The short and sweet story behind Baby T-Rex is that your beloved Rexette has been kidnapped! It’s now up to you as Rex, to make it to the spooky castle of the evil magician Sethron and rescue her! So not much of a story as you can see, but for a platforming game, you really don’t need much of one. So as short and sweet of a story as it is, I am appreciative of it being here to give a bit of context to the game.
Since this is one of the re-release Classic Collection carts from ModRetro, there hasn’t been anything added to this as far as the way it plays. For those that have never played this game, it’s a platformer that was the GameBoy’s answer to Sonic the Hedgehog. You traverse stages, collecting rocks to throw at enemies to earn points and reach the end of the level.
That’s pretty much the game. There are a whopping 16 levels to get through which is quite a bit, especially for a GameBoy game. The downside here is that the physics are a bit wonky and it takes a bit of getting used to. Pair that with the levels being a bit too long, and you have the makings of a rather steep difficulty when it comes to this game.
With that being said, once you get the hang of how the game controls, and come to grips with how long each stage is and how unfair some of the enemies can be, not to mention the blind faith jumping when it comes to some of the platforming, the game is actually quite good.
Graphically, Baby T-Rex looks good for a GameBoy game. Sprites are detailed, and the levels have some good detail to them as well. Baby T-Rex is an original GameBoy game that doesn’t take advantage of being played in a Super GameBoy or GameBoy Color, but you can still play the game with a little color, which is better than playing with no color at all.
So the game looks good, but there isn’t much more to say than that when it comes to the graphics. Now the performance, well that’s a bit of an issue. The reason for this isn’t because it performs poorly, the issue is that because it tries to be Sonic on GameBoy, it feels like it’s sped up. What I mean by this is that it scrolls so smoothly and so quickly, that with the physics issues, it makes for a smooth but very unnecessarily difficult game. It feels like the game has been over-clocked when it should have been under-clocked a bit. So the game performs too smoothly for its own good is what I am trying to get at here.
Sound in Baby T-Rex is really nothing to write home about or even memorable. The stage music is fine, it’s serviceable for a platforming game, but nothing that will really stick with you after you’re done playing. As forgettable as the sound track is, I am glad that it’s not one that sounds hollow, scratchy, and repetitive. But sadly, that’s about all it has going for it when it comes to the sound. I mean yeah, there are sound effects. But like the music of the game, these too are just serviceable.
Baby T-Rex is a difficult but rather enjoyable game if you can look past its steep difficulty and learning curve when it comes to the physics. I may have bashed a bit on the sound and performance, but that’s because it deserves it as it’s a product of its time. What I wish we could have gotten with this release would have been a remake of sorts. Give us a full color palette, better physics, and a better sound track, maybe even under-clock the game to make it more appealing to play.
As much flack as I give this game, I still really enjoy it as it’s fun to play once you get accustomed to it. I would really recommend picking up this re-release as it’s an okay game, comes with an awesome charm, instruction manual, and box.
Disclaimer: A review copy was provided
You can purchase the game here
In addition to writing articles, Ryan Byers also creates content for his YouTube channel called "Obscure Games and Consoles", collects video games, and dabbles in video game development.