‘Go Diego Go! - Great Dinosaur Rescue’ is, as I’m sure you can guess, a game based around Diego (beloved cousin of Dora the Explorer) embarking on adventure to rescue a dinosaur.

The dinosaur in question is a Maiasaurus named Maia, she has been separated from her family and is lost on an island. Diego does the heroic thing and helps her traverse land and sea to get her back to her family.

Completion of the game took me about half an hour, and then a subsequent five minutes to look at the extra things in the ‘Museum’. The game itself is made up of 23 mini games based on seven core games, each of which are shown in the video:

• Taking a photo of a dinosaur (use D-Pad to look around, tap the screen when you see a dinosaur)
• Following footprints (tapping the correct footprints to follow the trail)
• Making a noise/saying a phrase in Spanish (easily achieved by blowing into the mic)
• Dragging objects to or from an area on the bottom screen (classic stylus dragging action)
• Jigsaw (Jigsaw)
• Guiding Mya up or down to avoid obstacles (Like a shmup, but without weapons, speed, death, enemies)
• Tapping certain colours/footprints (Just tapping what you see on the top screen)

Looking at the game from a strictly dinosaur viewpoint, it is very impressive. There are lots of dinosaurs (albeit in cartoon format only), and they are all named appropriately.
You can control dinosaurs occasionally in the minigames, but only to a point. There is sadly no free-roaming control that enables you to eat Diego, the terrible little boy that he is.

Don’t even get me started on Diego! Just because he saves animals he thinks he’s entitled to force children to learn his language. Throughout the game he will talk to you(r child) in Spanish and get them to repeat phrases into the mic. Now these phrases aren’t even explained, you are just told to blindly repeat them. They could mean anything at all! This is the worst kind of education, the forced kind.

Looking at the game from a strictly non-dinosaur viewpoint, I can assure you that it is rubbish.
As I previously mentioned, I finished it within half an hour. This coming from a game that costs twelve of England’s finest from Amazon! It makes me sick.

Here is a video to give you a sample of the glorious gameplay that you experience with this game:

Now I’m fully aware of the fact that the game is aimed for young children, and not at my age range, and so I would have likely finished it quicker than the target audience…HOWEVER! - The young children that this game is aimed at are at such a young age that they should not be using a Nintendo DS, they should be
spending time with…heaven forbid….their parents!

The cartoon show it’s based on, the puzzles themselves, the attitude of the game, it’s all aimed at children that should be learning with their parents, building a bond together. Not spending time sat with a gaming system with a fiddly stylus that they can choke on.

The only way that this game would be acceptable would be if the parents sat with the child and helped them play it.

Long story short, if you’re not a child, or a massive fan or Diego, then you’ve got to really -and I mean REALLY- like dinosaurs to enjoy this game.

Dino-Score:

8/10 - Very good at teaching young children the greatness of dinosaurs

Game Score:

2/10 - Too much of an obvious money-making device. Get the Wii version instead, you get more for your money.