It’s hunting time for your pack of dinosaurs. The field is flush full of archaeopteryx, ripe for the picking. But beware, because not every dinosaur is an Apex predator. Even the quick velociraptor isn’t safe from the mighty T-rex. That’s right, there is a pecking order in Dino World where the big prey on the small. But at the end of the day, they are all points for you if your skills are up to the task.
Dino World is a flicking dexterity game for 2-4 players that takes about 10 minutes to play. Dino World plays well at all player counts.
Gameplay Overview:
Each player in Dino World starts with 9 of dinosaurs in different sizes (from 4 raptors up to 1 T-rex). The table is seeded with a bunch of archaeopteryx cards and the first player starts their hunt.
On a player’s turn, they choose one of their dinosaur cards and place it on top of the Dino World box. They then flick the dinosaur card onto the table. Any dinosaurs the card lands on top of AND is smaller than the dinosaur flicked may collect into their score pile. The dinosaur just flicked stays on the table. Then the next player takes their turn.
After all, dinosaurs have been sent out to hunt, players count up the dinosaurs in their score pile (1 point per card regardless of size). The player with the most points wins.
Game Experience:
As with most HABA games, hunting with Dino World is easy to get going. Hand out the cards, seed the table with archaeopteryx cards, and get started. Players can be up and running in minutes. The flicking aspect of the game is also fairly smooth and easier than other games in the same genre (no doors to try and go through like in Ice Cool).
I also appreciated how the theme integrated with the game. You can only collect dinosaurs that are smaller than the one you sent out to hunt with, which makes sense. It was also interesting that you leave the dino you hunted without in the field as potential prey for future hunters. That also leads to some interesting decisions as to when is the best time to use each size of dinosaur. The T-rex, being the biggest, has no natural predators. But you also don’t want to waste him. If you spot a large grouping of dinos, being the first to grab them with your T-rex and mean a lot of points.
Overall the gameplay is pretty smooth in Dino World. However, we did find it a bit finicky trying to collect the dinosaurs you pounced on. You are not supposed to move any other cards, but it’s almost impossible to collect stuff in the middle without disturbing at least some other cards. Fortunately, this is a casual filler and not a tactical skirmish game. Most players didn’t care.
We tested this out with quite a few children and all had a fun time launching their dinos into the park. While the strategy was mostly lost on them, they still enjoyed collecting prey after successful hunts. And the rules were easy enough for our testers that they were easily able to play without us after a game, meaning this one is an easy choice to hand off to the kids to keep them busy for a while. Be warned though that cards will go flying and some might get damaged. However, HABA has always been great with replacement parts (knowing their target audience).
Final Thoughts:
Dino World was another solid offering from family games guru HABA Games. While it didn’t have the exciting moments that you’d get from a game like Rhino Hero, it does use its theme quite well. I will say that the bigger the table, the better with Dino World, as it can be a lot of fun to flick the dinosaurs a great distance and allows you to spread out the creatures a bit more. While Dino World may be a one-trick pony, it does do that trick well. If you are looking for an inexpensive game to keep the little ones occupied for a few moments of peace, Dino World is a good choice.
Final Score: 3.5 Stars – A solid flicking game that uses its theme really well.
Hits:
• Easy to learn rules, kids can play on their own
• Good use of the theme
• Some tactical decision to make
Misses:
• Claiming cards can be a little fiddly
• Not much different from game to game
