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Stand back, because I'm about to review one of the best examples of a casual game you'll ever see. Some people have claimed Jurassic Realm doesn't appeal to the highly coveted "soccer mom" demographic, because it's a game about exploding dinosaur trinkets. I say those people don't understand soccer moms or exploding dinosaurs. This game appeals to anyone who likes clicking a mouse.
Jurassic Realm, by Enkord, mixes the casual gameplay elements of "brick-breaking" and "match 3" to form a hybrid game that is insidiously addicting. Seriously. The screen is filled with four different types of Jurassic-themed game pieces. These pieces differ depending on which of the 150 levels you're playing. The pieces include dinosaur teeth, crystals, bones, dinosaur heads, caveman hammers, etc. (Why are caveman hammers included? That's a good question. We can only assume that these hammers were sent back in time to the Jurassic period, golden age of the land-roaming dinosaurs, by time-traveling cavemen.) Clicking on any group of like items totaling three or more in number will cause every item in the group to explode. Pieces go flying off the screen trailing puffs of bone dust. In real life you'd fear for your eyes, but not here.
Most levels have bricks mixed in with the game pieces. These bricks are usually arranged in the form of a picture or pattern. A dinosaur, for example, or a tree. If a game piece next to a brick explodes, that brick will be destroyed. All you have to do is destroy all the bricks on the screen to finish the level. A modern day bird call signals that you have done so, very apropos since it was in the Jurassic Period that birds first evolved from coelurosaurs. (Or so scientists suspect.) You'll be addicted to finishing "just one more level" until it's 2am and you didn't get your review of Jurassic Realm finished for Casual Explosion Dot Com.
I suppose you jumped up in excitement just now after reading my description of the gameplay and are downloading it at this very moment. But in case you're still here, here's some more information:
As game pieces explode, new pieces fall in from the top. Sometimes they take slightly-awkward looking paths as they flow around bricks to fill in the gaps where exploded pieces used to lay. One of the best things about the game is that you don't have to wait for all the pieces in a group to explode before you can start clicking on other groups of three or more. You can keep clicking and exploding like a click-happy munitions enthusiast as new pieces fall into place.
The game even shows you handy sparkles around clickable groups, so all you have to do is move the mouse around the screen and look for the sparkles. If you exhaust all possible moves in a level (i.e. there are no more groups of three or more) all game pieces will dance for a few seconds, then drop away and a new random set will be dumped onto the screen. Just like in real life.
The game's quest mode lets you explore the Jurassic Period landscape, moving from level to level along a meandering path. There's not much of interest to see along the path except for game levels, but you can make Frostian choices and find golden eggs to unlock dinosaurs for your dinosaur collection. Every dinosaur you find will be saved in your Dinosaur Hall of Fame (it's really a big pile of rocks with dino silhouettes), accessible from the main menu. You can learn a little about the dinosaurs you find by mousing over them and reading the popup text. By the way, I once saw a movie about a dinosaur chasing a landrover through the forest. It was amazing.
Powerups: Oh yes, there are powerups in Jurassic Realm. The higher the number of pieces in the groups you find to click on, the more powerful the special pieces (AKA powerups) that drop onto the board will be. Powerups are included to ensure bigger and more spectactular explosions, and chain-reactions of explosions. They include pieces like the lava piece, which shoots lava horizontally and vertically to destroy nearby pieces. And rainbow chameleon pieces, which when activated change all pieces in the immediate vicinity to match their type, ensuring a nice big group of matching pieces to click. My favorite powerup is the lightning piece, which explodes a whole column of pieces in flashy bolts of blue lightning. And last, but not least, the pterodactyl plesiosaur powerpiece, in which pterodactyls drop flaming exploding plesiosaurs on the game board of the current level, the next two levels, secret level -1, and the main menu. Just kidding, I made that last piece up.
The music is nice, but way too limited. There should be more songs. The sound effects aren't perfect, but on the whole work nicely. The clicky-clacky sound of exploding bones is perfect. What did Enkord do, record exploding modern day animal bones? Maybe they used crocodiles, which haven't changed much since the Jurassic Period. (True fact.)
Suffice it to say, there is a lot of explosive value in Jurassic Realm. It's worth every penny of $19.99. You know how you play Tetris too long and then later that night you start playing it in your head when you're trying to fall asleep? This is that kind of game.
OK, this game is just too addicting. Not enough different special pieces, music gets old quick, but it will keep you playing regardless. Fantastic idea for a game…
And I care nothing for dinosaurs.