a button, though the right flipper being controlled with the X button makes more sense, and the plunger being controlled by holding down A works just fine. So, one slightly questionable control decision aside, Dino Land controls perfectly well, and you’ll soon get accustomed to controlling the left flipper with the D-pad or thumbstick, anyway.
The main table in Dino Land is rather charming, mostly thanks to the cute little dinosaurs who are roaming around it. In addition to the main table, there are fun boss tables in which the aim is to defeat a boss by firing your ball at them, and while while these are fun, you’re thrown into them with very little warning, which makes it all too easy to immediately lose your ball without landing a single shot on the boss.
Overall, then, Dino Land is a charming if unspectacular pinball video game, but while Dino Land is playable enough in its own right, it’s perhaps of greater interest as a piece of video game history, as this modern rerelease of Dino Land from Ratalaika Games gives us modern gamers the chance to experience a long-forgotten title of the past, in a genre that is itself almost as extinct as the dinosaur stars of the game, with the likes of Pinball FX and Pinball Arcade effectively killing off the bespoke pinball video game, thanks to their seemingly never ending DLC releases of additional tables.
So, then, Dino Land is worth picking up for an authentically retro pinball video game experience, giving you the chance to experience a fun, if unspectacular obscurity from gaming’s past.
Dino Land is out now on Xbox (version reviewed), Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4&5, and Steam, and if you have any interest in the history of pinball video games, or if you’d just like to play a retro title that’s a bit obscure, Dino Land is well worth its budget price.
