Prehistoric Isle . . . the game that'll make you never want to travel to the Bahamas ever again!!
There is no real main menu to speak of in this game, you basically just hit the Start button at the title screen and the game launches. The first thing you will see is a map of the Caribbean with a close-up of the island you are set to explore, known as "Greenhell Isle". Then you are taken to the game action. There are just five total stages in the game and they are called inquiries. The next five paragraphs will give a brief description of said inquiries.
The first inquiry is simply titled "Forest". In this introductory stage you fly your plane over the terrain of the lush jungle below, taking out Pterodactyls, jumping cavemen, what look to be Ankylosaurus', as well as these large swarming insects. Eventually you'll come across the halfway boss, a giant Brachiosaurus! After destroying it you move along, flying through some tighter confines amongst some waterfalls, and take out more Pterodactyls. Finally you'll come upon the ultimate boss of the stage, an Allosaurus, who spits fireballs and is a good jumper.
The second inquiry is called "Airborne" and it takes you way up in to the sky, above the clouds. You'll soar along, taking out Pterodactyls as well as these large flying insects that spit out smaller versions of themselves at you. Not long in to the stage you'll come across the lone boss, a Rhamphorhynchus.
Third comes the "On the Ground" inquiry. Flying closer to the surface of Greenhell Isle you first navigate some rocky canyons and face off against Pterodactyls, this new breed of what looks like walking Ankylosaurus', some bat type creatures carrying cavemen in their talons, jumping swordfish, and these bizarre dinos that can walk on the ceilings of the canyons and shoot their head tentacles at you! Eventually you'll come to the halfway boss, a large unknown abomination of a dinosaur that is green and has boils all over it. It kind of looks like the Star Wars space slug from Empire, only a complete and utter freak. After putting it out of it's misery you continue along past some waterfalls, face off against more of the same types of enemies as earlier in the stage as well as a new type of small, annoying insect, before entering a cave filled with dinosaur skeletons. The boss then takes the opportunity to show up, an Ancient Coleoptera.
The fourth inquiry is called "Bottom of the Sea". Your plane converts in to some manner of submarine and then heads out to patrol the ocean beneath the waves surrounding Greenhell Isle. You'll have to explore the coral reef while fighting off hordes of conchs, prehistoric eels, large crabs, some sort of tentacle coral, and jellyfish. Eventually you'll face a halfway boss called an Archelon, which resembles a large, fierce looking turtle that shoots it's babies at you! Moving along afterwards you pass a shipwreck and face more conchs, jellyfish, these weird blue blobs, and eels. You'll then move up through the decks of another nearby shipwreck and proceed to face more of these same underwater enemies. All of a sudden a horde of jellyfish will attack and the water turns ink black for a short spell. When the light returns you are falling through the water beside a sinking ship, as the wreck goes down two dragon heads poke out of it's hull and attack you. After dispatching them and coming to a stop you'll find a living coral cave where the final boss attacks, called an Amonite (a large conch it appears to be).
The fifth and final inquiry is called "Underground". Play starts off in an underground cave, right off the hop you have to engage Pterodactyls, those large bats that carry cavemen in their talons, some manner of flying caterpillar, some flying insects, followed by a tough sequence of numerous Pterodactyls and a handful of flying caterpillars. Afterwards a halfway boss shows up, a Stegosaur, but he is easily dealt with. Moving along after this battle you take on more flying insects before coming to a new part of the cave, which itself seems to be living. Soon after you'll begin dropping downwards through some shafts, battling as well as avoiding various types of Pterodactyls and flying insects. At the end of your descent you then navigate through some tunnels and destroy these large mosquito looking creatures, before flying over a sea of lava. While flying over said lava you need to blast away at numerous Pterodactyls as well as avoid the bubbling lava that randomly shoots up from below. Not long afterwards you come to the game's final boss . . . a massive green Tyrannosaur!!! Defeat him and you've won the game . . .
