Dinosaur Games For Your Phone And Tablet
I ran across a mobile dinosaur game or two while randomly surfing the net. One afternoon I sat down for a few hours with my phone checking those out, and searching for more. Below are eight mobile dinosaur games, and some quick reviews for each to give you an idea of what the game is about. Think of these more as first impressions than in-depth reviews. I’ve also added my recommended/not recommended suggestions as well. I’ve focused on just games for this as I plan to cover apps separately in the future. All of these games are available for both Android and iOS.
One important thing that I noticed with these games is that they ask for some pretty weird permissions. You can deny them and still play the game just fine.
Dinos Online
Dinos Online was quite the surprise. It’s an open world mobile game where you try and survive as a dinosaur. This is much like The Isle or The Archotek Project except on a mobile platform. You play from a 3rd person perspective and get to choose from multiple dinosaurs up front. I did notice there seemed to be a heavy PvP atmosphere, so be ready to ‘defend’ yourself or go on the offensive. You pay real money to get skillups for your dinosaur, which could be a little problematic. I still recommend Dinos Online as with an open world, and choosing a fast dino, there’s a lot for you to explore and do even if you want to avoid PvP.
Call of Mini Dino Hunter
While you don’t play as a dinosaur in this game, you do hunt them. Call of Mini Dino Hunter is a low poly, lite-RPG where you play as a caveman, hunting dinosaurs around your village with various weapons to unlock along the way. It has a great low poly look, and a 3rd person perspective. It does allow co-op, so you can grab a friend and hunt as well. I didn’t see a single ad, and the in-game purchases seem aimed at the usual time-saving options. Definitely recommend checking this game out.
Blockyzilla
One game showed some promise, but had some really obvious pitfalls. Blockyzilla was an 8-bit retro-style kinda game where you roam around trashing a city. You play from the 3rd person perspective of a tyrannosaur-like dinosaur. The controls took some getting used to. You can unlock other dinosaurs as you progress in the game. There were a couple aggravating things about this game. The first was the overly intrusive ads that popped up literally in the middle of playing. The other was how the police/soldiers just keep walking up endlessly in droves. You can’t kill them fast enough, and it’s hard to maneuver into a position to eat them because the controls are a little weird. I don’t recommend this game now, but do think it has promise if the game continues to develop.
Dino World Online: Hunters 3D
There was more than one open world surprise. Dino world online: Hunters 3D starts off small, then expands into other little areas. Playing from the top down perspective, you start as a Dilophosaurus and run around completing quests for in-game currency. You can use this in-game currency to unlock new dinosaurs to play, or of course also buy the dinosaurs out-right with money as well. It offers some heavy PvP, but you can avoid it if you choose to. Definitely recommend this game.
Dino Grand City
There were actually two mobile dinosaur games that shared assets. They were exactly alike visually, and nearly identical gameplay wise. The first was Dino Grand City. It offered several different maps with different objectives. Unfortunately there were intrusive ads between loading screens, and the gameplay felt particularly pointless. You play as a dinosaur from a 3rd person perspective, trashing the town. It seemed like all you did was get points though. Didn’t feel like there was any reason to play. I do not recommend this game.
Dinosaur Simulator: Dino World
The other game that shared art assets was Dinosaur Simulator: Dino World. In this dinosaur game you could choose from multiple dinosaurs to start with, and play on multiple maps terrorizing a small city. The ads were terribly intrusive. About the only redeeming quality to this game was the multiplayer option, although it was co-op and not PvP. Like Dino Grand City, the gameplay felt particularly pointless. Can’t recommend this game either.
Dinocraft: Survive & Craft
I’ll start off saying I recommend this game with the caveat that you pay $1.99 to disable the ads. In Dinocraft: Survive & Craft, you live and build in a dinosaur world. Basically, it looks like Minecraft but with dinosaur monsters. Ads plague this game. There are small ads permanently on the screen, as well as video ads that randomly play while you are in the middle of your game. You can also pay real currency to buy tools if you don’t want to grind them out through gameplay. This game has the 8-bit graphics look, and plays from the first person perspective. Again, if you are willing to pay to disable the ads, this could be a fun game. Otherwise, i’d recommend that you pass.
Smashy City
Of all the games on my phone, this is the only one that stayed. Smashy City lets you trash a city Godzilla style! You can unlock lots of different monsters, three of which are dinosaur-like along with two penguins. You can unlock more monsters by grinding out in-game currency, or buying them with real cash. It has a 3rd person perspective, and a low poly look which I really like. There are optional ads for you to watch and earn in-game currency. I did get a video ad one time while switching between screens, but I had played probably five or so games before it showed up. At the end of each match, you get an awesome little newspaper pic you can share on social media that shows your monster and all the damage you did! I definitely recommend Smashy City.
Needles in a Haystack
There is an ocean of dinosaur themed mobile games, so I stuck to only games with four stars and above at the time of this article. As you can tell, there is almost as big a spread on the types of dinosaur games available for mobile too. From quick 2-3 minute matches like Smashy City, to infinite exploration and socializing in Dinos Online. Don’t think these are the only mobile games with dinosaurs, or even the best. These are just the ones I found in a few hours one afternoon. I wanted to be sure to share the good, and the bad, so that you don’t have to spend hours checking them out too! As they aren’t tied to any trademarks, dinosaurs are a popular choice for developers to use in games. I’ll dive back in again someday, but if you have any recommendations for mobile games with dinosaurs for me to check out in the future, leave them in the comments!
