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The most innovative light-gun game ever!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 17 / 18
Date: November 03, 2002
Author: Amazon User

If you are a fan of light-gun games you will love Dino Stalker. This game is not like your typical light-gun shooter that has a "camera on rails" perspective; (in which your character moves by itself around the area shooting stuff). Please note that this game is only compatible with the GunCon2, since you need the directional pad on the back of the gun to move around, however, you can also use the Dual Shock 2. There are many great things about this game so I'll give you the pros and cons:

**PROS**
Innovative light-gun game. First and only of its kind. You have complete freedom of movement, it's like playing a first person shooter (FPS), only difference is that you can use a light-gun instead of a controller or (keyboard and mouse). You move around the level using the directional pad which is located on the back of your GunCon2 (third party GunCon2 capable guns also work). As you move around the level you collect power-up weapons that you can switch to as well as energy power-ups that restore your vitality. Like other light-gun games, this game also has a timer, but you can collect timer power-ups as well. (If you're worried about time-limit--don't sweat it, you get a lot of time when you play on easy). The graphics are great for a light-gun game, they look better than Time Crisis 2, Vampire Night, and Endgame.
There is also a sniper mode in which you can zoom in on the enemy dinosaurs and blow them up without being spotted.
The game lenght is another pro of this game. Most light-gun games as you may very well be aware of are extremely short, for example, you can beat Time Crisis 2 in under 20 minutes and Vampire Night in about the same time. This game is longer than both of those games put together. The first time you play the game it will take you anywhere from 1.5 to 2 hours to beat it, depending on how good you're at it.
Another great thing is that since this game is longer than your conventional light-gun game you are given the option to save after you complete a level. If you die you can simply continue as many times as you wish, but you will start at the beginning of the level.
You can also use the controller if you prefer it over a light-gun.
Another great thing is that you get extra stuff as you beat the game in the various difficulty settings. You get theater mode when you beat it on easy, partner play when you beat it on normal (one person can use the controller to move around and the other the GunCon2 to shoot). If you beat the game on hard, you get the option to enable unlimited time and unlimited special weapons.
**CONS
Not really a con, but when I first heard of this game the idea of a light-gun game in which you shoot dinosaurs didn't quite convince me. When I finally got the game and played it I loved it, so it proved me wrong. Unless you have a thing against dinosaur games this is a con, otherwise disregard it.
The game does not come bundled up with a Guncon2 so if you don't already have one then this is a con. However, you can buy a third party GunCon2 capable light-gun and it should work fine. (I played and finished the game with the Yobo third party gun which is much smaller than Namco's GunCon2, more confortable, and has more features such as vibration/recoil, you can hook it up to a pedal for that arcade feel and it is compatible with both GunCon and GunCon 2 games. I highly recommend this gun it is pretty accurate too--I prefer it over the highly praised GunCon2.
**Comments
To sum things up, you have to get this game if you like light-gun games or the Dino Crisis series, as this is a side story to Dino Crisis. This game is great and it will be a great addition to your light-gun game collection. I highly recommend this game, the price is another good point, you can buy a light-gun with the extra bucks. I hope my review helped. Thanx.

Beware - the controls are terrible

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: June 15, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I bought this because the two Dino Crisis games on the Playstation 1 were fantastic survival horror fun, and I was very taken with the hype around this game which billed it as a lightgun game that was free roaming rather than on rails. What they didn't say was that it's almost impossible to use the PS2 gun as a fully functioning controller, which is what you really need to do. For anything but shooting, all the buttons you need are in really inconvenient places all around the gun and after half an hour's play time, I had to take a break to rest my aching joints.

In case you haven't seen it, the G-Con2 gun has a teeny-weeny directional pad on the back of it, and it's this that you are expected to use to move yourself around. Now, if you try holding the gun in a standard "aiming" style, you'll soon realise that your fingers are in nowhere near the right position to be able to reach it. You could just hold the gun wrongly and reach it, but you need to be able to fire at the screen regularly to kill dinosaurs. And they don't sit still waiting to be shot! So for most of the game you need to be able to move and fire at the same time. And guess what? It's impossible. Bravo, Capcom. Oh, sorry, they didn't stop there, but added a further control scheme to allow you to strafe. To do this you need still more fingers so that you can still press the directional pad, along with two further buttons way down on the gun barrel at the same time. And be able to pull the trigger. But even that's the end of it - if you want still more pain, try using sniper mode!

