Retro Review: Dino Stalker

<p>I&&num;8217&semi;ve been on a dinosaur kick for a few months now&comma; so I&&num;8217&semi;ve searched for interesting dinosaur games left and right&period; In my internet search I discovered a long forgotten Capcom title called <em>Dino Stalker<&sol;em>&period; I had been playing <em>Dino Crisis 3<&sol;em> when I found this game and was excited to play another title in that vein&period; To my surprise&comma; <em>Dino Stalker<&sol;em> was an on-rails shooter specifically designed with a light-gun in mind&period; Instead of being a spin-off to <em>Dino Crisis<&sol;em>&comma; this game was a spin-off to the <em>Resident Evil&colon; Gun Survivor<&sol;em> series&period; Now&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;ve not played an on-rails shooter since <em>House of the Dead 2<&sol;em> on my Dreamcast&comma; but I was up for the challenge&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The story in this game&comma; like all on-rails shooters&comma; is insanely thin&period; You play as World War II hotshot pilot Lt&period; Mike Wired who&comma; after getting shot down during an intense dogfight&comma; is whisked away to a primordial age&period; Once arrived in this land&comma; a communicator appears on his wrist and a nice gun appears in his hands&period; The communicator tells him to find Paula and save her&period; This is what you do throughout the game&semi; you get glimpses of Paula and&comma; in your quest to finally save her&comma; you must kill thousands of dinosaurs&period; Save the girl&comma; kill lots of dinosaurs&comma; and return home&period; Sounds like an early PlayStation 2-era Capcom game to me&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;106275" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-106275" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-106275 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;05&sol;03173623&sol;34gkh2a&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;DINO STALKER - CAPCOM&rpar;" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"480" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-106275" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Dino Stalker<&sol;em>&comma; Capcom&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>I had to play with the controller&comma; seeing as I don&&num;8217&semi;t have a PlayStation 2 light-gun&comma; but I wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t have been able to play on my flat-screen with a light-gun anyway&period;  The controls are quite simple&colon; the two sticks control the aiming reticle and where Wired wants to go&period; This actually takes some time to get used to&period; Sometimes you want to go left&comma; but for some reason you dive to the right and then go left&period; Right trigger is fire&comma; and the face buttons allow you to choose your weapons&comma; except for the X button&comma; which is reload&period; Square is the &&num;8220&semi;single shot&&num;8221&semi; weaker weapon that you&&num;8217&semi;ll have the most ammo for&period; Circle is the &&num;8220&semi;special weapon&&num;8221&semi;&comma; like a rocket launcher and such&comma; which you need to keep on hand for boss fights&period; And finally&comma; triangle is your &&num;8220&semi;snipe shot&&num;8221&semi;&comma; which allows you to zoom in for a nice dino head-shot&period; I used the single shot and special weapon the most to stay alive&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The game looks decent for an early PS2-era game&semi; Capcom has always made pretty games and this one is no different&period; Looking at it through the lens of time&comma; one does go &&num;8220&semi;ick&&num;8221&semi; when seeing those cut-scenes&comma; but for the time they were damn amazing&comma; even though the characters look as if they were made of rubber&period; The dialogue in the cut scenes is rife with &&num;8220&semi;corn&&num;8221&semi; though &&num;8211&semi;  I would giggle like a madman whenever Wired would open his mouth&period; It made me miss the good old days of gaming&&num;8217&semi;s infancy and made me wish more studios took a chance with off kilter releases and adding a dash of &&num;8220&semi;corn&&num;8221&semi; to their games&period; I am going to hunt down the <em>Resident Evil<&sol;em> titles in this series&comma; since I have had so much fun with them&period; I&&num;8217&semi;d like to see if they hold up as well&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;106280" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-106280" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-106280 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;05&sol;03173611&sol;153017-Dino&lowbar;Stalker&lowbar;Germany-2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;DINO STALKER - CAPCOM&rpar;" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"480" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-106280" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Dino Stalker<&sol;em>&comma; Capcom&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Fans of on-rails shooters and quirky&comma; older Capcom games need to get their hands on this title&period; I had no idea what to expect and I was pleasantly surprised when I finally got around to playing it&period; My biggest problem with the game was the fact that most of the levels were timed&period; I&&num;8217&semi;ve never been a fan of timed missions and that was almost a turn-off for me&period; So&comma; if you absolutely hate timed missions&comma; this isn&&num;8217&semi;t for you but&comma; if you like that kind of challenge and love shooting dinosaurs while listening to corny dialog with some old school graphics&comma; this is your mecca&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;