DUELOSAUR ISLAND (2018)

PLAYERS	TIME	DESIGNER	PUBLISHER
2	30-45 mins	Ian Moss	Pandasaurus Games

In this version of DINOSAUR ISLAND, players are rival companies trying to make the most exciting Dinosaur park.

So far, so familiar.

But this entry in the series lightens the game a little, making it smooth to run, and requiring less space to play.

Gone are the Dinosaur minis and park boards. Your creatures and attractions are solely represented by two-section cards now.

The top half of each Park Card is a dinosaur, and the bottom half is one of the three attraction types.

Depending on which half you want in your park, you slide it under the top or bottom of your park.

Everything else about this game will be familiar to players that have played the other games.

There is still the dice drafting (with those beautiful amber dice). The retro artwork still shines. Players still gather DNA, gain threat, and pray they can afford to boost their parks security.

And with the drafting and simultaneous actions, there isn’t a lot of downtime for players in this game.This keeps the game focused for everyone and takes away any feeling of the game dragging.

You have the ability to buy specialists, that can swing the game a little. Some can be useless, while others can be pretty powerful (my combo of the Union Boss giving me a larger hand limited paired with the Intern letting me discard a card for more money was a nice engine).

The excitement/score board could have done with being dual layered. This can be knocked and cause three separate tracks to be lost.

And a small thing for me was that some attractions had amazing names (a food stand named ‘Clever Grill’ 🤣) which others are just left as ‘Photo’.

DUELOSAUR ISLAND is a great duel game and a nice, smaller entry to the series. With less going on, it could also be a great way to learn the icons and mechanics for the other games.