Fossil Fighters: Frontier

 3DS
User Score
5.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 31 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 31
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 31
  3. Negative: 14 out of 31
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  1. B-G
    May 1, 2015
    2
    With two decent games already in the FF line-up one would think the series would only need a few upgrades to make yet another successful sequel, but that is far the case from this mess. Deep story thrown out the window, countless Vivosaur types seemingly disappearing, and changing the combat from turn based strategy to a select a choice and hope you don't miss, Fossil Fighter Frontier isWith two decent games already in the FF line-up one would think the series would only need a few upgrades to make yet another successful sequel, but that is far the case from this mess. Deep story thrown out the window, countless Vivosaur types seemingly disappearing, and changing the combat from turn based strategy to a select a choice and hope you don't miss, Fossil Fighter Frontier is an utter disgrace to its predecessors. Characters are completely stereotypical and so unoriginal, the plot a complete predictable snore, and any sense of adventure and discovery is lost not far into the game. I would never recommend this game to anyone except six year-olds, which the game seems to be directed towards.… Expand
  2. I_Is_Qwerty
    Aug 14, 2015
    4
    The past two games have been great, with the sequel capitalizing on the first ones mistakes while improving everything else. Champions was the best game no doubt. Played it for hours. So you'd imagine I was quite excited for another sequel, which I was. Then I got the game. Boy, was it a disappointment.

    Don't get me wrong, the game is a bit fun. It's something to do when there's nothing    The past two games have been great, with the sequel capitalizing on the first ones mistakes while improving everything else. Champions was the best game no doubt. Played it for hours. So you'd imagine I was quite excited for another sequel, which I was. Then I got the game. Boy, was it a disappointment.

    Don't get me wrong, the game is a bit fun. It's something to do when there's nothing else to do. But if you can do something else, you should. Heck, i'll replay Champions (did I mention it's a great game?) before going back to this. They removed some of the most interesting aspects: fossil types, SUPER REVIVAL (very disappointing change), and they changed the entire format of battle. Before it was a strategic 3 on 3 with your Vivosaurs (your fighters) against theirs. You switched places in battle to give your Vivosaurs advantages and disadvantage theirs with smart moves, like a game of Chess. What does Nintendo do? They took all strategy away from it. Now it's strictly: "w0w. my v1v0saur is strong there. cool". They took all power out of your hands and put it into the game.

    This is coming from an experienced player. If you're new to this series, you can give this a go and chances are, you won't be as salty as I am. But seriously, just play Champions instead.    … Expand
  3. 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 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 toThis 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
  4. Alpha231
    Apr 10, 2016
    1
    When I picked up Fossil Fighters Champions one day, I fell absolutely in love with it. It was almost like Pokemon in a sense where I could assemble my teams the way I wanted them, go exploring to find new fossils to dig up, and go through the story like any RPG. So I played Fossil Fighters ( Original ). Loved that, too.
    So when I heard a new Fossil Fighters was going to come out, I was    When I picked up Fossil Fighters Champions one day, I fell absolutely in love with it. It was almost like Pokemon in a sense where I could assemble my teams the way I wanted them, go exploring to find new fossils to dig up, and go through the story like any RPG. So I played Fossil Fighters ( Original ). Loved that, too.
    So when I heard a new Fossil Fighters was going to come out, I was hyped. I couldn't wait to get the game, go through the adventure, and see what they added. Now I wish I didn't spend my money at all.
    The game is so laughably bad, it disgraces the other two games tremendously. The story is awful and cliche, with stereotypes for characters, if you can even call them characters. When I heard about buggies being used to dig up fossils, I though that was really cool. But the buggy system is really just Mario Kart with digging fossils instead of racing. It is now a necessity to dig up fossils with a buggy, not a cool extra free-roam environment helper.
    But what hurts the most is the battle system; it was the reason I loved the first two games. Fossil Fighters: Frontier changed the whole thing; There is no satisfaction in battling, with NPCs doing everything for you. On a 3DS, you would expect an interface to become cleaner. Quite the opposite happened actually; it was the predecessors that actually had a nicer interface. Vivosaur options are now poorly limited, for some dumb reason. The producers seemed so excited to add new features to the game they scrapped old ones, ones that made Fossil Fighters, Fossil Fighters.
    I haven't finished it yet, still maybe halfway through. Don't plan to finish it, either. Guess this is heartbreak?    … Expand
  5. CrystalCreeperP
    Oct 14, 2016
    0
    OK so those out there wanting to play this and hoping it is AWESOME! well its not. I am a player of the entire series which includes Fossil Fighters original and i loved it! I still play it to test teams! Fossil Fighters Champions and I play that one too. Then theirs the hot mess known as Fossil fighters frontier. All they did was make it for the younger audience and they ruined it for theOK so those out there wanting to play this and hoping it is AWESOME! well its not. I am a player of the entire series which includes Fossil Fighters original and i loved it! I still play it to test teams! Fossil Fighters Champions and I play that one too. Then theirs the hot mess known as Fossil fighters frontier. All they did was make it for the younger audience and they ruined it for the older players like me!!!
    Here's some things i miss in this hot mess i got from the older games.

