There aren’t enough games like Pokemon Snap in the world — there just aren’t, even though it was released nearly 20 years ago. I’d like to think that Nintendo and The Pokemon Company are sitting on the concept, ready with a tiny hammer to smash a glass container somewhere with the code for a mobile edition, but we aren’t there yet. Instead, we’ll have to deal with the various “tourist" and survival sandbox games we have now, which get us ever closer to that fully realized open world Snap many of us long for. Thankfully, Jurassic Go – Dinosaur Snap Adventures ($3.99) is helping us get one step closer.
Don’t get too excited, Jurassic Go is still on rails, but it’s delightful, and manages to forge its own personality that doesn’t lead it into knockoff territory. The gist is that you’re called upon as an ace photographer to take photos of a “Dino Museum," spanning multiple islands and locales. There’s no over-arching story, no “oh my goodness, evil forces are taking over" shtick — it’s just a cute setup and an excuse to take lots of cool pictures of weird creatures.
If that sounds underwhelming, don’t fret, because it really grows on you. I mean, your museum can literally grow as you make use of the meaningful progression system that adds more tourists to your island and unlock new zones, but the entire premise is endearing as well. I loved getting the chance to meet new animals, especially when one would escape me at the last second, ducking behind a tree or something.
It’s a chill experience, facilitated by the touchscreen controls and first-person view. All you have to do is move around and manipulate the camera by way of swiping, and tap to take a picture. It’s deliciously simple and there’s very little in the way of mistakes or accidental clicking because the inputs feel so spot-on. There is a little interactivity as some creatures need to be coaxed out of hiding with things like music (all done with a simple on-screen button), but for the most part this is about watching, listening, and reacting.
There’s a ton of replay value too, as you can earn points based on the size, location, and angle of your shot, and earn bonuses for things like catching them in an excited mood. Snapping the perfect frame isn’t something that’s necessarily needed to coast through the game, but it’s a way to return to old areas in an attempt to truly master them. Plus there’s an achievement system for additional shots of animals doing actions like jumping and frolicking. Well, there’s that, and you have a specific amount of pictures you can take in a run, so it’s important to make sure that they count. It’s a small skill-based concession, but I don’t mind going back in to try again.
Really, those “perfect" shots aren’t easy to get — most of the time I’m looking around at the bright, lush environments. For such a simple game a lot of time was spent on the locales themselves, and I’m frequently missing shots looking up at some of the giant trees. The jazzy music also does a great job of getting me in the mood.
If I had one issue, it’s probably with the “building" element of the game. It’s very carefully streamlined at the start, and doesn’t really let up in terms of the hand-holding later on. Things like bridges and buildings can only be placed in specific locations, and there isn’t much wriggle-room in any way. It would have been amazing to create an island entirely if your own design, but alas, you’ll have to settle for a robust touring system instead. Consider it part of my wishlist for a follow-up.
As a premium game you’re getting everything, and as a result it feels like a fully-fledged adventure. Unlike their previous effort Snapimals, it feels great to be able to just take pictures at will and not have to worry about whether a certain shot is “worth it" because you are micromanaging gems and currencies behind the scenes. As a result, it feels less predatory, and I hope it’s a trend that developer Bebopbee continues with. If you pine for the days of taking pictures of lone Pikachus out in the wild on the Nintendo 64, this is a great way to relive your glory days.
Jurassic Go might not be as memorable in say, 15 years, but it’s a unique game that has a lot of heart. Instead of creating new IPs they may as well just go with this one again for their next creation.
I love this game.
And while i can definitely understand the power of nostalgia on the SNES, the quality of life improvements of the mobile port are very hard to overlook once youve experienced them.
This is still one of the finest JRPG, even after all these years.
Was very nice to read about my favorite Final Fantasy from a "today" perspective !
Man these rpg reloads are amazing. I'm so happy someone from my generation is writing this stuff down. And as a kid playing FF I had no clue about any of the history of these games. The thing that bugs me the most w these mobile ports is the characters' enormous heads and the updated graphics. I guess I'm just old but I'd love to play these games w the original 8 and 16 bit graphics.
