Minis Review - Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter

For those that have not experienced the Carnivores series from Beatshapers, the best summary would be a cross between Turok and Cabela’s Big Game Hunter. It is your task to hunt down a specific dinosaur on the map to add them to your trophy room. The real question is does the mini hold up well enough to warrant a purchase?

Carnivores puts you in the shoes of a lone hunter as you trek across fairly large maps, especially considering it’s a PlayStation miniS. Throughout these maps there will be various dinosaurs roaming around. In total there are 5 different maps to explore through, only 2 are unlocked initially. Two unlock the others you must earn credits by hunting, which will eventually net you enough to purchase the new areas.

Now to hunt dinosaurs you are definitely going to need some weapons along the way, there are definitely a handful here, ranging from a pistol to double barrel shotguns. These are another thing that must be unlocked, seeing as how you only start out with the pistol, and that is definitely not enough to bring down some of the larger dinosaurs. So choosing the correct weapon to bring along for a particular dinosaur definitely needs to be taken into account.

Speaking of dinosaurs, there a handful to choose from when going out on your hunt. There are a total of 9 dinosaurs to choose from when beginning your hunting expedition, ranging from a stegosaurus to the king of dinosaurs, the tyrannosaurus rex. Each one reacts differently, meaning some may be violent while others are not. Upon successfully completing a hunt the trophy will be added to your trophy room that can be fully walked through by your character. Should you fail a hunt it is most likely stemming from the fact that your hunter got eaten by the dinosaur that you were hunting.

While out hunting there will be many other dinosaurs that will also be traveling around the maps as well. The only problem being, is that none of these truly count when hunting them as well. They are not added to your trophy room, nor do they add to your score.

The controls do take some getting used to, since movement is mapped to the face buttons and camera control is controlled via the left analog stick. Overall they work well with the way they are implemented, especially given that many people will be playing it on the go while on their PSP or PSPgo.

Graphically the game looks fairly good on the PSPgo for a PSP miniS, considering the game was initially released on the App Store. Though just like other miniS, when playing on PS3 it really shows how bad some of the things like the textures look. It is nothing game breaking by any means though, especially considering most people will play this on their PSP’s.

Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter is a good game for those looking to pick up a hunting game that takes a different route, given that you are hunting dinosaurs. If you are a fan of hunting games like the Cabela’s Big Game Hunter then this is definitely a game you should give a look. While it does make some wonder why there aren’t more dinosaurs to hunt, and take some time to get used to the controls, the game is a lot of fun for an on the go hunting experience.