As you may have realised, the control scheme completely spoiled the gameplay for me. I'm not fumble-handed by any means, but you would need to be an octopus to manage all this. Which is a shame, because a free-roaming game about shooting dinosaurs is a very exciting idea. And Dino Stalker is otherwise presented very well. The graphics are very good and the monsters all look very impressive. Some stages are really good fun but my favourite ones are those when you are riding some kind of vehicle, which means you don't have to worry about movement at all - hooray! The levels where you get chased down a tunnel by an enraged T-Rex are probably the most fun in the game. The rest is ruined by the controls, which make your life hell. I'll tell you something else too - most levels have a TIME LIMIT!! In case you thought a slow careful hunt would save your fingers, this has been rendered an impossibility by the levels having a clock that counts down to zero - so if you don't rush through the stage, it's game over for you. Kind of negates the joy of free-roaming, doesn't it? You are basically stuck with dashing from point A to point B, killing everything that moves...might as well be on rails. I don't know why this stupid condition was added, as Dino Stalker was not created to be an arcade game.

It's a real waste of potential, but it's only fitting that Dino Stalker was a miserable failure after release. If you buy it, you have only yourself to blame. I managed to finish it - the final stage in the volcanic pit was actually pretty good fun, but this and the other bosses towards the end were endurance tests that caused me agonising hand cramps to get through. Save yourself - I made it through so that I could come here and tell you that you don't have to. Could have been a great game, but it all went wrong due to the impossible way you are expected to be able to use the gun.

Good Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: June 17, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game is great. You can get a variety of extreme weapons such as lasers, grenade launchers, flame throwers, etc. There are also many dinosaurs that you must fight such as velociraptors, tricerotops, and the well-known tyrannosaurus rex. The enviroment you play in this game is very detailed and looks real. The only thing about this game that I found bad was that it was short. I beat this game in like 2 and a half hours. But it was fun while I played it. I would recommend this game to those players that like gun shooting and dinosaur games.

A different type of game for GUncon II owners

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: October 06, 2002
Author: Amazon User

A number of advances over Time Crises 2 although playability is sacrificed a little. Unlike TC 2 where you shoot from a fixed point at targets moving around on the (fixed) screen in front of you, Dins lets you move around freely in a world, like a FPS (i.e. sort of like Doom). The game uses the small directional pad on back of Guncon II to move which is why Guncon I won't work. You navigate with a small compass at the bottom of the screen in front of you which has a motion detector to pick up moving dinos in front of you.

Another addition over TC 2 is the sniper mode. Holding down the buttons on either side of Gun lets you zoom in on dinos (or other targets) to kill from a distance. Lots of items to pick up by either shooting or by moving through the item. You can also shoot your way through the forest trees to knock them down and clear a field of fire. You can detect dinos visually, using the motion detector, a target selector, or by hearing them on the soundtrack.

Problems: My gun seems to "stick" periodically and stop firing for 10-30 seconds. I don't know if this is a bug or a "feature" to reflect some kind of reload time or cool down time for the weapon but it sucks! Especially if you are being swarmed by Dinos. I've gotten killed several times due to this. Sniper mode is a nice addition but in practice requires navigation using the small keypad on the back of the gun. THis means you have to switch your mindset from aiming by pointing the gun at the target to aiming by using the kepad to move the cursor. It would be nicer if you could aim using the Guncon to aim while in sniper mode.

Overall, a nice game, good but not great. TC II seemed more addictive fresh out of the box, I think because the gameplay was faster paced and more straight forward. However, if you're burned out from playing TC II and want something new for your Guncon II, give Dino Stalker a try.

Dino Stalker= good shooting fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: June 09, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Here is what this innovative game is like:
You're character has no idea what is happening at first, but you find out as you pass through the levels. The story doesn't make sense but it doesn't ruin the game one bit. OK... imagine playing a Turok-like game with the addition of a light-gun (GunCon or GunCon2) The graphics will not disappoint you, nor the sound, nor the control (which makes the game the first of it's kind I believe). Though the game could be seen as short, you will want to play it over and over. Each level presents something new and there are things to unlock if you're good enough (or if you use GameShark like me)
IF YOU LIKE GUN GAMES YOU WILL LOVE THIS!!!

Dino stalker will rock

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 31
Date: June 08, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Dino Stalker will rock.It should be on the XBOX becouse its graphics are so good.

Great but bad controls

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: April 16, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I had bought this and at a good price. Though with the GunCon, moving around in the world is a little difficult. I have heard that you can use the GunCon to shoot and another controler to move around, which would make it much easier to move, but I coudn't figure out how. Some place are easier, where you move straight or are riding in a car and only have to move around in a circle. Another thing is that you cannot replay a prevous level unless you save multiple file of each level.

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