prehistoric isle in 1930
ARCADE, 1989
Before the company fully embraced its Neo-geo hardware, SNK found time to unleash this marvellous reptilian-fuelled shooter. Set on Greenhell Isle, a mysterious island within the Bermuda Triangle, Prehistoric Isle tasks you with flying your trusty biplane through an uncharted island and dispensing as many prehistoric beasties as possible. While this shoot-’em-up is incredibly inaccurate, historically speaking, and will have paleontologists brandishing their trowels in anger, it remains a highly entertaining blaster thanks to its exotic enemies, challenging bosses and innovative power-up system.
Graphically it’s superb with detailed environments and authenticlooking dinos, many of which are huge and put up a challenge as they chomp, claw and even fireball you into oblivion. The very definition of a coin-guzzler (good luck finishing this on a single credit) and memorable for its downbeat ending, Prehistoric Isle was followed by Yumekobo’s Prehistoric Isle 2 in 1999. Despite arriving on a 478 Meg Neo-geo cartridge, the sequel failed to impress as much as the original.