![]() Between present-day nostalgia and the school playgrounds of yesteryear rests every boy's fascination with all things dinosaur. At least one bookshelf from my second to fifth grade years grew a stalwart collection of dinosaur books. Coloring books, pop-up books, and especially those thin, oversized, and gorgeously-illustrated children's encyclopedias packed with fossil hunters' findings of allosaurus teeth, stegosaurus plates, and brontosaurus vertebrae. The Tyrannosaurus is the once and future king of the Jurassic jungle, of course, but I always harbored a liking for the versatile triceratops. I loved the parry-thrust capabilities of its oversized neck-armor and bleak horn formation. And I loved the barely-any-missing-link between it and a modern day rhinoceros (the word "rhinoceros" even sounds like it could live comfortably among its ancient herbivorous brethren). I owned herds of dinosaur toys, those foot-tall ones made of polyurethane so sharp they could impale a horse I collected all five Transformer Dinobots and even the Flintstones ruled my after-school television time.īut the chapter interludes are voiced-over with fantastically-written, character-building narratives, making up in nuance what the game lacks in flamboyance. The cutscenes thrill in a pitch-perfect campiness as well, despite their unflattering low-res presentation. While some reviewers are downright baffling in their critique of this campy style, the pulpy, fictitious blend of corny one-liners and 'what if' science make for some of Paraworld's most entertaining moments. More than one of our heroes questions whether they're not really in some white-padded room somewhere, imagining the entire journey. Another tackles the topic of manifest destiny when they're informed that they're fulfilling part of a long-awaited scripture: "What am I to think of this prophesy? It's probably the same as with a horoscope: If you believe it, it's all true." A villainous character feels betrayed when a long-time ally aids our heroes in a late-night escape, saying, "Now I know how Lord Mountbatten must have felt when he lost India."
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