Dinosaur Island

Control dinosaurs using the power of music in this interactive story from Game Arts.

Overview

Dinosaur Island is an interactive story developed by Game Arts and released for Saturn and Windows 95 in 1997, created by Izumi Takemoto. The game takes place on an island inhabited by dinosaurs and follows three students learning to control the dinosaurs using music. After being discovered by a team of explorers, the island was colonized and the population there use the dinosaurs for jobs such as construction and as vehicles, similar to The Flintstones. An academy was established in order to train people to control the dinosaurs and this is where the main characters are enrolled.

The game can be described as an 'interactive anime'. The story plays out and at different points the player may make a selection which can change the direction of the story. Some decisions made can steer the story in a completely other direction and thus there are many storylines and endings to be seen. All animation in the game is rendered entirely by the Saturn in real-time which creates greater control of the story, allowing the player to rewind and save at different points in the story.

Characters:

Emily Ito: The main character of the game, Emily is a shy pink-headed girl.
Angie Ito: The twin sister of Emily, Angie is a hotheaded tomboy.
Riron Mizushima: A friend of the twins, Riron is an upbeat boy who manages to laugh at just about everything.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack to Dinosaur Island was composed by Kenichi Okuma and published by PolyGram in 1997. The main theme features a performance from Ikue Ohtani, well known for the voice of Pikachu.