Titus the company that was found in 1985, developed games such as ROBOCOP (XBOX) and KAO THE KANGAROO (PC) have a winner on their hands with Prehistorik Man.

Guest Review by Jamie Foster

Back when I was younger I went to the local store to find a game to play and took my chances on a game called Prehistorik Man for the SNES. The game at first looked like it might not be all that good but I took a chance and tried it. Fast forward some twelve odd years later and I refound a game that made me happy in my earlier years. I had Gamestop do a search and they found the game to my surprise so I grabbed it for the GameBoy Advance (played via the DS lite).

Prehistorik Man is about a caveman named Sam Bigrock who woke up one morning to find all of the food in the village had been eaten by dinosaurs. The village chief tells Sam he must now go on a journey to find enough dinosaur bones to buy the village food to survive the harsh winter.

Sam must travel far North to the valley where the dinosaur graveyard is and collect the bones. He’s not travelling alone though, along with him are a few friends:

• Chief Small Gravel who provides him with information along the way
• Rex Jack the hunter who guides Sam on his journey
• The village Blacksmith who makes weapons for Sam
• Chief’s daughter – if you complete the task she will marry Sam

Sam begins his journey collecting food along the way while fighting enemies such as spiders, pterodactyls, dinosaurs, bats, and penguins. There are twenty-two levels to beat (they are pretty straight-forward) and three dinosaur bosses along the way. When you defeat an enemy you get either bones or hearts that increase your health. Bones can be used to buy continues if need be.

Sam uses his club to smash but also makes use of other weapons that he will need to complete each level, some include the hang glider, wheel, pogostick, and raft. Sam also can collect the word BONUS (spread out in different levels) taking him directly to a bonus room to collect presents and 1-ups. He can also spend twenty bones to collect a password save to jot down your progress along the way.

Graphics and Controls:

This 2D platform game is dated back to the Snes. The graphics are colorful considering this game is almost fifteen years old. The dinosaur Bosses are shaded nicely and the environments look good. On the DS Lite Sam is controlled by hitting A to jump and B to swing / hit with his weapons. The Right button makes him scream and the Left button plus up / down on directional pad to make him look up or down. Sam will take advantage of leaping off ledges, moving rocks and other objects to make his way to the end of each level.

Music and Sound:

Simple but effective soundtrack that include a mix of techno and some jazzy tones. Sam makes alot of yelling sounds and the various enemies each have dated sounds. I’m basing this game on replay value which was high for me -so the soundtrack really didn’t effect my gameplay.

The Bottom Line:

Prehistorik Man is one of those games that I can’t stop playing. Its very simple but addicting and the reply value is high. I’ve gone back to the game many times to play it and as much as I’ve seen it I still love to play it. It might not be graphically intensive or have the best soundtrack but it sure has special meaning to me and will remain one of my all time favorites.

Final Score for Prehistorik Man:

8.5 out of 10