Fossil Fighters: Frontier

1. Mop_Hair

   Apr 15, 2022

   10

   This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I disagree with the strong disliking of this game. Probably one of the most underrated 3DS games to be made.… Expand

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2. ManaketeNah

   Apr 21, 2015

   10

   Amazing game! Kind of like a strategy game later on. You have to choose the right vivos to use, and choose the right pale pals to tag alongAmazing game! Kind of like a strategy game later on. You have to choose the right vivos to use, and choose the right pale pals to tag along with you! Beware: This game is addicting!… Expand

   • 0 of 2 users found this helpful
4. inezel

   Apr 12, 2015

   8

   While Fossil Fighters: Frontier doesn't offer anything particularly new to the field of 3DS gaming, I still found it enjoyable after purchase.While Fossil Fighters: Frontier doesn't offer anything particularly new to the field of 3DS gaming, I still found it enjoyable after purchase. It reminded me a lot of my first playing the original DS game a while back. The characters are lovable, albeit a little bit stereotypical (and at times, a bit much so), it's still a slew of boys and girls that I enjoyed getting to know throughout the game. The mechanics are repetetive, but it's nothing that kids would find too boring. They story's interesting, dialogue fairly well structured, and the music's enjoyable. And while the older audience would find the game a little more on the corny side, it's the perfect game for kids, who can easily log a hours into this game. So, while it's nothing new, it's certainly not a boring game by any means.… Expand

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5. mitochloroplast

   Aug 22, 2021

   2

   As many others that bought this game, I was a big fan of the first two Fossil Fighters games. If you're coming into the game as an outsiderAs many others that bought this game, I was a big fan of the first two Fossil Fighters games. If you're coming into the game as an outsider with no prior Fossil Fighters experience, I have no idea how this plays. Maybe mediocre, but not terrible. But this is a very bad Fossil Fighters game, and if you liked the first two, don't expect more of the same from this one.
   
   Immediately concerning to anyone who has played the previous 2 games is the fact that the development of FFF was outsourced to Spike Chunsoft, whereas in the past the games were developed through a 4-way collaboration between Nintendo SPD, RED Ent., Artdink, and M2. While RED Ent. still provided "assistance" in the development, the bulk of the game was developed by people that had no hand in the original games. And it shows, because FFF features the removal of many core gameplay mechanics that defined the Fossil Fighters games prior.
   
   First off, the new battle system simply blows. The idea of a 'sequel' game is generally to update and improve core mechanics, which is exactly what Champions did when it built upon the original FF. FFF comes in and removes the 3-member team-based gameplay, forcing you to team up with AI fighters that you cannot control or coordinate with. The updated fighting system relies not on strategy and teambuilding, but more on luck and grinding to get your one good vivosaur to be even better. Support effects are gone. Zoning is not controllable. Others have dug into this flawed system more in other reviews, and I can't be bothered to pick it up again to give a more detailed review - just know it's fundamentally different and not as fun.
   
   Elemental advantages are inexplicably scrambled in this game, breaking away from the well-established elemental pentagon that fans of FF and FFC would be familiar with. Improvements made in FFC such as Super Revival are removed. Nearly all vivosaurs that survived the cuts and made it into this game feature drastic redesigns, some for the better but some most definitely for the worse. The models look underwhelming, strangely slimy in texture, and ultimately bland, somehow outdone by their cartoony, low-poly predecessors in FF and FFC.
   
   I don't have much to say about the characters. Character design was alright in this game, but I felt no attachment to anyone. It didn't help that I was forced to work with most of the characters in a frustrating and unsatisfying battle system. Many recurring characters from past games are mysteriously absent, like this game takes place in an alternate universe.
   
   Cleaning fossils is a nightmare and much more frustrating than it ever was in FF/FFC. They expect you to use the 3D options on the 3DS during this part but it just makes the process even more confusing and hard to navigate. There isn't enough colour OR texture contrast between the outer shell of the rock and the inner shell of it, so you end up drilling right through fossil if you aren't careful, and you'll be lucky to end up with a score above 70. I found cleaning fossils to be an unrewarding slog in FFF, which is a bad sign if it's one of your core gameplay hooks.
   
   The addition of Bone Buggies in combination with the choice to add in roaming vivosaurs (who revived them?) rather than other fighters as environmental obstacles leads one to believe that the developers were much larger fans of Jurassic Park than they ever were of Fossil Fighters. I did not enjoy the switch from roaming fossil grounds on foot and digging them up yourself to a hard-to-control bone buggy that felt more like it belonged in a racing game than a game about exploring the wilderness and finding dinosaur fossils. Having to spend money on upgrades to your CAR in a game about reviving dinosaurs feels so unnecessary and tedious.
   
