Prehistorik 1+2

Hit dinosaurs! And bears! And sabertooth tigers! And thin air! Lots of thin air because that's where the best food is! Eat a full refrigerator! No, the actual refrigerator.. Then get a bigger hammer to hit things! Then jump! And fall to your death! And then fall to your death again! Then after much falling and hitting let your head fall and hit the table because you are a wuss, and wusses that use normal difficulty don't get to play the last level! The game will grow hair on your chest and make you want to hit things. It stood at the beginning of many a gamer's life well played. Buy it. Also, there was a similar game without the "2" in it's name, or something? That one was also kind of nice I think..

It's the second game you're after. Both of them are pretty basic platformers, but Prehistorik 2 perfects all aspects of it's predecessor, and adds craptons of secrets scattered all over its levels. I'm only going to write about that game. Check out some online playthroughs, it's absolutely insane. Strangely enough, I recall finding out about many of those even when we played it back then. For some reason this game was very popular in Europe and my homeland, Hungary (well, it's a french game). The gameplay were solid, the graphics state of the art, and there are loads of little things that shows the effort and devotion the developers gamve (palette swaps between leves, different hazards, materials, traps, game-modes, vertical and horizontal levels etc.). But there are also some annoying bits to be acknowledged: given that it's a pc game, graphics this detailed couldn't have constant scrolling back then. It means, that as you move around, the screen slides to rearrange itself. It's surprisingly well done, but I imagine it might look and feel strange at first. Also, there's the problem with difficulty. Play only on EXPERT mode! If you chose anything inferior to that, the game will kick you back into the main menu before the very last (castle) level. It's not a bug, it even states, that you should try this on a harder setting!

I would give it five stars if it weren't for the absolutely insane difficulty of Prehostorik 2. You can finish Prehistorik 1 relatively easily if you put in a bit of effort, but the second game almost made me destroy some hardware in frustration. I finally had to check a playthrough to finish the last level. Randomly spawning enemies are as bothersome as jumping on all kinds of surfaces, including moving slippery platforms. Finding the secrets isn't so easy either. Otherwise I can't complain about anything.

The plot behind "Prehistorik"... if you can call it that... is as simple as it gets: a caveman by the name Prehistorik gets hungry and thus he sets out to hunt down his dinner. Yes, those were the 90-ies, story didn't play much of a role in such games back than... but you don't need an engaging story to enjoy a platformer. Graphically, Prehistorik uses cartoon-like style, which means that, despite have over 25 years on its back, the game still looks pretty. It may not be flashy, but the humorous presentation is very well done and fits the overall tone of the game itself. The sequel may seem a tad "over-the-top" in this regard, but it still draws you in. The gameplay is nothing fancy - you jump, you hit with your club and you collect food (in part two you also collect Happy Meals, ice cream and donuts... how they ended up in prehistory is a mystery though :D), but this is what most platformers are generally like. The game is enjoyable, despite lacking 3D enviroment like most, current platformers. The sequel of the game generally expands on all aspects of the original - it's longer, more diverse (both in enemies, enviroments and pick-ups) and provides a tremendous amount of secrets which are commonly discovered by swinging your club at the right spot, jumping to a certain location or dropping from one (kudos to anyone who can clear the game at 100% without a walkthrough). Overall Prehistorik series may not be "the best platformer" out there, but it certainly was at the top back in the day and, even now, it can bring lots of fun. If you enjoy these kind of games, you'll definately gonna enjoy this as well and the price seems pretty fair, even without the discount. Be adviced though: the overall time required to pass both games is roughly 2 hours, but that's when you're familiar with the game. And that's not counting all the secrets in part two ;)