Prehistorik Man
Score: 85% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: Titus Developer: Titus Media: Cart/1 Players: 1 Genre: Miscellaneous
Graphics & Sound: Once upon a time in prehistory, Titus released a game for the SNES based on a caveman named Sam and his adventures. And, as is the recent trend with other SNES games, Titus is excavating Sam for another run on the GBA. Prehistorik Man takes full advantage of the GBA's hardware. Although Sam and his enemies are animated a bit simplistically, the animation is so well done and smooth there is hardly any room to complain. It's fun to see all the different animations that have been squeezed into Sam. Watching his 'Caveman Yell' adds a real charm to the game. Each of the game's 24 worlds is very crisp and clear, especially in areas like the village - making for a very enjoyable visual experience. Prehistorik Man also shines in the audio department, although not as brightly as the graphics. Since this game is set in prehistoric times, it makes sense that the music has a primal mood to it - consisting mainly of drums. The music did a lot to help set the mood of the game, but after awhile I did find that it got repetitive, bordering on annoying.
Gameplay: Life in prehistoric times is rough. No phones, no lights, no motor cars, not a single luxury. Like Robinson Crusoe, it's as primitive as can be. As it turns out - the only thing the cavemen have to entertain themselves is to collect bones in order to buy food for the winter. Just when everything seems to be going great, the evil reptiles storm the village in the dead of night and steal the entire bone depository! The Chief then charges Sam the caveman with the duty of collecting food and bones to help the village get back on its feet. Since only Sam can accomplish this task, half of the village decides to go along for the ride. In addition to the Chief, you will also have the company of the hunter, the blacksmith, and the village genius (the butcher, baker, and candlestick maker were out of town apparently). The Chief's daughter also joins you - but only because she will not take 'No' for an answer (and, I'm sure for her certain motivational assets). Prehistorik Man is your standard platformer and probably won't win any awards for originality. In my mind, this game defines the term 'old school', it has just about everything that I love about platform games all wrapped up into one neat package. Without going too much into detail (since I could go on forever about how much I enjoyed this game), I will keep things short and simple - it's just fun. This is accented by excellent replay value. The sheer number of hidden areas that are found throughout the game keep you coming back for more. The only real problem I had with the game was that you could not switch between the weapons that the blacksmith makes for you. For example, in the mission where you have to find the spotted-lion hide, he will give you an axe to help you kill lions. The problem is that by the time you find the lions, you will be out of axes. It's not an issue that will ruin the game, but it would have been a nice option.
Difficulty: Part of what makes Prehistorik Man fun is the balance of the gameplay. It is challenging, but not hard. However, I did not like that you had to buy passwords. This gets especially annoying in the later parts of the game where you can actually miss the location of the shop - so if you lose all your lives it's back to square one. The game also offers a very good tutorial in the first level that goes over just about every aspect of the game. In the event that some new challenge presents itself, a villager is always there to lend a hand.
Game Mechanics: If you have ever played a platform game, you know how the game works. Everything is very responsive and well laid out - no real problems here. Overall, there's really not a lot to complain about with Prehistorik Man, it's a very good platformer that will unfortunately probably be overlooked by most gamers. In my opinion, any gamer who claims to love platformers or any 'old school' games should go out and at least try Prehistorik Man.
-Starscream, GameVortex Communications AKA Ricky Tucker
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