Prehistoric Isle in 1930 (Arcade)
A lost island filled with dinosaurs still alive in the modern day is a pretty common idea for fiction, and explaining the strangeness of the many shipwrecks and plane crashes in the Bermuda Triangle crops up from time to time as well, so it’s not too surprising that someone would eventually combine the two. SNK’s Prehistoric Isle in 1930, sometimes known simply as Prehistoric Isle, does try to obfuscate the fact it is in the Bermuda Triangle until the end of the game despite also telling you the mysterious island causing problems is in that area and showing you a map just to make the direction it’s going more obvious. However, once you arrive at the island, it’s essentially all dinosaur shooting goodness with the cause of those crashes quite obviously the gigantic prehistoric creatures located on Greenhell Isle.
As either one or two players, the team sent to investigate Greenhell Isle are equipped only with biplanes to repel the unexpected dinosaur inhabitants. However, these planes have the benefit of rapid fire forward facing machine guns that never run out of ammo. Prehistoric Isle is a side-scrolling shoot ’em up, the focus of the action being to keep your guns shooting at all the enemies that appear and moving around the automatically scrolling screen to avoid their attacks. There are five stages to fight through of fairly decent size considering the overall short length of the game, most packing in a miniboss and boss that feature much larger creatures to deal with. The locations do a good job of feeling distinct as well, there being one level devoted to exclusively airborne opponents as you fly above the clouds and another where your biplane somehow converts to a submersible so you can face off with underwater prehistoric life instead. Three levels focus on more terrestrial locations, but by making them take place in a jungle, a bone-filled canyon, and an underground cave, they all stand out from each other well enough.
While your weapon does seem pretty limited initially, if you shoot open some of the eggs floating throughout the levels, you can pick up special power-ups. The S symbol gives you more speed to make dodging easier and the money symbol is simply to earn more score so your three lives per quarter go further, but pick up a P and you’ll get a pod that will float around your ship, improving your shots in a few different ways. Keep it out in front and your basic machine gun will be upgraded to a fiery blast that does more damage, but if you chose to rotate it around your craft, you get different tools that are often a better fit for foes who would be approaching from that angle. Pointing the pod behind you will cause it to drop mines, blowing up any potential ambushers or helping you face certain bosses that require a greater amount of movement. Pointing it diagonally upwards will release large bouncing plasma shots, diagonally downwards produces bombs good for wiping out enemies on the ground, and fully upward or downward positioning will cause a large horizontal bouncing shot to hit whatever is above or below you. You still get to fire your regular machine gun when the pod is positioned elsewhere, but perhaps more importantly, the pod can be used to weather damage, your ship usually only taking one hit to destroy but the pod able to take a few before it disappears itself.
The pod can be powered up to have stronger shots and you can pick up some unique temporary power-ups as well such as a time bomb and stronger shot, but the game is practically designed for the pod to be there and powering it up more comes with enemies becoming more dangerous. Regular foes who used to rely just on their bodies to knock you out of the sky will start adding bullet shots to their attack methods, and since the sky becomes much more crowded when you have to weave through dinosaurs and bullets alike, your pod is much more likely to either be destroyed or disappear after you die yourself. Prehistorice Isle is definitely difficult, but there doesn’t seem to be too many cases of outright unfair design, so while things do get pretty rough if you lose an upgraded pod and have to fight with machine gun alone, you’re still able to hold your own in most situations provided you’re quick to react.
Decent fundamentals to the shooting is definitely appreciated, but many players will probably come to the game for one thing: the dinosaurs. Prehistoric Isle features plenty of prehistoric creatures to shoot down, although the pterosaurs definitely get the most play. The basic enemy in the game is a pterodactyl of some sort, the flying creatures perfect fodder for easier segments but finding some strength in higher numbers and when their movement changes around. A lot of foes could slip into this description as well, such as the giant bugs and nautiluses who fill similar functions but in different areas. Perhaps a little too much time is spent with these basic baddies, but you will come across the occasional larger version of them that takes more hits. It’s definitely more interesting when a new dino joins the action though like icthyosaurs leaping out of the water to attack you or some strange spiked reptile that leaps up from the ground to attack you as well. Besides adding in the bullets later, many creatures do just rely on moving towards you or jumping up into your path to make the regular parts of the level challenging, and while they’re not exactly boring to face off with, you are usually putting in the time it takes to get to the main attractions rather than getting much variety in the regular stage. The cavemen are probably the most unique regular foes you face, these guys hopping onto your plane and trying to drag it down to the ground. You can survive if one climbs aboard and you’re able to avoid other dangers until he slips off, but they often come in groups so one grabbing you is very likely to lead to more piling on if they didn’t already drag you into some other problem.
