Woot! Who's ready to whip up some awesome dinosaurs?! Just scan bar codes!
It just doesn't work. The scanner can't read bar codes very well, and there's this extremely irritating blare when it doesn't. It gives you only a piece or two of DNA for each bar code, and you need lots of this stuff. You can share DNA with other people, but you'd be hard-pressed to find someone else with this game. My scanner broke after about a year, good thing I didn't care that much.
This game can be really hard if you approach it wrong. Here's what you do:
1. Fill the DNA puzzles as much as possible. As far as I know, the type of DNA you use doesn't matter too much, besides Energy and Strength. Those two are important.
2. Wander around the island fighting dinosaurs weaker than you, eventually you'll stumble across a newer kind and you get an update for one of your attacks. Take all the DNA from the outdated attack and use it to fill the new one.
3. When you do fight the 'boss' of the particular island you are on, don't charge in head-on. I kept my dino on flank in almost every fight. Attack when they stop too rest, rest before you get too tired, and use your most powerful attack almost exclusively.
4. Choose one dino and stick with it. All the others are basically useless, since you don't have enough time to really beef them up. The triceratops and t-rex are particularly weak.
5. Velociraptors are usually the key. They're small and harder to hit, they're faster, and since they're the first dino you get, they have the most juice.
That's about it. Really, Dinosaur Battles is the same game, but without the scanner. I think you get DNA for fighting. I got both for Christmas years ago, and you can imagine my disappointment.