In Honor of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom's Release: The Top 10 Coolest Dinosaur Moments in Games
Every video game moment with a dinosaur in it is cool, but some are cooler than others.
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Everything is better with dinosaurs. Bad movies become tolerable if there are a few prehistoric killers stomping around. Chicken nuggets taste better when they're cut to vaguely resemble brontosauruses. Even video games and dinosaurs go together like velociraptors and Chaos Theory.
In honor of yet another Jurassic Park movie cracking through its shell and hitting the big screen, we're celebrating ten stand-out moments when video games and dinosaurs intersected beautifully and / or violently. Rawr!
Jumping on Yoshi for the first time in Super Mario World
Nothing says "Welcome to sixteen bits, baby," like hatching your very own dinosaur companion from a Question Block, then jumping on its back to the accompaniment of a now-iconic zippy sound effect. Riding Yoshi in Super Mario World still gives me a sense of power. Like, "Out of my way—I'm riding a dinosaur, loser."
Interestingly, that sense of power bottoms out the instant a jump over a cliff goes wrong. That's when I make that life-saving leap off his back, and Yoshi morphs from my best dino-pal into a green-and-red smear at the bottom of some jagged rocks. Good thing there are more Yoshi eggs in Dinosaur Land than there are Wal-Marts in middle America.
Fighting the Black Tyranno in Chrono Trigger
Chrono Trigger isn't the most difficult RPG in the genre's history, but the battle against the Queen of the Reptiles to secure the future of mammals is as epic as it sounds. The enormous Black Tyranno greets you with a blood-curdling scream, then unleashes its prehistoric fury upon you without quarter. Its fire-based attacks are devastating, its defense is sky-high, it's got a crazy number of HP on its side, and it has Azala, the aforementioned Queen of the Reptiles, on its side. Fitting stuff for a battle with consequences that ripple across space and time.
Slaying the Pterodactyl in Joust
Speaking of dinosaur cries that chill the blood, the digital wail of Joust's Pterodactyl enemy still makes my neck hair stand up. The Pterodactyl (which is not actually a dinosaur, I know, I know) shows up whenever you take too long to clear out a stage. It careens about the screen in a zig-zag pattern at varying speeds, and one touch means death. Worse, it's invincible, except in one very specific area: Its mouth. Turns out there aren't many of God's creatures past or present who are resilient against a jousting lance to the tonsils. It's a hard kill to make (if you don't utilize the trick demonstrated in the video above) but talk about a well-earned triumph.
Turning a corner in Tomb Raider and meeting a big eff-off T Rex
The darkest depths of Tomb Raider throw raptors at you, which are bad enough. But they're iguanas compared to their boss: A Tyrannosaurus Rex, in the flesh / scales. The beast experimentally sniffs the air before it pinpoints Lara and charges at her with dismaying speed. If you don't move fast enough, it seizes Lara in its teeth and worries her like a cat with a mouse before slamming her on the ground. Oof. Hope you have a good weapon; pistols weren't designed for hunting dinosaur monarchs.
Fighting for your life against the Brachiosaur in Final Fantasy VI
Final Fantasy VI's Brachiosaur defies the species' reputation as a gentle giant by being the game's most potentially lethal random encounter (indeed, it's the only plant-eater that gets a spot on this list). Its bone-crushing physical attacks are bad enough, but it also commands some of the strongest magic in the game and it can assault your party with status afflictions that are downright Biblical.
While it's easy to laugh at the idea of a Brachiosaurus chanting a magic spell, it's surprisingly not as funny when that Brachiosaurus turns your party into a quartet of sleeping imps, then wipes them all out with a single Ultima. "Just like a giant cow," my ass. Thankfully you're well-rewarded for your win with a huge EXP payout, plus a chance to win incredibly valuable items.
Building your own dinosaur in EVO: Search for Eden
Enix's EVO isn't a perfect RPG by a long shot, but its core mechanic—building your own prehistoric animals to alter the evolutionary course of history—is solid. There just weren't many games like it at the time, certainly not on the SNES. I built some very cool-looking dinosaurs in '94 by mixing and matching animal parts off a series of menu. Then I ruined it all by naming my beautiful new creations "Ass-o-Saur" and "Bonersaurus."
Going up against King Dodongo in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Ocarina of Time's boss battles were mind-blowing for their time, and I still love how we get to see child Link from the perspective of King Dodongo for a few crucial seconds. It's a huge change over 2D Zelda boss fights: Even the biggest foes in A Link to the Past don't make you feel like an insignificant gnat. Of course, you get the last laugh when Link stuffs bombs down the Dodongo's gaping gob (in true Zelda game tradition) until it rolls off-course and stews itself in its own lava-pit.
Taking control of the T Rex in Super Mario Odyssey
Super Mario Odyssey's hat-trick mechanic launches out of the gate at rocket-speed by giving you a chance to take control of a T Rex. Such magnificence! Such power! Such—uh, hey, you don't think we'll ever see a Mario game where Yoshi grows to the size of Odyssey's T Rex, do you? Ha ha, Yoshi…all those times I dropped you off a cliff, it was for my own survival. I had no choice! Y-y'gotta believe me, bro. Bro!
Regina's gristly and myriad "Deaths by Dinosaur" in Dino Crisis
You might be shocked to learn there are a billion creative ways for a naked ape to die on an isolated island populated by dinosaurs, and Capcom explores more than a few in Dino Crisis. Every time Regina falls to one of the beasts, you're treated to a supplementary scene of the dinosaurs making corned beef out of her remains. In one particularly unsettling cinema, a raptor calls in its friends to start a feeding frenzy. Well, that's a bit nightmare-inducing. I guess that's what happens when your species sits at the top of the food chain for far longer than it deserves.
Discovering Chrome's "Your internet connection is screwed" message doubles as a dinosaur-running mini-game
Here's a joyful little tidbit for you: If your internet goes down and you're using Chrome, a little dinosaur (presumably the retired mascot Mozilla) pops up on-screen. Hit the spacebar to initiate a cute little running / jumping game. Run under pterodactyls. Jump over cacti. Keep running as the day cycles into night and back again. Aim for a high score. No, it's not anything head-turning in this age of 4K visuals, but its simplicity is strangely soothing when you're p**sed off about disconnecting in the middle of PUBG.