Last week I didn't do the two respective weekly Retro Reviews because I was basically lazy, but at least I came back to talk about movies, which was Mortal Kombat 2021, which I thought was a piece of crap with very few highlights. This week, again procrastination attacked me and I only did one review, even though I have several drafts of other Retro Reviews, but I haven't finished them yet. But this review was almost ready, so I decided to play again to finish with some details of this game. It's a pretty fun one, very unknown and worth playing.
Today's Retro Review is about: Dyna Gear.
A simple story like many games of this genre, especially when Dyna Gear was released on the old Arcade Machines. The story centers on Roger, who finds himself chasing a criminal, Guftaf. Such a chase is so intense that these two characters go into space. At some point in the vastness of space, Guftaf travels to the past, many years ago, approximately 65 million years in the past, so Roger also follows him.
When they meet again, but in a different time, these Roger and Guftaf begin a space battle, in which the ships of these two characters are damaged, to such an extent that they fall and crash on the nearest planet. Upon arrival, Roger realizes something incredible and is that the planet where he is there are dinosaurs and prehistoric animals of that time. Quickly, Roger meets a Furry... that is, a werewolf named Wolf (+10 in originality) who decides to help Roger to find Guftaf, who strangely now controls many dinosaurs because the script of this game wanted it that way.Graphically it is a game that is quite good, with a lot of color and design of scenarios very well implemented. There is quite a variety of places to explore, each with its specific elements and characteristics that make them different from each other. We will be able to go from jungles, mountains, deserts, even buildings like castles, there is enough variety of scenery, something that is quite necessary in games of this genre to not be boring and monotonous. It is a very colorful game, the color palette is varied and with very bright colors, as well as the textures, they are quite good for a game of this style.
The character design in general is also very good, especially the design of the dinosaurs, which without being something spectacular are quite optimal and fit very well with the scenarios and their environment. They are also quite colorful, with much brighter colors than the scenery, but still, they look good. On the other hand the design of the main characters are quite simple, it is one of the few games in which other character designs stand out more than the main ones.
The music is regular, there are melodies that are fine and fit very well both with the scenarios and in some specific moments of the game, but in general terms it does not stand out much. And this is something very important in games of the genre Run and Gun/Action/Platformer/Scroll Lateral, music, music in a game as frenetic as this is necessary, but it is necessary that it is good for a greater motivation. But at least I can say that despite that it manages to fulfill, in certain moments, its main objective. The sound effects on the other hand, despite not being spectacular, sound good and like certain melodies, manage to fulfill their purpose.
(I couldn't find the soundtrack for this game anywhere, so here is a gameplay so you can hear it.)
Dyna Gear is a game that can be categorized as "side scrolling action and platformer", but it can also be considered as a run and gun (due to certain elements), but it is actually a mix of all these genres that turns out to be a pretty decent title with simple mechanics, but well implemented and explained. It's a pretty frantic game, full of action from start to finish, we must attack our enemies, dodge their attacks and jump on platforms throughout the game. In itself, this game has fairly simple mechanics that respond very well to what we want to do, so learning is quite fast.
Roger (the protagonist of the game) can attack with different types of weapons that we will get in the scenarios, you can throw swords, axes or use mallets as a weapon. The types of weapons available are quite varied and are very entertaining to use due to the fast gameplay of this game. Wolf will help us in certain parts of the story, which will be controlled by the game's AI, is quite useful and will eliminate enemies with his fists. It has a pretty good level of replayability as there are certain paths to choose from, so as good video game completists we should be able to see those different paths available.
Dyna Gear is a pretty good game, frenetic and very fun, full of action and although it does not innovate in almost anything, it is certainly one of those games worth playing at least once.