    Fossil Fighters Original: Awesome characters like Rosie,Dynal Duna and Raptin, Nick Nack, Dr.Diggins, Saurhead... And More. THEY WERE AWESOME!!!
    the ACTUAL cleaning meathod and the most iconic vivasuars like Spinaxe, v-raptor(Original artwork)

    Fossil Fighters CHampions: SUPER REVIVAL, Rupert, Todd,ZZ,Pauleen and others too.

    they got rid of the most OP vivasaurs and also greatest: Dinaurians!!!!
    Who ever played the original game knows these guys and probably said they are too OP. I remember having a crush on Duna.

    THIS IS A HORRIBLE GAME FOR WHOSE WHO PLAYED THE ORIGINAL GAMES!!!!
    ALSO WHERE ARE THE DINARIANS TOO? I MISS THEM AND THERE AWESOME MUSIC ESPECIALLY DYNAL HE HAS AWESOME MUSIC!    … Expand
  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 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 fossilTo 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
  7. hollybear234
    Mar 10, 2017
    1
    OMFG THIS GAME **** SUCKS!! SUCH A DISAPPOINTMENT.

    Fossil fighters and Fossil fighters champions where AMAZING! 10/10. I loved them both dearly and hold them close to my heart. The dinos, the digging, the competitors all excellent! but this game isn't even similar. the only similarity is that there are dinosaurs. The fighting style changed so that you can only use one dinosaur, if    OMFG THIS GAME **** SUCKS!! SUCH A DISAPPOINTMENT.

    Fossil fighters and Fossil fighters champions where AMAZING! 10/10. I loved them both dearly and hold them close to my heart. The dinos, the digging, the competitors all excellent!

    but this game isn't even similar. the only similarity is that there are dinosaurs. The fighting style changed so that you can only use one dinosaur, if you want another you have to use a buddies dino but there almost always weak. The towns are small and boring which makes me sad because i loved the town designs. AND THE DINOSAURS OMG DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED.......THEY LOOK LIKE **** All the dinos look like crap, there just lazy re-paints of old ones but added razor sharp teeth which make them look poor and silly. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DONT BUY THIS GAME WITHOUT ASKING FOR A RECITE> I DIDN'T ASK FOR ONE AND HATE MYSELF EVERYDAY FOR IT!    … Expand
  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 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
  9. Bridinorex
    Jan 28, 2020
    1
    When i played the first 2 games i had fun. Sure the plot was strange but the games focused on it's core aspects. However in fossil fighter frontier it has abandoned it's core aspects. These core aspects are digging and fighting. The fighting has been changed to you and 2 npc fighting instead of you making your own powerful team. You are stuck with a very limited selection of "allies" ifWhen i played the first 2 games i had fun. Sure the plot was strange but the games focused on it's core aspects. However in fossil fighter frontier it has abandoned it's core aspects. These core aspects are digging and fighting. The fighting has been changed to you and 2 npc fighting instead of you making your own powerful team. You are stuck with a very limited selection of "allies" if you can call them that to help you in your battles. No matter how powerful of a team combination you make it will stiff not be able to function as you plan because you only control 1/3 of the team. In the first game i had several powerful teams that could wipe the floor with any opponent but in this latest game you can't do that. You can't even form a strategy all you can do is focus on a few select dinosaurs and level them up as much as possible. But that is enough on fighting lets talk about the fossil finding. From what i could tell from the fist 2 zones the fossils are set in place. In fact i went through the tutorial zone multiple times but did not get any new fossils from my first sweep of it. Even in the second zone no fossils changed locations no matter how many times i entered it. I have not played the game that much since i am currently revisiting the old 2 games so i will return to change this review if i feel that it needs to be changed however i doubt that it would need to be changed.… Expand
  10. 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 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    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 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

Awards & Rankings

44
#44 Best 3DS Game of 2015
18
#18 Most Discussed 3DS Game of 2015
34
#34 Most Shared 3DS Game of 2015

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
57

Mixed or average reviews - based on 25 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 25
  2. Mixed: 18 out of 25
  3. Negative: 5 out of 25
  1. Games Master UK
    Aug 5, 2015
    65
    Handsome and harmless, but a lack of depth means these dinos will never rule the earth. [Aug 2015, p.73]
  2. DarkStation
    Jul 27, 2015
    50
    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.
    Read full review
  3. Power Unlimited
    Jul 24, 2015
    45
    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]
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