Prehistorik Man (SNES) - Quick Review

Prehistorik Man was a platforming game that got released for Super Nintendo in 1996. However, this caused it to not receive much attention due to Nintendo releasing the N64 later the same year, drawing a lot of attention away from the late-run SNES games. But was it worth rolling over, or should it have received more attention? Let's find out.

The story is set in the Stone Age, when one night, a pack of dinosaurs comes through and steals all the food from a village. The Village Chief then calls upon Sam and sends him out on a mission to find all the villages food and return it. Each level you come to has tons of food scattered throughout it and you are tasked with collecting all or as much of it as possible, and you'll be graded on how much you collect at the end of the level. However some level's will also end in a boss fight, or task you with finding a specific item before you can continue.

Your main weapon for combat is a club for melee, but you can also pick up axes and spears which can be thrown, but come with an ammo count. Once you run out of these, it's back to the club.

Is it Worth it?
That's right, I'm skipping the good and the bad. Why? Because the more I thought about it, the more I realized there really isn't anything bad about this game at all. I spent a week debating with myself because I wanted to be absolutely sure that I honestly thought there's nothing bad with this game, and I can say now that it is definitely the honest truth. This game is a blast right off the bat. The combat is fun, the levels are great. I specifically love the style of collecting items before finishing the level. It gives you a different goal other than just getting to the end as fast as possible, you have to get there with as much food as you possibly can. And the story gives you a good reason for it. I've played other games before with this objective, but none made it the only objective. It was always "go save this person and by the way try to collect as much of this stuff as you can". But this one has a purpose, your food is missing, go retrieve it.

My other favorite part about this game is the humor. For starters, if you finish the level with a horribly low amount of food collected, the Village Chief all but calls you a damned idiot for being so bad at saving your village. If you get around half of the food in a level, you essentially get told good job, but do better. Also, the sound effects are priceless. Mainly the death shriek that Sam lets loose when he loses all of his health or falls off an edge. I've literally turned the game on just to hear this sound, it's ridiculous but somehow perfect at the same time.

So this one is definitely worth it. Since it was released at the end of the SNES run, it's a bit higher in price and harder to find due to less copies being made because of the timing. But you can still find this one for around $20. So if you stumble across it, consider adding it to your collection because it's worth every penny and every second you'll spend playing it.

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