The monster catching-and-fighting genre, which begun with Pokemon in 1998, is still going strong today. While the Pokemon games are still the most popular and successful of this type, some other games have made their mark on the genre, while others are simply derivative cash-ins, trying to make a quick buck off the popularity of the genre. As the DS does not yet have a main-series Pokemon title, there is an opening for games of this type - an opening that Fossil League: Dino Tournament Championship is hoping to fill.

The game takes place in a world where time travel is a reality; people can travel back to the time of the dinosaurs at will. Of course, everyone’s first instinct is to let pre-teens travel back and capture these dinos, for purposes of training them in battle and fighting them against each other. As Taiga, a young boy who has just become old enough to join the Fossil League, you must raise dinosaurs to become the champion of all dino trainers, while simultaneously stopping an evil corporation that’s trying to destroy the origin of all mammalian life on the planet. There’s not much to the storyline, but it provides enough incentive to keep playing.

The bulk of the gameplay involves exploring two eras, each with three time periods, catching and fighting dinosaurs. The battle system is strongly reminiscent of Pokemon — simple turn-based combat, the ability to swap out combatants at any time, and so on. Each dino can have four fighting moves in their repertoire at any given time, and if they learn a new one, an old one is forgotten. It’s deep enough to provide some strategy, but simple enough to not confuse the kids that so obviously comprise this game’s target audience.

In an original twist, the game tries to add an educational element. Every dinosaur in the game is a real species, represented by a detailed 3D model, accurate to the best of current scientific knowledge. This aspect gives the game an interesting quality, as each enemy and teammate you encounter gives you a little more knowledge without being overtly educational. Unfortunately, the game disrupts this trend by giving some dinosaurs ridiculous moves, like flame breath. Aside from this strange turn, the educational aspect of this game sets it apart from the pack, and might be an incentive for parents to get the game for their children.

Technically, the game is a mixed bag. As I mentioned, the dinosaurs are all modeled in 3D, with as high a detail level the DS is capable of, and they animate well. Every other aspect of the game’s graphics are sub-par. Environments are bland and lacking detail, as are objects. But the strangest thing about this game’s graphics are the human characters, which are 2D sprites, done in a chibi-anime style. They don’t mesh with the realistic environments or dinosaurs and are animated poorly. Also, the character portraits that appear when they are speaking are poorly drawn and oftentimes don’t really resemble the character model. The music is repetitive and boring, but the sound effects are generally well done. By far the worst element of the game from a technical standpoint is the camera. Even though the game is 3D, the player has no control over the camera, and is locked into a viewpoint that doesn’t change, except for during story events. The result is a poor viewing angle at all times during exploration, which can make for some hard-to-navigate areas and an inability to avoid running into enemy dinosaurs. The camera, combined with the flawed and only semi-functional map, make navigation in this game much more frustrating than it ought to be.

Despite these flaws, though, Fossil League is not a bad game. Although it is fairly derivative of games that have come before it, it could provide a fun time to someone in the 6-12 age group. Between the educational elements, the interesting combat, and the decent storyline, this could be a good bet for a kid with DS and wants to raise and fight some dinosaurs. And really, who wouldn’t want that?

Gameplay: 6.2
While most of what is here has been done before, it’s done well enough here to provide for some good times.

Graphics: 5.8
The dinosaurs look great - among the best 3D seen on the DS yet. Other than that, every visual in the game is either boring or ugly.

Sound: 5.7
The songs sound fine at first, but after you’ve listened to the same seven songs for the entirety of the game, you’ll get a little sick of them. Good sound effects, though.

Difficulty: Medium
Your enemy’s levels rise fairly quickly, so some leveling up will be necessary before exploring each new area. Healing items are plentiful, though.

Concept: 7.2
Time-traveling pre-pubescents and their dinosaur sidekicks save the world? Count me in.

Overall: 6.3
A good bet for your entry into the RPG genre, or if your parents will only buy you educational games. Otherwise, it’s decent, but nothing you haven’t played before and probably better.