The bosses, albeit a brief part of the overall experience, do bring in the expected clashes with colossal creatures. A rather agile Allosaurus caps off the first level, an enormous Ammonite swings its tentacles about in the underwater level’s finale, and the towering T-Rex is too big to fit more than its head on screen for the final battle. The triceratops is oddly absent, but there are also some niche picks like the prehistoric turtle Archelon and a Rhamphorhyncus being the specific pterosaur that serves as the sky level’s final opponent. The strangest ones are certainly the giant beetle that just seems to be them wanting a huge bug but not having a specific one to pull on and the Unknown Dinosaur which just looks like a heavily mutated green sperm whale. There are some oddities like these in the regular stages such as a large insect with an extendable mouth, and in other places the game really cranks up the threat level of docile creatures like the Brachiosaurus and Stegosaurus. Of course, having boss monsters fire shots and produce groups of babies to fight you with in an instant isn’t exactly realistic either, so having strange boss concepts doesn’t hurt the fights. Eggs aren’t very common in these battles though so pod health is incredibly important unfortunately, but good movement can help you stay in the fight for a while against most of the bosses. Ones like Archelon who often move below you and behind you are rather long without the power-ups sadly, but with enough quarters, the tour of Greenhell Isle still provides enough prehistoric action to keep you on board until the end.
THE VERDICT: Prehistoric Isle in 1930 is a solid shoot ’em up that provides the dinosaur shooting action it promises but doesn’t really do much more than that. The pod power up is an interesting one that adds to your shot options and can keep you alive longer, but the game is rather dependent on its presence for many of its boss battles and later levels. You can survive and push forward without a pod, especially since the regular level sections aren’t doing too much to test more than your reactiveness, but despite the impressive boss designs and shot variety, Prehistoric Isle is more a game you would play just to see what’s in it rather than one that’s going to hook you with its gameplay.
And so, I give Prehistoric Isle in 1930 for arcade machines…
An OKAY rating. Certainly one of the more interesting picks for a brief shoot ’em up experience solely because it’s about shooting giant dinosaurs instead of the typical aliens, bugs, or machines, Prehistoric Isle feels like another member of the genre where keeping the interesting attack options locked behind a pick up does it few favors. Having something akin to the pod to start would give you frequent flexibility, and if powering it up was the focus instead of having it at all, then the moments where you’re gunning down regular enemies might have had more room to get creative. Cavemen enemies, despite being bothersome, have an interesting attack method, and the bigger baddies usually have something to make them stand out like the Rhamphorhyncus’s cyclones moving you around the screen, but were the pod a dependable part of your arsenal, they could have gotten just as experimental as the cavemen. Bosses show this potential off quite well with their movement and attack patterns encouraging a fight where you shift your pod around to strike as you move away from just facing them head-on, but these end up restricting pod access unless you already know what to expect to avoid it. Machine gunning your prehistoric opponents is still somewhat enjoyable and effective, but having your base power be serviceable does mean the game on the whole isn’t as thrilling as it could be since your greater levels of power aren’t a reliable factor.
Prehistoric Isle in 1930 is a fun direction for a shoot ’em up to take and one that will likely please a player just by presenting them with the enormous dinosaur bosses and baddies, so it shouldn’t be outright dismissed for not going as far as it should have with its pod power up. An arcade is an excellent place to spend a few quarters just to see what’s going on in a game and Prehistoric Isle, while difficult, doesn’t push too hard even when you’re at your weakest. While a place called Greenhell Isle full of dinosaurs and found in the Bermuda Triangle would perhaps be the worst place to go in real life, playing this game just for the sights on show doesn’t make for a bad trip at all.