I think i would have bought this game based on the premise alone - Dinosaurs from the future (with guns) travel into the past to fight robots and other dinosaurs (that don't have guns). I've only had a little while to play it, but so far i'm pretty impressed. It's kind of close to that "Star Fox" style shooter we've all been dreaming about, except you have free roaming instead of being stuck on a rail. Instant death from bumping into objects (trees, rocks) is annoying, but the controls seem to work pretty well. You can turn on a tight radius in a pinch, so proper navigation ability will probably come with time. Graphics are nice, if a little muddy and foggy. The frame rate is more then adequate, and I was surprised to see little details like trees catching flame under my laser fire and burning to stumps. The dinosaurs wandering the environment are impressively rendered, though scientifically inaccurate (but considering the premise of the game, science is going out the window). Wondering if anyone else took the plunge and had feelings about the title? I've been on the fence about Pangea, not particularly impressed/disgusted with their offerings, but Nanosaur has left me pleasantly surprised.
I too am surprised by this game, as noted in a previous Nanosaur post. The flying is pretty darn accurate. My only gripe, which seems to be a big one, according to most criticisms, is the lack of a save feature. I don't necessarily have an hour block of time to complete a level (I played for over thirty minutes yesterday and didn't even get close, maybe because I was enjoying the freedom of flying too much). Anyways, if it only has three levels, as someone previously mentioned in the earlier post, then I'm gonna be a bit bummed, because, again, now I'll have to sit down for three long periods of play. Then, the game's over. I'd much rather sit down for six or twelve shorter sessions because, subconsciously, it would make me feel like the game had some lasting value to it. Nevertheless, I'll still enjoy it though, although I hope Pangea adds this feature in the near future.
Oh no, not again! Didn't Pangea learn from Bugdom 2? I know I wasn't the only one to moan about Bugdoms lack of an in-level save (you had to complete the 30 minute levels before you could save), and it looks like Pangea haven't taken any notice of the complaints. I emailed them about Bugdoms controls and lack of save option, and they responded about the control. I asked them again about the save option and had no response, and they still haven't done anything with it. All they are interested in is porting these games over to the iPhone as soon as possible to get the money, and it doesn't look like this developer wants to listen to it's customers' requests. Count me out of buying this game, and any future game from Pangea. I am not a fan anymore.
Wow, completely forgot about nanosaur... I remember playing this on my sister's iBook G4 when she first got it. I like the game so far but it did crash my iPod at first, which sucks. But I rebooted like it said to and it's fine now.
I'm taking a agree/disagree stance on that opinion. Pangea's games for the most part, are OK. Not terrible. They seem to fall between the efforts of a single developer and something from a major studio, so i think the pricing is a major thing to take into consideration here. App store pricing is competitive to the point of being somewhat ridiculous. It feels like most every game that comes out plummets in price in a few days or less. If you look at Pangea's website, you can see that the price of the desktop versions of these games is in the range of $10-$20, so they significantly undercut themselves to have their games on the iphone platform. I've played some really terrible, buggy, incomplete games on my iphone, sometimes purchased for prices comparable to Pangea's offerings. Nanosaur is a solid, full featured, and fun game. The lack of a save anywhere feature is regrettable, but i wouldn't consider it a deal breaker. Maybe if this game was up for $10 (which it could have been, easily) i would have been more annoyed by this, but for $4, i'm willing to let it slide. I think we've all thrown money away on much worse games from the app store, for $4 your not going to be able to find much better then this title.
I disagree. I only spent a small amount on Bugdom 2- doesn't mean I'm ok with how frustrating the game became after a few levels. I haven't played it in ages as it has been removed from my device, and probably will stay that way, as it looks like an update isn't coming any time soon. For me, price doesn't come into it as far as my complaint goes. If you can't save during a 30+ minute level, I don't want to know.
I couldn't agree more. Although like wastedyuthe, the save function, will be a welcome addition! PANGEA I know that you frequent this forum! GET TO IT!
Actually I don't know if this was already mentioned, but that isn't true. See here: http://theapper.wordpress.com/2008/10/13/exclusive-interview-pangea-software/ looks like they will be making new games after finishing porting games
Sounds to me like they are just getting it over with, in regards to porting, and will not update these apps
If it was any other problem with the game I'd let price excuse it. Bugs? No sound? Lame graphics? Difficult control? What do you expect for $4? But the save thing is a deal breaker at any price. This isn't like some fancy feature that will be expensive or difficult to implement. I imagine that simply saving the app state when exited is quite elementary and even something kind of "pre-set up" for developers. This is a professional gaming studio, who doesn't even need it to be set up for them. I buy games that I'll play- what ever the price is. Knowing that there's no save feature means that no matter how cool it is, I won't play it. I'd say Bugdom 2 is officially my favorite game. But I haven't played it in weeks. If I'd seen any move or response from Pangea about the saving in Bugdom 2, I'd buy Nanosaur as is and patiently await the update. But I've seen zero evidence that they're doing anything about it. I take the absence of improvements in Nanosaur and the fact that they even released Nanosaur without fixing Bugdom first as very grim signs.
