Dinosaur King

Dinosaur King (古代王者恐竜キング, Kodai Ōja Kyōryū Kingu, literally "Ancient Ruler Dinosaur King") is a card-based arcade game from Sega that uses the same gameplay mechanics from Mushiking but uses super-powered dinosaurs instead of beetles. The game was revealed in JAMMA 2005 and is available in Japanese and English versions. A Nintendo DS version has also been released in North America.^[1]

In the fall of 2008, Upper Deck Company released a Dinosaur King Trading Card Game. This card game is not to be confused with the cards used for the arcade machines.^[2]

The series has been adapted into an anime TV series, Ancient Ruler Dinosaur King DKidz Adventure (古代王者恐竜キング Dキッズ・アドベンチャー, Kodai Ōja Kyōryū Kingu Dī Kizzu Adobenchā). A sequel was announced called "Ancient Ruler Dinosaur King DKidz Adventure: Pterosaur Legend (古代王者恐竜キング Dキッズ・アドベンチャー翼龍伝説, Kodai Ōja Kyōryū Kingu Dī Kizzu Adobenchā: Yokuryū Densetsu)," which debuted February 3, 2008 in Japan. The show ended its run in Japan in late 2008.

Story

Dr. Spike Taylor was on a paleontology mission in Africa with his son Max and Max's friend, Rex. Max discovers stone slabs and finds dinosaurs are calling them for help. An evil organization called the "Alpha Gang", led by the nefarious Dr. Z, traveled back in time to hunt down the dinosaurs and use them to take over the world. It is up to Max and Rex to travel around the world, defeating Dr. Z and the Alpha Gang while hunting down the dinosaurs (Later, the story varies as the arcade game machine keeps on upgrading).

Characters

Cards

There are different cards to collect and use in order to play Dinosaur King. The barcodes are located on the long edges of the cards for the player to scan them in the machine. So far, there are four types of cards used in this game.

Dinosaur Cards

These cards represent the "character" for the player. This is first scanned when a player scans his/her dinosaur and move. Each dinosaur is unique in the following traits:

• Basic information (meaning of name, length, period and located where; in the back of the card)
• Critical hit type (Rock,Scissors,Paper)
• Element (Fire, Water, Lightning, Earth, Grass, Wind, Secret)
• Technique points
• Strength value
• Type

And there are 7 types of Dino cards:

• Original
• Fossil
• Animated
• Alpha Gang (included Super Alpha Dinosaurs)
• Super (included animated super dinosaurs)
• Dinotector Armor (only for D-kids and Alpha Gang's Animated Dinosaurs)
• Spectral Armor (included Omega Armor for Eocarcharia only)

The armor dinosaurs are just for animated dinosaurs.

Type

Each dinosaur type has different abilities in battle. They are as follows:

• Attack Type: Has high Move power and usually also has a strong Critical Move.
• Tie Type: Gets lower damage from a tie.
• Defense Type: Has higher stamina, but usually has a weak Critical Move.

Newer types found in more recent expansions include:

• Counter: Raise a Move's power after a loss.
• Blitz: Raise a Move's power when the counter is at 10.
• Crisis: Raise a Move's power when the player's energy turns low.
• Hunter: Raise a Move's power when the opponent is weak.
• Charge: The opponent will get more damage from a tie.
• Heroic: Moves that lose to opponent's Critical move are very strong.
• Death: Can use Death fire when HP is low. (only for Black Tyrannosaurus)
• Revival: Revive once if defeated in a tie. (in fossil dino cards only)

Note: The animated dinosaurs' type are plus a 'Super' front of name of types. Ex: Chomp is Super Crisis Type.

Move Cards

These cards represent the fighting techniques of the super-powered dinosaurs in the Dinosaur King arcade game. They are only scanned once the Dinosaur Card has been scanned. Only one move card per move type can only be scanned, making a total of three possible cards that can be scanned. For example: Tail Smash (Rock), Tie Breaker (Scissors), and Atomic Bomb (paper) is a combination choice for fighting against dinosaurs.

Super Move Cards

These cards can teach the dinosaur a special elemental move and can cause massive damage when used. In the first edition cards there is only one card per element. As of the third edition each move (rock, paper, and scissors) has one super move card per element. More will be revealed over time. The player cannot scan an element card if the element of the dinosaur does not match the element of the Super Move. For example, Triceratops will be able to use the lightning strike move card unlike Tyrannosaurus. If he/she scans a "wrong" card, the game will tell the player that he/she scanned the wrong element.

Character Cards

These cards are only available in Japan, but work in English versions of the arcade game. Character Cards are cards that display members of the Alpha Gang. They can alter the game in many ways.

• 1-player: The player can choose difficulty levels without pressing all three buttons at the same time, the character on the card will be playable instead of Max, Dr. Taylor will be replaced by Dr. Z giving hints, and the player will receive an Alpha Gang level at the end of the four battles.
• 2-player: The players will play as the character on the cards.

The only way to obtain character cards is to go to Japan, get specific Japanese stamped cards, and trade them with an office. They can only be scanned before a dinosaur card is scanned.

Media

The series was adapted into an anime TV series, Ancient Ruler Dinosaur King DKidz Adventure (古代王者恐竜キング Dキッズ・アドベンチャー, Kodai Ōja Kyōryū Kingu Dī Kizzu Adobenchā), which is made by Sunrise and premiered on TV Asahi on February 4, 2007. As of 2008, an English adaptation aired on the 4Kids TV block on the Fox Network,^[3] but moved to The CW's The CW4Kids block on September 6, 2008. A videogame based on that series was released as Dinosaur King.

The Dinosaur King Trading Card game was released in the fall of 2008 by the Upper Deck Company. Although the play mechanism follows the arcade game cards to some extent, they are not meant to be mixed.

References

External links

• Official website (Japanese)
• Official Sega Toys website (Japanese)
• Dinosaur King (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Sega takes on Taito Company claims Taito's dinosaurs infringe on its insects.