Fossil Fighters Frontier Review

The monster collecting formula tends to be a popular choice when trying to cater to a younger audience. Something about catching and upgrading little critters that eventually might turn into giant critters is undeniably addicting. And it's proven that Pokemon, despite being built for kids, can be enjoyed by gamers of any age. Fossil Fighters: Frontier, the third entry in the Fossil Fighters series, tries to emulate this same formula with an excavation mechanic, that feels a lot like Spectrobes, but ultimately fails to deliver a compelling game. Unlike Pokemon, this is a game that's clearly aimed at kids, and only kids.

The game starts off well enough, allowing you to choose your character's gender (although that's where the customization ends, sadly) and then meet your ragtag gang of Rangers that look like they're about 10 years old, and yet are able to not only tame wild Dinosaurs, but also drive around in buggies.

The premise is very childish too, not to its discredit since it is for kids, but it's all very black and white, a defined set of good guys versus a very stereotypical bad guy. In a time where even Pokemon games have some really interesting villains whose motives aren't clearly evil, it feels like a step back for Fossil Fighters: Frontier.

But this wouldn't matter if Frontier's gameplay was actually redeeming. It's not that it's inherently terrible by any means. The exploration can be fun, even the excavation stuff is pretty great (at least for the first 10 times you do it). It's the speed of everything that brings the whole experience down. Riding around in your buggy feels rather slow, even with the various pickups that are supposed to speed you up. Battles, which I'll get into as well, are also extremely slow, with each turn taking way longer than it should. There's a reason Pokemon has the ability to turn off battle animations. Sometimes you just don't have time for that! And then there are the load times. Even something as trivial as initiating a battle with a Vivosaur puts you in about a 5-7 second loading screen before you're actually battling. Changing environments does the same as well. It's painful, and I can't imagine kids and their impatience, being OK with it.

Battles themselves are very similar to Pokemon, in that each monster has four moves they can bring to battle. Unlike Pokemon though, your Vivosaurs don't simply learn moves through leveling. Instead, they need more parts excavated, like their tail bone, arms, or body, to learn new moves. Each Vivosaur has four basic parts, and then four advanced parts, each one containing a move that you can pick and choose from. It's an odd system that makes you work more than you should in order to unlock new moves. This is especially true since the game has some crazy difficulty spikes that are somewhat uncharacteristic of a game that's supposed to be for kids.

There is an added strategy in battles that I actually really liked, in the form of Support Shots. These ranged from various boosts and defenses against Vivosaurs, and could be used right before you launched an attack, or right before you get hit. For instance, one Support Shot can increase your damage after you pick a move, while another can heal you. You can even combine these Support Shots and create various combos. Granted, you don't have an unlimited supply of these, but a quick stop at a service station can replenish all of them.

But like I've stated previously, battles are tediously long, even in trivial battles against inconsequential monsters. The load times already make a bad first impression, but then picking a move, having them fully animate it, then having the enemy Vivosaur react, not to mention you have that extra time to use a Support Shot as well, it all just moves at a snails pace. I was excited to see an Auto button at the bottom of the screen which automates battles, since I thought it would also speed the animations up. Nope. It was the same old battles, I just didn't have any direct input anymore, which was fine, because the game was completely competent playing itself. Though boss battles did prove to be quite challenging and didn't allow me to simply rely on Auto battling anymore.

Fossil Fighters: Frontier, isn't a great game. It might be a great game if you're under the age of 10, and you have some previous knowledge of the Fossil Fighters franchise. However, kids accustomed to Pokemon and its streamlined gamelpay, probably won't be swayed with cool Dinosaurs.