THANK YOU! At last someone who agrees with me. Having people telling me to stop moaning on the Touch Arcade blog. Blimey- a man's entitled to an opinion!
And also, the game gets really bad frame rates at times (I bought it). Honestly, that annoys me even more than the bad save system
Yes, wastedyuthe, but you've gone beyond opinion to making unwarranted accusations and offering faulty analysis. To accuse Pangea of ignoring its customers' requests and complaints because of greed is simply not fair when there is another likely explanation: Clearly, it is not cost-effective to add an in-level save feature to a ten-year-old game engine that probably took considerable effort already to convert from Mac to iPhone. The idea that it would be quick and easy to add this feature to an engine never designed to support it is just ridiculous. You can't assume that because your complaints -- and I totally agree with you that they're valid complaints; I cursed the lack of in-level saves when I played these games on Mac -- haven't been addressed that Pangea doesn't care about its customers. That's like accusing McDonalds of not caring about its customers because it doesn't offer steak dinners. Pangea has to act in its own economic interest and as long as customers are buying its products there's nothing wrong with that! It remains to be seen whether Pangea, now that it has said it will be concentrating solely on iPhone development, will just start spitting out new games based on the current engine, or whether they'll think about how iPhone users' needs are different than computer gamers' and develop accordingly. Either way, the decision will be based on the economics of the App Store market. They're not going to spend time re-coding the game engine if they don't think they can recoup the costs of doing so. It's good that you warn people who ask here that Pangea's games have long levels and no way to save except in between. If I wasn't familiar with these games, I would want to be so warned. But your whiny disparagements of Pangea's character need to be disputed.
I absolutely think that all those people complaining about the game's lack of a save feature should e-mail pangea, if they really care that much. Here's the e-mail: [email protected] And you can write something to the effect of: Hello! I am a supporter of your iPhone games, but your recent efforts have left me wanting (specifically Bugdom 2 and Nanosaur 2) - not because they are not fun or don't have high production values, but because of the lack of an autosave/pause function. For games with such high production values not to have such an elemental feature is disappointing, and I hope that in the near future, you will rectify the situation to accommodate those of us who can't dedicate a large chunk of time to completing a level. Heck, they can even copy this message down directly - I don't care! But it's annoying to have the same concerns voiced over and over, when it's not going to make much of a difference here.
I have every pangea game and i must say DONT BUY ANYOF THEM Enigmo- The only one i would buy. (I was one of the suckers who bought it for 10$) Cro Mag - Awful controls and graphics Billy Frontier - NO replay value Worst buck ive ever spent Bugdom2- You cant save at all the controls are awful they barely changed anything from the PC version AWFUL And Now Nanosaur.. Just like bugdom you cant save the controls may be better but not by much. FYI I guarantee you the price of this game will go down just like all the others. Thats My 2 cents Cheers CloneWars
I actually like the game lol Granted it took me a while to complete the first level minus the save feature... But it's a fun game nonetheless
Getting a little hot in here. I just wanted to lay down the opinion that i think the games good. It's fun, and it's of a high quality compared to most app store fair(and most pangea for that matter). For those that choose to hate it due to a base line save feature, i think your missing out. During my play though, i ran out of lives in the second world, so i had to load my save game which started me off in bad shape. I decided to just start over from world one. I used what i had learned to kick level ones ass, and moved into lvl 2 with more firepower, a full set of lives, and a much better save point. My point is, this is how a lot of games used to be. If it wasn't set up like this, maybe people would plow through the game in a few sittings. This way, your encouraged to really improve your strategy and streamline your progress through the levels. If i have to turn it off in the middle of stage two, i'll just start off from my save again with a better idea of what to do next. Look at it this way, it wasn't long ago that if a game like this was released that only featured a flying thing shooting stuff in a bland repetitive level, people would have loved it (it was called StarSmasher- kidding!). So enjoy the game for the game play, don't play it just to beat it. Sure it could have a high score tracker, or a better save system. It's just cheap, pretty, and fun. And it doesn't have any tremendous stupid game glitches. Except for when the laser gun wont stop firing, and when you try to fly to a high ledge and smash into the ground because of the low ceiling boundary. Other then that, fun.
Our review's up: http://www.slidetoplay.com/story/nanosaur-2-review Gorgeous game that needs a few fixes (to saving, continues, map) stat.
Everyone keeps complaining about this, but think back just a few weeks. Starsmasher was the same price and it wasn't really a game. Now it's just barely a game. This is so far ahead of that game it's ridiculous. I agree the saving issue is frustrating, but I'm more than willing to look past it as long as it has replay value, which I think this has.
