Magical Dinosaur Tour
System: TGCD
Release Date: December 1990
Developer: Victor Musical Industries
Publisher: NEC
Genre: Edutainment
Learn all about the age of dinosaurs in Magical Dinosaur Tour! Dinosaur Tour! Toot toot! Dinosaur Tour. There once was a mom named Mrs. Protoceratops. Leave my eggs alone you thief! I’m an Oviraptor eating eggs. Want to keep your progeny alive, be like icthyasaur and birth it live! We’re going to meet all the species on the Dinosaur Tour! Dinosaur Tour! Magical Dinosaur Tour. I’m Dr. Mack the Paleontologist and if you want to learn all about our understanding of dinosaurs in 1990, play this game. Or just watch Dinosaur Train, you’ll get the same info.
The main mode available is a tour of the dinosaur periods. You can choose to visit the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous in both the early and late halves. The landmasses change during these times and the dinosaurs available do, as well. So choose where you want to learn the fauna of. If you can’t find the dinosaur you want, I’m looking at you Velociraptor, you can look it up by name in the name index mode. You can also see the process of evolution in the Tree of Evolution mode. There’s also a Variety Box mode, where you can get some quick facts about dinosaurs, like which was the smartest. Wait a minute, I thought Troodon was the smartest dinosaur! This is BS!
When you pick a time period and a continent, you get a diorama of what dinosaurs existed there at the time. As you scroll over them, the cursor changes to a book if you can check out the data and description. It will switch to an A if there’s a fun animation to enjoy. And it will become an N to pronounce the name of the dinosaur for you. Here are some of my favorite moments.
Hey look at this friendly T-Rex, just minding its own… oh my god it just killed Kenny! They made Therizinosaurus up based off of a long arm with a claw. Check out its name. There is a no saur. It’s a hoax! Look, it’s Mayasaur! What a good mother. Ugh god… it’s Larry Lambeosaurus, a Hadrosaur… worst neighbor ever. And there’s the king! His song picks up all the ladies! Here we’ve got Pachycephalosaurus causing concussions since the late Cretaceous! Gallimimus just running circles around everyone. Giant freakin’ ostrich… When the dinosaurs eat things, or fight, I cheer loudly. This bloody edutainment game is way too entertaining. Get that mollusk! YES! Triceratops is all come at us, T-Rex! That’s what I thought. I think we realize T-Rex were scavengers these days, anyway. Don’t mess with Saltasaurus, he’ll tail whip you to death. The baddest ass of the dinosaurs, Ankylosaurus. I crush your head!
The Ending mode is last and goes over the different theories of why dinosaurs went extinct. I think we’re all on the same page that a giant space object impacted near the Yucatan Peninsula and set the chain of events ushering in a drastic ice age, killing the giant creatures. It’s a sad end, but without it, we never would have been able to take over and cause another ice age. Whoops!
Graphics: 2.0
For what they are, the graphics are awesome. I love the animations where things get killed or eaten.
Sound: 2.0
The voices are clear and the music is chill.
Gameplay: 1.0
Point and click. Get irritated by the button layout. Rinse. Repeat.
Difficulty: 2.0
Uhhh… I guess making the encyclopedia do what you want can be difficult at times, so not perfect.
Fun Factor: 3.0
Despite it being a virtual dinosaur encyclopedia, I had so much fun commentating this as I played, I wish I would have plugged a microphone in.
Overall Rating: 2.0
Magical Dinosaur Tour earns a C. As an edutainment game, this is like an A++, but on this scale it’s average. Some people might think that’s an outrageously high score, but this game is awesome.