The Flintstones: The Surprise at Dinosaur Peak (1994)
Developed by: Sol
Published by: Taito
Released in: NA, EU
What would you do with a spare $1,000? Would you do something practical, like getting that pesky muffler fixed or getting some bills out of your hair? Maybe you’d put it towards something a little more fun, like a vacation, or finally chasing up your childhood dream of owning one of those kid-sized Jeeps? How about spending it on a single NES game about the Flintstones?
Want me to run that last one by you again?
The Flintstones: The Surprise at Dinosaur Peak is an oddity in the NES library. Not the game itself (it’s just a standard platformer) but more what the game represents. You probably wouldn’t think it at a glance, but Dinosaur Peak is one of the most sought after cartridges on the system. Online, this game frequently commands staggering prices that hover anywhere from $600 to $800 USD for the cart alone; if you’re one of the lucky duckies who owns a complete copy (that’s with the original cardboard box and manual + inserts), you’re looking at prices closer to the tune of that illustrious $1,000+ range. Collectors are always hungry for the complete package, and are willing to shell out some mind blowing prices to back that up.
“But NESJunk,” I hear you cry, “why in the world is a game based on The Flintstones worth so much cash?” It’s all about the context of the time. Dinosaur Peak was released in 1994, a time when the NES was going extinct. It ended up being one of the final games released for the machine, with the final official NTSC NES cartridge following only three months after it. At that point, the 16-bit console wars were in full swing – it was the Genesis and SNES’s world, and we were all just living in it. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Super Metroid had been released just months prior to Fred and Barney’s 8-bit romp, making it look like an itty bitty baby dino standing next to two ravenous T-rexes.
In summary, waning interest in the NES and a limited print run contributed towards making The Flintstones: The Surprise at Dinosaur Peak a crowned jewel of every NES collector’s library. It’s so scarce that there are long-persisting rumours of it being a game that was only available through rental at Blockbuster – debates are still raging about Dinosaur Peak’s rental status to this day, but the general consensus is that it was NOT a Blockbuster exclusive; it’s just that nobody bought the damn thing.
I don’t own a Dinosaur Peak cart myself. After countless nights spent clutching a Fred Flintstone plush to my chest while I cry myself to sleep, I’ve finally made peace with the fact that unless I stumble upon a copy at the kind of garage sale that dreams are made of, I probably never will. And that’s okay.
You would think that, for a game as wildly expensive as this one, The Flintstones: The Surprise at Dinosaur Peak would be an experience. That the second you pop that sucker into your NES, it blows your tits clean off and transforms into an soft serve ice cream maker. So, what’s the verdict?
Being such a late addition to the NES library, Dinosaur Peak has some appealing visuals. At this late stage in the 8-bit game, Nintendo developers were old hands at pushing the NES to its absolute limits, developing some real feasts for the eyes. The colour palettes of levels are especially pleasing, the way the characters and dinosaur enemies are animated is above average, and the game has minimal instances of slowdown and sprite flicker throughout it. The music isn’t anything to sneeze at either, with some catchy tunes peppered into the soundtrack.
In Dinosaur Peak, you play as Fred Flintsone and his best judy, Barney Rubble. I embarrassingly referred to Barney as “Barney Flintstone” while in the middle of playing the game, to which my wife had a good laugh and has been bringing it up occasionally since. Rest assured, I’ve since flayed myself alive to atone for my egregious mistake. Anyway, you can switch between the two neanderthals on the fly with a quick tap of the Select button. Each character has a different set of abilities – Fred has a hard-hitting wooden club and can cling to the edges of platforms and cliffsides, pulling himself up no sweat. Barney, on the other hand, has a shitey slingshot that takes three times longer to kill things with than Fred’s club. Other than being useless on offense, Mr. Rubble can climb along thin bars scattered around the levels, which you need to do to progress at various points in the game. Barney feels under-utilized until the last level of the game, which will no doubt upset the ravenous Barney Rubble fans out there. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
Speaking of the last level, that was definitely the highlight of the game for me. The music was boppin’, and it was the first instance in the game where things felt challenging. It’s a gauntlet in which you’re made to do a lot of quick switching between the two characters to out-maneuver a flaming stone wheel of death that chases you incessantly. Whether or not a game being too easy is a plus or a detriment depends on personal tastes, but I personally don’t see it as a bad thing. Dinosaur Peak is nice enough to give you an infinite number of continues which, when combined with its already easy difficulty, definitely makes it one of the easier completes on the system. It took me about an hour to polish off, though I can’t say I felt especially accomplished once I did. It’s not a terribly exciting Bedrock romp.
Though the game is totally serviceable, I’ve never been a big fan of the source material, so I couldn’t get as into it as much as other platformers on the system. I yabba dabba don’t fuck with the Flintstones – the cartoon was always book-ended by things I was more interested when it was on TV, so any and all nostalgia tied to this series involves me being excited that the episode I sat through was ending, Fruity Pebbles commercials, and those chalky lil’ Flintstones vitamins, of course. Despite being in syndication for 50+ years and spanning multiple generations, it seems like The Flintstones have fallen out of the public eye in recent years; the modern landscape has no room for the modern stone-age family, and once again I say that I’m at peace with that. I was always more of a Scooby Doo kid.
When it comes to NES platformers, there are better ones, and certainly a bevvy of cheaper ones. It’s a good time, but I wouldn’t pay $1,000 for something that can be beat in an hour. But if you’re paying upwards of a grand for a single game, you’re not buying a game for the quality or the longevity; you’re buying it to complete a collection, or for the prestige and bragging rights that comes with owning such a big-ticket item. As a collector of many things myself, I totally get that mentality. If I had a spare grand to blow on some high-end trading cards or Gundam model kids, I would be a happy camper.
Aside from collectors, folks who might enjoy Dinosaur Peak include those with obscure 90s platformer-related itches that need scratching (via emulation, most likely), die-hard Flintstones fanatics who just can’t get enough of Fred screaming at his family and clubbing dinosaurs to death, people who are looking to breeze through an easy game, and people who like some eye-catching visuals to go alongside their NES titles. Just don’t expect it to blow those tits off anytime soon.
Initial Interest Rating: 8/10
Final Score:
NESJunk 