The scientists in Dinosaur World never thought to ask if they should. They have decided to tinker with nature itself by combining the DNA of different dinosaurs to create brand new species never seen before. I had been intrigued by Dinosaur World, from Pandasaurus Games ( Wild Space, That Time You Killed Me, and of course the many other games/expansions in the Dinosaur Island space), but didn’t have the cash to shell out for another round of dinosaurs.

This expansion comes with 6 new dinosaurs species (18 meeples and 6 tiles total!) that add some aquatic variety to your games! All dinos will have heat transfer artwork on both sides of the blue translucent plastic meeple. Which of the dinos is your favorite: Dunkleosteus, Elasmosaurus, Kronosaurus, Mosasaurus, Plesiosasurus, or Plotosaurus? The triumph of science that led to dinosaurs returning to the world once more has become public knowledge. New parks spring up regularly, often beginning operations even before everything has been finalized. There is no shortage of patrons eager to be entertained by these returned species in new and exciting ways. However, as with any form of entertainment, elements of triumph are often accompanied by elements of tragedy. This means it is of the utmost importance that you take every precaution by ensuring each visitor signs the safety waiver before enjoying the wonders of Dinosaur World! Dinosaur World is a worker placement, tile placement dinosaur theme park building game four two to four players. Games can take between 60 to 120 minutes, with higher player counts taking longer until all involved have had experience with the game. The central playing area. I will warn you now, this game can be a table hog! Sorry. Had to pause and talk dice. But if you’ve played any of the Dinoverse games, you know I’m right!Pandasaurus Games is the publisher behind Dinosaur World and is best known for releasing titles such as the family board game Machi Koro, roll-and-write series Qwinto and the post-apocalyptic survival game Wasteland Express Delivery Service. So, we did. And I’m glad we did. Dinosaur World is great and builds on many of the same ideas that were successful in the other 2 main games in the “Dinoverse”, the name of the collective Pandasaurus universe of dino-games: Dinosaur Island, Dinosaur Island Rawr ‘n Write, and Dinosaur World. That’s too long for a solo game. As a parent, I approach the gaming experience more and more from an accessibility mindset: what game is the easiest one to get to the table? Which game offers nice, crunchy decisions with a setup, play and teardown time in under an hour? What gives me chances at near infinite replayability? Which one will my wife play with me more consistently? Dinosaur World was designed by Brian Lewis - co-creator of the original Dinosaur Island and its expansion, Totally Liquid - Marissa Misura and David McGregor, who both co-created the unconventional dungeon-crawler game Fungeon Party.

Once players have finished the construction of their parks, they’re then free to improve them wherever they see fit, attracting even more visitors and wowing their guests with exciting new exhibits. Most importantly, players will have to ensure the safety of their visitors, as they will lose points if too many of their guests are tragically eaten by dinosaurs. The aesthetics of Dinosaur World and the quality of the components are both incredible. The artwork, fromKwanchaiMoriya, JoeShawcross,andAndrew Thompson,isstunning. Every tilepops, andthe gamebrings your table to life (especiallyas it will take up pretty much all of it).

Collection

I was torn between this one or Dinosaur Island Rawr ‘n’ Write, but as I’ve already mentioned the big version of that, I figured I’d pop this underappreciated gem on the list instead. This is a great little roll and write that has you building up a dinosaur park. That is definitely a popular theme here, Jurassic Park has a lot to answer for! Anyways, with Dino World you’re building up a dino park with some randomised facilities to give you different scoring conditions each time you play. You’ve also got a different set of research cards which give you access to those sort of ‘re-roll a die’ powers you get in roll and write games. This is especially true when you consider solo play. I only played Dinosaur World once solo for this review, and that was enough to confirm what I already guessed: Dinosaur Island Rawr ‘n Write is simply the better game for a single player, mainly because there is no setup/teardown time. You can get all of that Dinoverse magic in about 20 minutes. It took me about 75 minutes to set up, play solo, and put away Dinosaur World.