Remember finishing this back in the old days and realizing that I missed a character (the yeti looking creature) in the end credits :(
I never played this when i was a kid, ive played at the ripe of old age of 28 lol
Its why i could never understand the fuss. The touch controls on mobile version ios are almost game breaking for me as there is no fixed joystick, it is poorly implemented but maybe its me as not many people have mentioned it?
So yeah sadly i guess i missed out on the true magic of this game by not playing it when it would have probably made the best impact.....when i was a kid.
One of your best reloads Shaun, maybe the best.
As for me I have yet to beat this. I'm replaying on iOS now. I agree the visuals are a mixed bag. Some parts are stunning (lile the backgrounds), but some parts not so much. I thought the sprites would bug me most, but the worst offender must be Figaro. Also the beginning walk looked so different, it didn't give the same lonely feel. But the music as you say sounds amazing. And I can actually just pop up my phone to play it. It has cloud saves and lots of neat features. The Bestiary looks great! And I love getting to decide 8 or 4 ways (4) joystick. I actually like it isn't fixed, but I could wish for it being a tiny bit more responsive. When I got my first phone I couldn't even dream I would some day be able to play games of this caliber on my phone. Hey, I was playing snake..
I love the feel of this game. I haven't gotten far enough in V to say if it is a real contender, but I can definitely see how it would be for a more mature audience. Seeing how I'm 30 that should be me too I guess, but I never got to play much games. I delved into my interest as a grown up amd with DQVIII, FFX and KH discovered Rpg's. So instead of diving into rpg's I was making paper game boys' in my room until my parents finally decided I could have a real one. After which I played the first three levels of Speedy Gonzales 'till I must have been green. So I'm discovering all these now. This one has a beutiful color palette which sits well with me. The music is as you say among his masterpieces. I also love To Zanarkand. And the gameplay is great.
So even though my heart still holds a very special place for FFX, this one is the one I see as the best. It might change when I get to the job part in FFV for real though, who knows.
I have a question. The PSN port. I have it, didn't know not to buy it at that time. Is there any game breaking bugs? The loading times are awful, but it looks stunning on my Vita. I will finish iOS version first, but I might want to see the graphics in all their glory on a handheld. But I would hate my game breaking 40 hours in...
Some graphical glitches can occur while saving, and many of the bugs from the SNES version carry over as well. Be very careful with Relm's Sketch command. I think that's the only real gamebreaker, but I could be wrong.
Apparently, the Sketch glitch WAS fixed, but the Evasion glitch WASN'T -- Evasion is a meaningless stat, while Magic Evasion does double duty as physical evasion as well. Not quite game-destroying, but certainly really major!
It's a bit sad. Weird that theey release with such glitches. Moneygrab maybe.
Thanks.
Yeah, this Reload is definitely now in my top 5 Reloads of all-time. It'll stay there forever... Probably.
My take is YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH, SHAUN MUSGRAVE, FFVI IS PERFECT IN EVERY WAY. Er... well, maybe nostalgia has a stronger grip on me? I'm somewhat younger than you, but we weren't allowed to play RPGs as kids. My brother would go over to a friend's house and play FF3 there, then come home and regale me with stories. I'm not even sure if my 8-year old self understood they were from a video game or not, they formed a persistent canon of legends that were a part of my childhood. I think I probably started to actually play the game around the age you were, but by that time, I had been immersed in its story for years. Actually getting to SEE these legends come to life, to experience first-hand this world I had heard of and dreamt of during some of my most formative years, was a singular experience, to say the least. Every single thing about VI is larger than life for me, and I don't see how it could ever stop being so... even after my 13th playthrough.
This reload has made me very happy. Thank you for your work as always, but especially today.
13th play wtf ok maybe i should at least play more then 4 hours of the game before i decide i dont feel the magic.
