Gigantosaurus The Game Switch Review – Jumpin’ Dinos!

Gigantosaurus The Game is a game based on the French preschool animated series Gigantosaurus. It is a simple game, obviously, since its primary target is young children, but do not let that fool you. Gigantosaurus The Game is a bit more than meets the eyes, and this is one dino game that you may want to sink your teeth into. But is this a game that you should go and buy now? Or can this wait? Well, let’s find out!

Gigantosaurus The Game has a fun little story that kids will immediately connect with. You play as a ragtag team of young dinosaurs that happen to get involved with some raptors who are stealing eggs for their own enjoyment. It paints the simple narrative of good versus evil, and it is quite effective.

The game is even fully narrated in rhyme. It is not the most engaging story, but for children, it is quite entertaining, easy to understand and follow, and provides a nice sense of wonder.

You are simply tasked with finding and protecting eggs that are scattered around the lands and eventually saving the whole world! Along the way, the narrative provides some more objectives, but the primary one is to stop the evil raptors and save Giganto.

As I said, it is an effective story for children where the lines are drawn very clearly. A great little tale for young minds.

To my surprise, in regards to gameplay, Gigantosaurus The Game plays a lot like old 3D platformers similar to Banjo and Kazooie. It has a fun overworld with lots of things of random things to do, and the platforming is particularly fun! But it is not just a 3D platformer. It is also a racer between different worlds!

There are lots of little powerups that you can use to roll around, jump higher, and float across large gaps just to name a few. They are clear as day to see, so it is easy to recognize when things are able to be interacted with.

Since the goal of the game is tackling certain major objectives, like collecting eggs, much of what you do will be heading towards those areas. The map is really helpful, and as new objectives come up, it is cool to see what else you can accomplish on the way to major objectives.

The platforming is a lot of fun, and there are various types of platforms to jump and climb on around the world. Each objective’s difficulty can range from super-simple to having to think a little bit about how to do things, which is a great balance for a children’s game. When I played with my kids, never did they feel defeated by the game. Actually, they always felt encouraged and loved trying to solve some of the more slightly difficult puzzles/platforms.

And that helps me to segway into one of the best points in the game, and that is drop-in/drop-out co-op. Up to four players can play at a time, and it is actually a ton of fun! I enjoyed some wonderful gaming sessions with my children, and we all had a good time collecting things together, solving puzzles, and clearing objectives en route to saving the world. You can tell that multiplayer was a cornerstone in development, because it feels way too natural, much more so than playing alone.

Racing against each other, especially, is a lot of fun and something I wish the game focused on a bit more. The four-player splitscreen while racing brought me back to some good ol’ days where my family and I played Super Mario Kart in the SNES.

Unfortunately, I do need to point out one major flaw, and that is the camera during the platforming. It can be quite infuriating at times, and that frustration is even more escalated during multiplayer. You cannot control the camera at all, which means it turns automatically and can feel a bit sporadic at times. This can be a bit annoying when trying to navigate the map, because it points by the direction of the camera and not by the direction you are facing, which is a bit disorienting.

But the game is still simple and controls really well, and since it is a kid’s game, it is really hard to die so the poor camera can easily be forgiven.

Overall, though, Gigantosaurus The Game is a lot of fun to play, especially if groups of children.

The music is decent enough, but I have to be honest, it is quite forgettable. Usually in these types of games that replay the same songs over and over and over again, I tend to have them stuck in my head for ages. But with Gigantosaurus The Game‘s soundtrack, it almost immediately left my head after each time I played.

The narration is fully voiced and done so really well. I enjoyed the narrator’s chipper attitude, but some times the narration could feel a bit out of place and rather annoying because of it. But overall, it was really well voiced and helped build the story tremendously.

The graphics are fine and look pretty similar to that of the animated series, so honestly there are no complaints in that field. The Switch version definitely looks a bit less polished than the PS4 version, but that is to be expected. That does not mean that the Switch version looks bad, but you can see a difference.

Sadly, during our multiplayer sessions, I did experience some hiccups in the gameplay as well as some screen tearing. It did not interfere with the casual gameplay at all, but they were quite noticeable and fairly ugly when they happened.

Gigantosaurus The Game is $39.99 on the eShop. That is, in my opinion, a bit of a hefty price for what you are getting here. It is a rather large game, but when compared to other similar games on the market, this does feel to be a bit more on the expensive side.

Which is unfortunate, because the game does offer a lot of fun. The story, the platforming, the racing, and the multiplayer are all quite good and make for a lovely experience for the family. If you are a fan of the Gigantosaurus series, I think this is a no-brainer of a purchase. But if you are unfamiliar with the series, this might be a little hard to jump into and enjoy for the asking price.

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Gigantosaurus The Game Review provided by Nintendo Link
Publisher: Outright Games
Release Date: March 27, 2020
Price: $39.99, £34.99
Game Size: 1.9 GB