More Popular Spin-Off: The game and the anime is a spinoff of Mushiking. In the West Dinosaur King is far more well known thanks to the anime and card games actually being released over here.
Anime
Angst? What Angst?: Rex is bizarrely fine with being uprooted from everyone and everything he's ever known and dragged back to the future by his birth parents. Yes, the Ancients are his birth mother and father, and yes they're nice people... but they're not his family. He's never known them, as he was separated from them as a newborn. Dr. Owen is the only father he's ever known, and Max and Zoe are repeatedly said to be like a brother and sister to him. He's never even BEEN to the Ancients' time... he was born in 65 Million B.C. and was lost on the way back. The Ancients are two people he's never known from a future he's never seen, demanding that he leave behind everyone and everything he loves to be with them... and it's just bizarre that no one, not even Rex himself, mentions how massively unfair that is, not even at the end of Season 2 when the time machine is broken and they explicitly state that he will NEVER be able to return to the modern day again, no matter what. Sure, Rex, says that he'll miss his friends, but you'd expect way more than that, and it never comes... Hell, the end of the first season is even worse, when he leaves without even saying goodbye to Dr. Owen, the man who raised him from a baby!!!! Seriously, what the Hell?!
Cult Classic: Despite the fact that the Dinosaur King franchise has been inactive ever since 2011 and that the anime ended in 2008, the TV show still has an active and loyal fanbase who remembers the series fondly, especially (and obviously) dinosaur fans of all kinds. It helps that the series used a lot of obscure and less known species along with the most famous ones most people know.
The Alpha Gang in the first few episodes, actually. We don't actually see them doing anything evil until it's revealed that they brainwash the dinosaurs they capture. Before then, it just looks like all they're doing is reclaiming the cards that are rightfully theirs, and the heroes appear to be rushing into battle without even bothering to try to communicate with them.
Ensemble Dark Horse: The Acrocanthosaurus is one of the best remembered minor dinosaurs of the anime thanks to his striking appearance and especially his badass, hyper destructive Alpha form.
It has even more popularity in Latin America, where the series was regularly broadcasted on kid's television networks and thus became many a dinosaur fan's childhood anime. To this day Latin American adults who grew up in the 2000's are very likely to recognize the series immediately if you bring up an element of it.
Hollywood Homely: Although Ursula is mockingly called an “old lady” at least Once per Episode, she still has an attractive and youthful face with a very curvaceous body.
Just Here for Godzilla: Most people watch the anime for the dinosaurs. Considering the fact the show revolves around dinosaurs fighting each other and boasts an impressive variety of species, it’s a given that most people would tune in to see how their favorite dinosaurs are utilized.
Narm Charm: Daspletosaurus dancing alongside Chomp, Ace, and Paris in "Dance Evolution" frankly looks pretty ridiculous. As silly as it looks, the scene serves as a reminder that some of the wild dinosaurs aren’t looking for trouble and just want peace. It especially says a lot when Daspletosaurus is a big carnivorous dinosaur, who are usually seen as constantly aggressive.
Superlative Dubbing: Many of their detractors tend to consider this one of the very few anime 4kids didn't screw up.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Happens all the time with the non-main dinosaurs, as they rarely appear beyond their debut episode, getting small cameos with luck. Examples include:
The Styracosaurus is the first non-hostile wild dinosaur the D-Team finds in the show, and quickly develops a cute friendship with Chomp. When the Alpha Gang defeats and captures him, Max makes a vow to recover him one day. Later, the Styracosaurus appears under the Alpha Gang's control and fights the D-Team during the two parter episode where they get trapped in the headquarters of the evil organization. However, he gets quickly defeated by the Ceratosaurus and then isn't seen or mentioned again in the series. Even worse, he isn't even summoned to fight the Black T. rex along with Chomp, that could have been a nice reencounter between them with the Styracosaurus returning to his former friendly self.
The Acrocanthosaurus is never seen again after being defeated in his second episode, despite the fact he was the only Alpha dinosaur to ever appear in the anime. His fate is never revealed afterwards, and thus its remain unknown if he was able to return to his normal self or remained an Alpha dinosaur.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The concept of Alpha dinosaurs (dinosaurs artificially enhanced by Dr. Z’s technology to be stronger and more destructive) is barely explored in the anime after the Acrocanthosaurus is turned into one and then defeated. It would have been a good chance to see how a non-Fire dinosaur would have reacted to the changes and a good way to give more variety to the dinosaur roster of the Alpha Gang, especially since Suchomimus, Iguanodon and Allosaurus (who have canon Alpha forms in the arcade game) do appear in the anime. However, by that point the D-Team had already acquired the former and also acquired the latter two when they eventually show up as well, and while the Alpha Gang do acquire more dinosaurs later on in the season (specifically Stegosaurus, Ampelosaurus, and Saurophaganax), none of them have Alpha forms, causing the whole Alpha dinosaur idea to be dropped following the fight with the Alpha Acrocanthosaurus.
Video Game
Demonic Spiders: The "supply" droids that are encountered randomly throughout the game. When defeated, they grant your dinosaurs a massive amount of experience and occasionally drop items. The problem? They don't have a specific pattern and are the only opponents in the game that can run away midfight, making them very annoying to actually defeat.