When you are out in the game there are a few items to look out for. They originally come in the form of these whitish yellow eggs that will be floating through the air from time to time, shoot them and they will reveal a special item. The most important of these items is a silver and red pod with a P in the middle of it, this powerup represents your plane's secondary weapon. When you pick it up the pod will attach to the front of your plane, and when you fire your regular machine guns from that point onwards your secondary weapon pod will also then fire. It is a pretty versatile weapon as it can be rotated around the outside of your plane to fire from different positions. When it is at the front of your place it beefs up your machine guns in to a way more powerful type of gun, when it is directly below or above your plane it sends out wide waves of destructive energy, when it's at either the bottom right or left corner of your plane it drops bombs on objects below you, when it's at either the top right or left corner of your plane it shoots out large orbs of rebounding energy, and when it's placed at the very back of your plane it leaves behind exploding mines. When you take a hit from an enemy though, you will lose your secondary weapon and have to look for a new one. You can also pick up multiple numbers of these powerups, each time you do your secondary weapon will become slightly more powerful. The next two items are a bit less important however. The gold and red dollar sign gives you a points bonus (of varying amounts), and the black and gold S temporarily speeds up the movements of your plane. The final item, and easily the most rare, is a black orb with an S in the middle of it. When you grab it it attaches to your secondary weapon. When fired it launches off as a bomb, destroying all enemies on the screen (I only ever came across this item once, actually).
The game screen is pretty sparse for Prehistoric Isle, all information is displayed in a band across the top of the screen. In the top left corner there are small icons of your red biplane, these represent how many lives you have left at your disposal. Immediately below these icons is a number indicating your current game score. In the top middle of the screen is the current high score, and in the top right corner of the screen is the same information as in the top left but for the second player, if applicable. During the game, when you run in to one of the dinosaur bosses, a bunch of information on the dinosaur in question (it's name, height, length, weight, etc.) will be displayed in the center of the screen. And that's it I do believe!
As for the pause screen, there are seven options to choose from there, including: Resume, Restart, Save, Load, toggle between Screen Normal/Screen Stretched, Game Settings (set number of lives between 2-5, toggle between Continues Allowed/No Continues, and toggle between Easy/Normal/Hard/Hardest difficulty levels) & Controls (view current control scheme and make any changes as you see fit).
The control scheme for this game is very simple as well. To move your plane around it's environments you have the option of using either the directional buttons or the analog button. To shoot your weapons press the X button, to rotate your secondary weapon around the plane press and hold the O button, and to "Coin" press the Triangle button (when you press it the game makes the sound of a coin entering an arcade machine, but nothing else seems to happen, I think it actually may purchase you extra continues, that's the only thing I can come up with). And finally the Select button is what you use to halt the action and bring up the pause menu.
For being a relatively simple game the presentation behind Prehistoric Isle is pretty damn good. I think it must have been a Neo Geo title as it shares a lot of that same unique look from previous Neo Geo staples I've played, such as Shock Troopers and the Metal Slug series. For being a pretty old and basic game the graphics are actually really good, there is a lot of sharp detail and colour that went in to creating the dinosaurs and their environments. Sound and gameplay are very solid also, and the side-scrolling nature of it means there are no issues with regards to camera angles and what not. The controls are spot on also, no issues to be had.
The pros certainly outweigh the cons in this game, but the lone con is a pretty big one. First the good. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love the way these Neo Go games look, they have such a fresh and unique vibe to them. The amount of detail they put in to them really goes a long way. Second of all I think the premise behind this game is really cool and original, especially given the time it was released, well before the Jurassic Park craze had ever hit. I've loved dinosaurs ever since I was a kid, so getting a chance to battle them in a game like this is pretty neat. Last is the fun factor involved. Prehistoric Isle is a simple side scrolling, shoot 'em up game, where you get to take down some pretty cool looking dinosaurs and other assorted creatures. The fast paced, adventurous nature of the game combined with it's easy gameplay make it a whole lot of fun to play. Games like this prove that bigger, better and fancier is not always the way to go when thinking about what kinds of games to purchase. As for cons, the only one I could think of is that this game is way too short. Although the stages themselves are a pretty good length (with the exception of inquiry two) there are only five in total, meaning that's not a lot of total game to play. I barely felt like I had started Prehistoric Isle before I met up with that giant T-Rex and ended the game, it was over in a flash! Another couple of stages, or even an alternative game mode, would have gone a long way towards resolving this issue.
I don't really have much to offer in terms of tips and tricks, this is a pretty straightforward game that most people should figure out fairly easily. I would just say to make use of your secondary weapon as much as possible, experiment with the different positioning options and figure out how to maximize it's destructive potential in any given situation. Also try not to get hit (duh!), as the more secondary weapons you pick up the more powerful you'll become. Losing that extra wallop when you take a hit certainly hurts. Finally, just as with Shock Troopers you are able to pause the game and save your progress at any given point. So in order to make sure you complete the game with the number of lives you chose to start with, you can save after you make some good progress, and on the flip side choose to reload from your last save point if you run in to some serious trouble and underachieve, thinking you could probably redo it a little better.
In summary, although way too short the dino sized excitement Prehistoric Isle serves up is akin to seeing a T-Rex chasing your Jeep in the side view mirror . . . impossible to ignore!