I think the only thing for me is the touch controls are awful! Seriously i am a master with touch controls, i can even play fps very easily online and dominate most times........but for some reason my fingers constantly are floating off, well actually its the responsiveness of the joystick. If this was sorted i would defo enjoy it more instead of being aggravated over the controls, as it breaks the immersion. For me that is always how i judge a game, how immersive it is for me, so anything that subtracts from that is always going to spoil part of a game. But man how you write about it makes me wanna give it another chance....
Aw, I really hope you can get to like it. I know what it's like to have one aspect of a game ruin the rest of it for me. But there's just hardly any game -- anywhere -- that's more worth an investment of time than FFVI, as I see it, and there's NO game that has immersed me as much as it has. It really feels like a living, breathing world, with an extensive history, that you happen to dip into.
And by the way. For the graphical style, at least for me, give it a couple of hours and you stop really noticing and begin enjoying its' highlights.
Thanks once again for another amazingly well-researched and lovingly-written RPG reload Shaun. I envy the depth of your knowledge with these games and it's such a treat to read every one (especially when it's a series as legendary as this). Detailed articles like this are part of what makes TouchArcade one of the best gaming sites around, mobile haters be damned.
Played this briefly as a kid like FF7 was happy to reunite and finally beat this. This was my favourite FF!
My first experience playing this game properly came on February 5, 2014 at close to 11:30pm, according to the screenshots I took. I had seen some gameplay of it on GBA and watched the intro on YouTube. But actually experiencing the opening was still better than I imagined.
Since I never experienced FF as a kid, and first watched someone play VII while in high school and started playing IX while in my 20's, playing the earlier games never really gripped me with their stories. I always felt there was a bit too much of everything. It's hard for me to relate to Kings and magic-users (being a muggle, myself), but the gameplay and music has sucked me into the FF series. Even reading and writing this, I've been listening to FFVI Grand Finale. Just beautiful.
VI isn't my favorite FF, but it's setting, music, and gameplay have invited me to keep coming back to it on and off. And maybe that's another reason the story doesn't flow as much for me. I stop it for prolonged times of grinding, taking breaks, grinding more, and returning to the story much later. I look forward to jumping back in after reading this article, though. As usual, you've encouraged me to enjoy yet another RPG even more. Thank you.
Beautiful, and melancholic, read, Shaun Thanks very much. I'm from the same generation, but I was a Sega/Amiga kid around that time, so didn't experience any Square Enix games until FFVII. I can probably drum up some misty-eyed reverie about Phantasy Star, but I don't think I could go back to it now. FFVI has been burning a whole in my RPG folder for some time now - just need to finish FFIX first!
My first Final Fantasy and for some reason one I enjoyed the least, normally it's th So many things bugged me being a JRPG noob, from random battles to a soundtrack I perceived as twee and lame even though I couldn't get it out of my head. I resented the fact that it couldn't be muted, seemed such an arrogant developer decision considering the length of these games. Surprised I stuck with the genre but I did and have enjoyed pretty much every FF game I've played since. The music has grown on me but random battles will always be an annoyance, seemed to take many years before developers realised this.
"I could write twice as much, but half as many would read it..."
Nope? :)
You know Shaun...
When there is interesting article from You, this sequance of actions appears in my case:
step 1 - open article, scroll down
Jeez, this is long...I don't like reading (I am afraid of these small bstards called letters)
step 2 - read article to the very last word
Jeez, already finished? That was short...
step 3 - read comments
Jeez, people are talking about the topic. And they are talking seriously with good manners. And plenty of new informations for me. Yay!
Thx
Thanks for the excellent read Shaun! This game has been near and dear to my heart since '95 and it's great to hear the story of someone else getting just as immersed in it as I did. Oh man! The Phantom Forest and The Phantom Train... such good stuff!
What?! As much as I love Final Fantasy VI (it's my favorite in the series). To say that Final Fantasy IV was hamfisted or hackneyed is completely wrong. Final Fantasy IV still holds up as an amazing game, especially after its remaster. It's story was several levels deeper than anything that came out at that time.
