In honor of a dinosaur franchise (the dinosaur franchise), or perhaps in spite of it, we have found some great dinosaur games. (Two entries that would have made the cut, Primal Quest, and Diesel and Dinosaurs were featured in earlier articles, but just in case you wanted even more content.) Many of these games are not coy about their inspirations, but even the best stories can have a million different interpretations.
From Prospero Hall (Jaws, Horrified, The Rocketeer) and Funko Games, Jurassic World: The Legacy of Isla Nubar is a legacy board game that brings tactics and consequence to the table.
Rodrigo Vega’s system-agnostic DarkPark is a fantastic game that is slickly designed, tightly mechanized, and has a lot of flavor that will appeal to fans of both the Dinosaur franchise and the Dragon franchise.
As dinosaur cloning becomes popular entertainment, compete with other prehistoric parks in Dinosaur World, from Pandasaurus. This is a deeply tactical board game that pits players against each other in a health-and-safety competition gone very, very wrong. Pandasaurus also has Dinosaur Island, a slightly more legacy style game with a similar premise.
There’s really not a better system out there that merges technology and dinosaurs, and Monte Cook Games’ Predation, written by Shanna Germain and using the Cypher System, is really a fantastic example of a TTRPG where space marines meet T-Rexes.
Another board game about park management, DinoGenics, from Ninth Haven, adds in some sabotage mechanics to give you an upper hand over your competition.
A self-contained game, Escape From Dino Island uses the Powered by the Apocalypse engine to help you tell a story of smart and competent people that are in way over their heads.
From the same studio that developed Unstable Unicorns, Happy Little Dinosaurs is about trying to avoid the end of the world without having any idea what’s going on. Easy to learn and play, with adorable graphics and a ton of expansions, this is a great game for all ages.
A Wretched & Alone (Matt Sanders) hack, Clever Girl by Matthew Gravelyn has no qualms about paying homage to its inspiration. It’s a game about survival and the extreme and surprising lengths people will go to in order to achieve their dreams. No matter what.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel and Star Wars releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about House of the Dragon and Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.