   Overall, I find this game a strange and baffling example of a corporate cash grab. Excluding 75% of the original developers from the making of this game, changing so many core gameplay components, and slapping the Fossil Fighters name on it feels so transparent. The whole game lacks the campy charm of the original 2 and is just plain boring. I'm tempted to say they must have been planning for this to be a generic, unrelated game about fighting dinosaurs in your little Jurassic Park-style buggies but saw that they already had a moderately performing dinosaur game series and clumsily plonked it into the franchise instead.
   
   Even the theme song used in both FF and FFC has been replaced by something more generic, a strange choice that makes FFF feel even more disconnected from the past two games.
   
   I have a combined 150+ hours in FF and FFC. I couldn't even finish this game if I tried -- I gave it 6 hours and dropped it. It's not worth your time unless you didn't like FF or FFC very much and still want to try another Fossil Fighters game for some reason.… Expand

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6. NintendoFan100

   Mar 31, 2015

   2

   To those of you hooping to get this game to recapture bits of nostalgia, beware. This game is a hot mess that you will be ashamed to haveTo those of you hooping to get this game to recapture bits of nostalgia, beware. This game is a hot mess that you will be ashamed to have spent your money on. In no way does it capture the goofy magic of the past fossil fighters titles, though it capitalizes on the weaknesses. For instance, the opening title of the game is a rinky-dink theme-song that makes your head hurt. The fossil hunting mechanic was devastated by the ridiculous fossil buggy dynamic, and the three-dimensional sprites for all of the dinosaurs in the game appear to have been done hastily and without thought. Honestly, the battles are overtly complicated, and to no avail. When playing this game, I never felt myself thinking that any of the monotonous things that the game did were original or interesting. I have two regrets: that I cannot return this game, and that the fossil fighters franchise has been forever sullied by this pathetic cash grab.… Expand

   • 3 of 5 users found this helpful
7. Ectsoplasm

   Jan 31, 2016

   1

   This game, OH BOY THIS GAME... Fossil Fighters was great. Champions was phenomenal. This game is awful. Now, the earlier games had awesomeThis game, OH BOY THIS GAME... Fossil Fighters was great. Champions was phenomenal. This game is awful. Now, the earlier games had awesome battle systems with depth. Positioning your Vivosaur was essential. Managing your Battle Points was just as important. This game threw away the ability to control positioning, and you don't even get to use your preferred Vivosaurs. Instead, you get to choose to AI companions who will use their BP however they want, not strategically. Furthermore, you are positioned by speed. So if your Vivosaur is slow, you have to wait for your companions to attack. This means, for example, if you want to get an effective attack out of your slow long range Vivosaur, and keep in mind that many of the long range Vivosaurs are slow, you can only hit the fastest opposing Vivosaur. So there's the ruined battle system, onto the story. The characters consist of a group of kids, each with their own thing that could have made them interesting (lone-wolf edgy guy, aggressive hothead girl, 2nd best friend who hates your best friend, etc.) Other than the Mary Sue and that guy whose personality is... being fat I guess... the characters could have been interesting if they could be fleshed out, but there are so many in a pretty short game that they don't get enough screen time. The bone buggies were obviously a way to attract 8-year-olds, but they're pretty much the only part of the game I could enjoy.
   
   [Spoilers here] You get a specially genetically modified Vivosaur, who is more interesting than all of the human characters were allowed to be. While his design is pretty great, he is VERY over powered and evolves as you progress, so you can just blow through the game with him. You could go without using him, but that mean you get to grind at a snail's pace all day. The final boss of the game isn't very well explained, and is an enormous step down from Zongazonga in FF Champions and even Gunash from the first game.
   
   [Debrief] This is probably the worst game I have ever bought for myself. There were some good bits, I did like ONE of the human characters (Dahlia, the hothead) but overall, this game isn't very enjoyable. Don't buy this.… Expand

   • 1 of 1 users found this helpful
8. EchoSpace

   Nov 17, 2019

   0

   Not nearly as good of a story as the first two changed all of our mechanics did something very clunky and under developed changed a wholeNot nearly as good of a story as the first two changed all of our mechanics did something very clunky and under developed changed a whole bunch of miles that never needed to be changed the only good thing I have to say about this game is the music and that’s barely even good… Expand

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