I don't think FF4 is *that* hackneyed relative to its time, but it is pretty hamfisted. It uses dramatic "deaths" to solve far too many narrative problems, does silly brainwashing heel-face-heel turns, and has the main character have a literal battle with his dark side from which he comes out squeaky-clean and heroic. For it's time, it was definitely above-average, but I could look at earlier JRPGs like Mother, Dragon Quest 4, or Phantasy Star 2 and come away with more eloquently-told stories. Even Final Fantasy 3 has more depth to its story, in my opinion. That's not even getting into what was going on with WRPGs of the time.
I'll grant that the 3D version of FF4 comes out a little better, but none of those improvements came from Sakaguchi. Which is fine! The guy has his talents, and he directed my favorite FF, but storytelling was something he was picking up as he went along (like most game directors of the time) and it showed.
Yes but you keep overlooking the "for it's time" bit. There weren't many games with stories such as FFIV when it came out. Sure it might seem hamfisted now but it was deep and engaging when it came out. And I believe it holds up very well compared to other older RPGs. Sure Mother and Phantasy Star 2 were great and unique RPG's but their stories weren't really all that deep when you got past the fact that they weren't the typical swords & sorcery stories.
Reading this i downloaded FF VI again on my phone, revived it from my long list of backlog. Hope i can actually have the time to play it now
I logged SO MANY hours on FF3 (US) back when it first came out - but not so many that I ran the clock out. Didn't realize you could do that! I too spent those grinding hours in the Dino-shaped woods to fight the brontosaurs for massive XP (hate when they get you in a pincer move and use Meteor). I got several of my major players to max levels, and mainly spent time trying to 100% other things - like getting all the Lores, or all Mog's dances (the convoluted path to getting the Water Rondo!), trying and failing to get all of Gau's rages... The book that kept me company for this was a marvelous guide by Peter Olafson. He didn't tell you what to do step by step, he just wrote a narrative for the game and told you where to find things on your own. It read like a story, and I still page through it sometimes!
Shaun, your articles always do capture the player's heart and mindset with gaming, esp these Reloads. I loved your perspective on how the FFVI experience changed for you as YOU changed. I still love it, but I don't play it often (and won't get the iOS version just because I prefer an actual controller with a real d-pad). It's like with your favorite music, the songs that really move you emotionally - you don't want to play them TOO often and become desensitized to what makes them special. Same with certain games, for me.
Competing with you for word count now. Thanks for another great read!
This was my second FF game. I played 2/4 prior. I must've played it when it came out in 94 when I was 12. I remember setting up a corner in the living room with a bunch of cushions from various couches and playing straight for 24 hours. My friend from down the street would pop in and out when he was allowed. I finally remember stopping at the floating continent for a break to sleep. I just fell in love with everything about the game. No FF or RPG since has really pulled me in as much.
When it came out for mobile I bought it right away. The graphics bug the hell out of me. I never finished it again on mobile. Not sure if it's the graphics or something else but I still would like to finish it again.
It would be amazing to be able to go back and experience it again for the first time as a kid.
Hi Shaun, great write up as usual. I use the app mainly to follow the reload so keep up the good work next year.
I'd be interested to know your detailed thoughts on classic RPGs that didn't make it to iOS, and insider knowledge on the challenges behind such a feat, why its not viable or ones that would potentially work but not yet happened. Games such as Terranigma/Evermore etc to name but a few.
I'll keep an eye out with fingers crossed as I am sure many of us would find it interesting :)
The game well known to have over a hundred bugs (even after GBA/mobile fixing time) had painless development? I note your sarcasm. I agree with you that 5 has far and away overtaken 6 in my lists now however.
It's rather unfortunate that even with the mobile release, no one really bothered to check up the rest of the problems and that it's still left up to fans to fix the bugs. Oh well, at least we have Ted Woolsey Uncensored, C.V. Reynolds' bugfix compilation, and the Relocalization Project for different visions of a fixed up original.
Finally got FFVI thanks to you, Shaun. The best parts of your reviews are when you talk about how a game can change a life, and your discussion of how a game changes for you as you change, was a favorite. Well done.