Kids Say:

“My favorite thing about DInosaur Island is the box. It’s very colorful and fun-looking. This game took half a lifetime to explain, and throughout the game, I never felt like I understood all the rules. I would think I was doing okay, then I would look around and realize everyone else was somehow doing a lot better. Maybe I just had a bad strategy (or because I ignored the aspects of the game that confused me) but it was a little disheartening to play a game for two nights when you know you are going to lose.”

Adults Say:

“Jurassic times call for Jurassic measures. If you are intoxicated by the prospect of being John Hammond, limping your way into history by recreating it from amber, this is the game for you.  Here, you build an amazing dino habitat, complete with pens, labs, and nacho stands, all while enjoying too many delicious Jurassic Puns to count.”

“You get to isolate DNA, trick out your security systems, breed your very own baby dinos, and watch as they eat your patrons.  It’s a God-Complexer’s dream come true. You get to judge whether those mega-cool T-Rexes of your dreams were really worth all the liability costs, or whether the  gentle Galamimus are just too much of a snore to bother with.  The prospects are exhilarating, if you’re the right type of person.”

“As it turns out, though, the game has a few snags.  We have a large dining room table, and a four-player game takes up every square inch. The amount of administrative effort (or as we gamers say, ‘admin’) each round is a bit much. It also takes a long time to explain the rules to new players, even though the actual game process isn’t complicated. With a four player game, including two underage newbies, it turned into a multi-hour process that we had to divide up over two evenings.”

“But ultimately, the 80’s vibe and the Jurassic puns transcend the headache most of the time. It’s a dino-mite romp-asaurus.”