Video summary
The video reviews the Super Nintendo game *We're Back! A Dinosaur Story*, a title based on the 1993 animated film created as a family-friendly alternative to *Jurassic Park*. Developed by Visual Concepts and released in November 1993, the game features cheerful, space-traveling dinosaurs rather than realistic threats. However, the reviewer notes that contemporary criticism was harsh; *Nintendo Power* gave it a low score of 2.75 out of four, citing poor controls and repetitive gameplay as major flaws. This negative reception persists today, with the game often described as a tiresome journey that fails to meet even basic standards for entertainment.
The core issue identified in the gameplay is the restrictive camera system, which locks onto the player's sprite and creates blind jumps that feel artificially difficult. Beyond technical limitations, the game suffers from what the reviewer calls "creative bankruptcy," appearing to be hastily assembled with minimal testing before release. Although the protagonist is a gigantic T-Rex, the combat mechanics are underwhelming, offering only basic actions like jumping on enemies and throwing rocks without any unique abilities or cool interactions, such as eating people. The running animation is praised as a highlight that likely helped secure approval from the Spielberg estate, but this single strength does not compensate for the overall lack of depth.
To aid players in navigating its simple yet frustrating level design, the game includes four summonable characters: Dweeb, Elsa, Vorg, and Doug Woog. Each character offers specific assistance, such as clearing paths, carrying the player to bonus areas, providing power-ups, or knocking down walls. Among these, Vorg is considered the most useful because his power-ups can unlock a tail attack and a screen-clearing ability. Despite these helpers, the game's structure relies on large, open rooms where players wander aimlessly without time limits, often unsure of what objects are climbable or jumpable. This vague level design, combined with a meager 12-page instruction manual, contributes to a confusing experience that feels more like a low-quality NES title than a console game.
Ultimately, the video concludes that *We're Back! A Dinosaur Story* is not worth playing today due to its lack of interest and poor execution. The game has remained at the same price point for fifteen years specifically because it lacks any redeeming qualities or market value. While a very young child might enjoy it for a brief ten minutes, the reviewer suggests that for anyone else, it represents a wasted opportunity in an era where video game cartridges are already expensive. The final verdict is clear: the game is simply bad and uninteresting, making it a poor addition to any modern collection or library.
Read the full video transcript
Sumer [music]
Assault
Welcome to today's edition of yes,
everything had its own video game. And
today's episode features the movie We're
Back! A Dinosaur Story, a Spielbergian
product made specifically for kids who
were too [music] scared to go see
Jurassic Park. Instead of big scary
{quote} realistic dinosaurs, we got
bouncy, happy, cheerful dinosaurs that
are time travelers from outer space, and
it's pretty much your typical Saturday
morning cartoon story arc. And I'm sure
it's fine for what it is. I've never
seen it. I've only played the Super
Nintendo game it's based on, developed
by Visual Concepts and released in
November 1993.
Now, from my standpoint, it's always fun
to look up reviews of games like this,
if any of them exist at all. The
normally apologetic Nintendo Power could
only muster three sentences in its
review, if you want to call it that,
saying that poor controls and repetitive
gameplay make it a tiresome journey.
Nintendo Power would rank its games by
four categories: controls, challenge,
graphics and sound got its own category,
as did theme and fun. And by those
metrics, they gave We're Back! A
Dinosaur Story an average score of 2.75,
the lowest-rated game of the month. Even
the Tom and Jerry and Ren and Stimpy
Game Boy games rated higher than that.
The game features five worlds split up
into a couple stages each, and you get a
health meter and three lives with three
continues to get through the whole game
in one sitting. And as you can already
see, the big problem with the gameplay
here is the camera viewpoint. This
simple jump here ends up being a
needlessly blind jump because the camera
is locked onto my sprite. That's always
a clear sign of rigged rental artificial
difficulty. Why waste your time making a
good game when you could just take
advantage of basic programming
limitations like this? See, creative
bankruptcy endured even back then, and
it wasn't even under the guise of
artificial intelligence. This game was
just straight-up thrown together, and
then tested once or twice, and that's
where it was declared, "Eh, good
enough." But anyway, your patience for
the gameplay here is going to run out
very quickly, at which point you'll
start to notice how you're a gigantic
Tyrannosaurus Rex, but you still [music]
take damage from this guy. Do you get to
do any cool stuff as the T-Rex like eat
people as they're sitting on the toilet?
No, of course not. You just jump on them
and fling rocks the same as a thousand
other games already out there. I will
say the running animation looks great,
so the dev team clearly did enough to
provide at least a 90-second [music]
trailer to earn approval from the
Spielberg empire. And hey, you can even
call upon the help of other characters
from the film. You just collect these
little icons here, hit the select
button, and you can summon their help in
the middle of a stage. There is four
different [music] characters: Dweeb,
Elsa, Vorg, and Woog. Wait a second,
Woog like South St. Paul's own Doug
Woog? They're all unceremoniously dumped
into whatever world you're in. Dweeb can
run ahead and clear a path for you.
[music] Elsa can carry you off to a
bonus area. Vorg can stop by and give
you some power-ups. And Doug Woog knocks
down walls for you. Vorg's really the
only useful one since he dropped
power-ups that can unlock a tail attack
as well as a clear screen attack. Of
course, you don't need any of this at
all because this game is incredibly
simple and easy. It suffers a little bit
from what I refer to as Sega Genesis ass
level design, where you're given one
giant room and you just kind of wander
around with no time limit trying to find
your way to the exit. And naturally,
you're never sure what you can and can't
jump on. So, that's what you're getting
yourself into here. You can also climb
walls, but same deal. [music] I'm never
sure what you can and can't climb.
So, yeah. What do you expect from a game
that only has a 12-page instruction
manual? We're back a dinosaur story does
in fact exist. It is in fact a game. And
even in this day and age of stupidly
expensive video game cartridges, this
one has managed to stay around the same
price for the past 15 years. There's a
reason for that, and it's because this
game isn't good or interesting or
anything. This might as well be an NES
game and a bad one at that. Maybe your
6-year-old will like this for about 10
minutes, but that's about it.
All right. I want to thank you for
watching, and I hope you have a great
rest of your day.