The Land Before Time Dinosaur Arcade

Reviewed by Sara Hartman
Published by Sound Source Interactive

Age Group: Age 4 to 8
Type: Arcade
Price: $20

PC version requires:
Windows 95, P 200, 64MB RAM, 12x CD-ROM drive, SVGA (640x480 13" 256-color monitor), sound card, 50MB HD

Mac version requires:
System 7.6.1, Power Macintosh 200, 64MB RAM, 12x CD-ROM drive, SVGA (640x480 13" 256-color monitor), 50MB HD

Description:

The Land Before Time Dinosaur Arcade offers six arcade games starring the cast of the seven (or are there eight now?) Land Before Time videos. Pieces of a broken tablet are collected as activities are mastered at all levels of difficulty, resulting in a printable certificate upon completion.

Features:

  • Familiar Land Before Time characters
  • Six arcade activities
  • Three levels of difficulty
  • 3D graphics

Technical Aspects:

There were no problems with installation, but introductory videos were very choppy on a 240MHz G3 Macintosh. These videos may be circumvented with a mouseclick. Gameplay was fine. Graphics and sound will satisfy Land Before Time fans. These arcade-style games may be played by the hearing-impaired with initial instructions from an interpreter or the read-me file.

Note that there is no auto-save feature. Players must sign in at the beginning of each session, and progress will not be saved upon quitting the program.

Report and Conclusions:

Land Before Time Dinosaur Arcade offers six games of typical arcade genre. Each game offers three levels of difficulty, but in half (Petrie's Egg Drop, Glacier Glide and Lava Race) the difference in gameplay is barely, if at all, noticeable.

Break-a-Rock is a pinball game in which Littlefoot's and Spike's tails are the levers. Glacier Glide and Lava Race are races similar in style; one features Littlefoot skiing downhill and the other Cera rafting downriver (down-lavaflow, actually) against two of her dinosaur friends. Both feature ramps and various obstacles.

Petrie's Egg Drop is an exercise in manipulating the arrow keys and space bar to collect and drop eggs into a nest, while avoiding . . . dragonflies? Chomper's Crossing again utilizes the arrow keys and space bar, this time to guide Chomper across a pair of rivers, one by jumping onto turtle's backs (color matching and timing are skills needed here) and the next by jumping from rock to rock before they disappear underwater. In Ducky Dive, Ducky is guided among bubbles and pushy fishes -- using arrow keys once again -- that slow her progress as she races against the clock to retrieve jewels from the bottom of a lake.

There is nothing innovative about the games in The Land Before Time Dinosaur Arcade, and it doesn't contain much to challenge thought processes. But if a child in your home is a die-hard LBT fan or you have no other arcade titles and you can stand hearing the Land Before Time theme music over and over and over again, it could be a suitable addition to your collection.