Turf Wars Dinosaur Fighting Game Review

Ever wanted to fight a dinosaur? Tackle a Triceratops? Beat a Brontosaurus? Whip the a** of an Archaeopterix? In Turf Wars, a game brought to you by History.com, you're about to get your wish.

The intro to the game says it all: In a world with only one rule – survive - ferocious beasts hunt their prey with cunning and strategy, transforming prehistoric lands into epic and bloody battlefields. Terrorizing and dominating the globe like no creatures before, Dinosaurs are the ultimate fighters; monsters who reign over earth, their cold – blooded brutality never witnessed by human eyes. Until now. Be as savage as the competition... unleash your killer instincts.

You can play as one of five different dinosaurs, as a male or female Majungatholus, a T Rex (far easier to spell,) a Stegosaurus, an Utharaptor or a Pachyrhinosaurus. If you haven't heard of these dinosaurs before – good. They're already educating you with the power of a well made online game.

Once you chose your dinosaur, the game matches you up with opponents, Tekken style. When I browsed the controls, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the dinosaurs actually have special moves, much like one would expect in console game.

I was a little bit concerned that I wouldn't be able to master the moves, which involved things like holding the down key for a couple of seconds, then popping up and hitting z to do a spinning move, but the controls were surprisingly easy to get a hang of and within just a couple of minutes my lithe little Majungatholus was whipping the heck out of a Tyrannosaurus Rex twice her size. Victory truly was sweet.

After seeing my poor sweet, defenseless dinosaur eventually defeated by the horny spines and low bulk of the Stegosaurus, I went to see what else was on offer. To my great joy, it turned out that the controls for the T Rex (yeah, T Rex, I wasn't messing around anymore) were different again. There were new moves now, like the 'Rip and Tear' (Left Left, Right Z) and the 'King Smash' (Left, Down, Right Z).

It was at this point that I discovered not all dinosaurs are created equal. Where the Majungatholus had gallantly edged her way towards victory, the T Rex was able to eviscerate opponents in mere seconds. In dinosaur battles, as in life, the creature with the more powerful jaws tends to emerge the victor at the end of the day. (The Rip and Tear is especially effective, almost game breakingly good.) Turf Wars further enhances the imbalance by awarding cheat codes with which to decimate the enemy in later rounds. Fun and games!

This isn't a game that will challenge your ability to beat it. I pretty much went on a left, left right z rampage and beat the game in about five minutes, and was also informed that I had received the highest score ever - which struck me as odd, but there you go.

Turf Wars is a not terribly well named game, but an excellent, probably short-lived dinosaur fighting extravaganza that will be enjoyed by young and old (and when I say old, I mean really old, like, pre historic.)