Fossil Fighters: Frontier

All in all, Fossil Fighters: Frontier surprised me. It’s not a hard game, it’s not a memorable game, but it’s very solid.

A funny Pokémon clone with a “Jurassic” spin: the combat system is good enough, but the graphic is really weak and the action a bit too repetitive in the long run.

The story takes a while to actually become relevant, the tournaments can be a bit difficult in the early going, the digging can get repetitive, and the difficulty can spike from “easy as pie” to “I got one-shotted” rather quickly. However, my experience with it wasn’t all that bad and I did overall enjoy it, but having never played another FF game this might not be the best introduction to the series from what I’ve read.

Fossil Fighters: Frontier is simply a good introductory RPG packed to the brim with dinosaurs – and that may be just what the young gamer in your life will want soon, when the dino-craze takes over once more. [Issue #15; May/June 2015, p.76]

Overall, Fossil Fighters: Frontier is too innocuous and likeable to stay mad at for long.

The creators have a developed a unique world for this game, the variety of Vivosaurs and ability to customize everything allows for some personality and replay value, and overall the game is fairly enjoyable. On a more personal note, it kept me coming back to see what other fossils I could find, so that counts for something too.

Handsome and harmless, but a lack of depth means these dinos will never rule the earth. [Aug 2015, p.73]

As a lighthearted Pokémon wannabe with some interesting twists, Fossil Fighters Frontier is not a bad game. But with a well designed structure and lots of things to do, Red Entertainment and Chunsoft have not managed to exclude repetitiveness and boredom from the formula.

Fossil Fighters Frontier is nothing more than a Pokémon rip-off, where the familiar little monsters are replaced by dinosaurs. A mediocre title that could appeal only to young lovers of the ancient, extinct reptiles. Forgettable.

Easy for experts, too hard for newbies, Fossil Fighters Frontiers isn’t a bad game, it simply doesn’t have a specific audience that might appreciate it.

Its characters are well-presented, the narrative is fun and there's potential to the fighting system but the game overall lacks polishing, some of the mechanics become dull quite quickly and the difficulty curve needs a serious readjustment.

Fossil Fighters Frontier certainly has abundant contents that results in countless hours, unfortunately, the repetitive and boring gameplay combined with almost no motivation for the player to return, will cause many of these contents remain buried as fossils in a game full of potential with a lot of errors in execution.

Fossil Fighters: Frontier is a boring take on the excellent idea of dinosaurs fighting each other.

If the combat was more fun and parts of it didn’t feel so cheap, this series could have some legs, but for the third entry in the franchise, it still feels like it has a long way to go.

Fossil Fighters Frontier is a disappointing dinosaur RPG. The story and characters are cliché, there is no sense of adventure and the gameplay is tedious and monotonous. But at least the dinosaurs look cool.

Third chapter of a saga that desperately tries to follow in the Pokémon footsteps, it doesn't manage to impress, mainly due to silly gameplay mechanics.

There are definitely plenty of similarities when comparing it to Pokémon, yet labelling Fossil Fighters Frontier as a clone would be perhaps a little too harsh. Its developers have made genuine attempts to spice up the JRPG blueprint with vehicles, mini-games, and other interesting features. However, many of these feel tacked on with no real impact on the overall experience.

Fossil Fighters Frontier is a game that is aimed more towards children but it doesn’t justify the forgettable story, monotonous fossil excavation and uninvolved battle system. While the exploration is fun and it has some neat multiplayer ideas, Fossil Fighters Frontier doesn’t have much else going for it and there are far better games for your kids.

As I said above, Frontier also doesn’t really offer much challenge until later in the game. A lack of difficulty isn’t always the biggest problem if the gameplay is irresistibly fun regardless, but Frontier‘s battling tends to become too formulaic with no significant strategy or planning needed to barrel through opponents.

It’s an alright Pokemon clone but why would you go for a clone if you can just play the original? [Jul 2015, p.072]

In theory I would love a game like Fossil Fighters, but while I was willing to forgive the original on the Nintendo DS as a good-but-flawed new IP, by now the game should have a far more refined identity by now. There's still potential in Fossil Fighters, but the series needs to head back to the drawing board for a thorough rethink.

Even the least impressionable of youngsters will likely find themselves bored to tears by the uninventive gameplay and bland visuals the game exhibits.

Fossil Fighters is essentially a younger brother looking up to an older one; it clearly admires everything Pokemon does and tries to emulate it in every way possible, but never manages to do so in any clever or inventive ways.