Line #12 VideoGame/PrehistoricIsle


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/prehistoric_isle.png]]
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3	A pair of [[UsefulNotes/ArcadeGame arcade]] ShootEmUp games by Creator/{{SNK}}. It's basically your usual side scroller shooter but with dinosaurs!
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5	The first game, ''Prehistoric Isle in 1930'' was released in 1989 and is set on an island in TheBermudaTriangle. The player controls a biplane, blasting hordes of prehistoric creatures, while aquiring power-ups in the form of a device that rotates around his craft blocking enemy shots and providing different modes of fire.
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7	The 1999 sequel, ''Prehistoric Isle 2'' is set in modern times when even more dinos and prehistoric beasties invade a city, this time the player controls a helicopter and it also includes the mechanic of rescuing civilians.
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9	[[SimilarlyNamedWorks Unrelated to]] ''VideoGame/{{Prehistorik}}'', another game of the period.
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11	!!Tropes present in this game:
12	* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: In the sequel's first level, so spacious that helicopters can fly through with space to spare.
13	* AnimalsNotToScale: Most of the bosses in the first game are ridiculously oversized in contrast to their real-life counterparts. Special mention goes for the ''Rhamphorhynchus'', which makes the ''Pteranodon'' enemies look like flies, and the Ammonite, which can grab a tiny submarine with its tentacles, even though the largest known ammonite species, ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parapuzosia_seppenradensis Parapuzosia seppenradensis]]'' (which appears in the first game as well), would have measured roughly about 2.55 m (8.4 ft) or even 3.5 m (11 ft) in diameter, and especially the final boss, [[spoiler: a ''Tyrannosaurus rex'']] that would not be out of place at all in a ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' movie. The sequel is no better in this regard, featuring a monstrous-sized ''Pachycephalosaurus'' as its first boss and a gargantuan-sized ''Pteranodon'' as another.
14	* ArtifactTitle: Unlike the first game, the sequel is definitely not set on an island. The penultimate level does seem to be some kind of island however.
15	* ArtisticLicensePaleontology: Where to begin? Most of them can spit fireballs, then the second boss of the second game sure looks more like [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Rhydon]] than any known dinosaur. Most of the dinosaurs in the second game exhibit AmazingTechnicolorPopulation as well.
16	* AWinnerIsYou: While the [[spoiler: first game ends with ShootTheShaggyDog as explained below]], the sequel [[spoiler: ends with the words ALL STAGES CLEARED. The epic final boss fight makes up for it, though.]]
17	* TheBermudaTriangle: In the first game, the place is home to an island full of surviving dinosaurs and prehistoric animals, and they have been causing all the major dissappeareances the triangle is known for.
18	* BeeAfraid: Giant prehistoric bees and wasps appear as enemies in the sequel, which also features a monstrous Queen Bee as one of the bosses.
19	* BigCreepyCrawlies: Both games feature giant invertebrates as enemies, the first game has even one acting as a boss: "Ancient Coleoptera", while the sequel has a monstrous Queen Bee as a boss.
20	* BreathWeapon: Pretty much every single creature in both games can expel some type of energy or fire from its mouth. Even the ''Protoceratops'' from the second game will shoot tiny fireballs at you. How cute.
21	* DerelictGraveyard: The second part of stage 4 in the first game.
22	* DemBones: One mini-boss in the sequel is a reanimated dinosaur skeleton, the first game also features ''zombie'' pteranodons.
23	* DinosaursAreDragons: What's a ''T. rex'' doing at the bottom of a volcano? And why it breathes fire? Heck, pretty much all the dinosaur and pterosaur foes have fire breath.
24	* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: In the first game, the first boss of level 3: "Unknown Dinosaur", in the second game the final boss, a giant sea creature... thing.
25	* GiantFlyer: In the first game, an oversized ''Rhamphorhynchus'' acts a the second stage boss. A gigantic ''Pteranodon'' is another boss in the sequel.
26	* InNameOnly: The ([[NoPlotNoProblem nonexistent apart from the narration-free premise of hordes of dinosaurs attacking a city nearby an island filled with prehistoric creatures]]) plot of second game has very little to do with the first, other than shooting dinosaurs.
27	* JungleJapes
28	* LivingShip: The final boss of the sequel, which is a living squid-shaped-spaceship. No, not like [[Franchise/MassEffect that one]].
29	%%* LostWorld: The first game is set on one.
30	* NintendoHard: You will die. ''A lot''.
31	%%* {{Prehistoria}}
32	* RaptorAttack: Naked, ''Franchise/JurassicPark'' style ''Velociraptors'' appear as enemies in the second game.
33	%%* RibcageRidge: In both games.
34	* ShootTheShaggyDog: The ending of the first game, [[spoiler: after defeating the final boss the 2 player controlled biplanes fly off from the isle and dock with a larger plane, the pilots report their story and say that they must report their findings to their country, immediately after, the plane is swarmed by pteranodons and explodes. The final coda says the the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle continues...]]
35	%%* UnderTheSea: Level 4 of the first game.
36	* UniqueEnemy:
37	** A gigantic theropod, probably a ''Carcharodontosaurus'', only shows up for the first part of the final stage from the sequel, and is never encountered again. Fittingly enough, it is a wee-bit challenging to defeat.
38	** Even more jarring is the ''Ankylosaurus''. While in the first game they were particularly common enemies in the first stage, a single Ankylo only shows up near the end of the last stage and it's so small and weak, you may not even notice you just killed it.

Context VideoGame / PrehistoricIsle