Fossil League Hands-on

So it's no surprise that developers look to games like Pokemon for their own inspirations, and that's exactly what's going on with D3Publisher and its upcoming Nintendo DS adventure: Fossil League: Dino Tournament Champion. Also known as Dino Grand Prix in Japan, this D3Publisher release will hit stateside early next year, and the company let us tinker around with the localized version that it had on-hand at its holiday event last week.

Fossil League's design follows the Pokemon layout almost to a T. Instead of collecting and battling random and original creatures, you'll be collecting and battling dinosaurs from all across the different prehistoric eras. And in this case, D3Publisher can get away with staking an "educational" slant for the design since all the creatures have scientific evidence backing that they existed on the planet at one time or another.

The whole idea is to traverse the past and complete your Dinopedia by collecting dinosaurs for your army. There are more than a hundred different dinosaurs to encounter in this game, all rendered in 3D during battle sequences where players pit Dino against Dino to win fights and strengthen their creatures. You'll not only use the touch screen to command your dinos in battle, but you'll also play archeologist on the touch panel by using the stylus to excavate fossils you stumble over along the way.

Like Pokemon, you'll be able to fight against other players wirelessly on other local Nintendo DS systems, but you won't be able to trade collected dinos with one another. Bummer.

via IGN