Four years ago, a developer called Jean Nguyen shared a short video on Dwitter of a spinosaurus pulling off a sick combo with Cloud Strife’s Buster Sword. This, of course, blew up, but it wasn’t actually a game, just some animation work from the dev. And then, somewhere along the line, Nguyen decided to make it into an actual game. It’s now called Dinoblade, it’s out today, and it is jank and over top in exactly the right ways, and genuinely a rip roaring time.
The whole concept is deliciously silly. Some kind of cataclysmic event took place, and now dinosaurs all fight each other using various bladed weapons. You, still a spinosaurus, seemingly forge a pact with some kind of mysterious maybe evil but I’m not quite sure Other Dinosaur, and upon doing so the fighting begins. The best immediate comparison mechanically is Sekiro, as you can parry attacks, but there’s a bit more emphasis on the action element.
Watch on YouTube
As ridiculous as the entire thing is, the combat genuinely feels good. Parrying is responsive, you’ve got quick and heavy attacks that make for some swish combos, and enemy animations are surprisingly readable. When it works, it works! There is that aforementioned jank though, which mostly comes from the environments.
It’s a little awkward, a touch clunky, but I forgive this given that you are a giant ass dinosaur, the feeling at least makes sense with that in mind. Though, sometimes the enemies were invisible and the environments wouldn’t quite load properly, but I think it was just one person making this to the end, so I can extend some grace there as well.
Perhaps my favourite moment was what came after beating the first boss, in which I discovered that doing so then allows you to summon said dinosaur you killed to perform a powerful attack for you. Absurd! I love it, especially when paired with other powers such as an energy beam you can shoot out from your sword, or a roar you can emit that freezes enemies in place.
You are not going to find a revolution here, but you won’t find something that wastes your time either. It’s rare for these sorts of games, ones born from a viral post, that materialise into something as cohesive and enjoyable as Dinoblad, and feels like it fits quite well into the echelons of obscure PS2 or Dreamcast games that never were.
Dinoblad has a demo you can try out for yourself, or you can just pick it up on Steam right now.
