Game: Parkasaurus
Genre: Indie, Simulation, Strategy
System: Nintendo Switch (Also on Steam (Windows))
Developers | Publishers: Washbear Studios
Age Rating: EU 7+ | US E10+
Price: EU €20,99 | USD $24.99 | UK £20.99
Release Date: April 28th, 2022
Review code used, with many thanks to Washbear Studio.
Back from Extinction
I used to play Zoo Tycoon 2 for hours as a kid, crafting elaborate parks that sprawled across my computer screen. Many years later, I still yearn for that feeling of satisfaction in games, watching an empty map gradually fill with exhibits, paths, and animals of my own creation. Parkasaurus reminds me of those days. Its low-poly visuals are a joy to behold. Even the small details are artistically fascinating, with triangles dancing on water, clumpy trees swaying, and simplistic buildings. It also features cute 2D menus for purchasing food, dinosaur eggs, and even hats. So, is Parkasaurus a satisfying management sim on Switch? Let’s find out!
Dinosaurs…from Space!
The main campaign begins with a group of dinosaurs crash-landing in a spaceship. Now it’s up to you to complete missions to help repair their ship. Ship repairs give you perks, such as more profit, faster egg hatching, or having guests line up outside the park before it opens each morning, but these missions are totally optional. The campaign is just there to familiarize you with basic mechanics.
For more task-oriented players, it might be rewarding. For me, it offered valuable park and exhibit design ideas, showcasing the map arrangements, items, and buildings on offer. Whereas other management games involve needlessly drawn-out tutorials, (I’m looking at you, Jurassic World Evolution) Parkasaurus relays everything you need to know in the span of about 30 minutes. This is a great warmup before jumping into Sandbox mode.
Jurassic Sandbox
Sandbox mode is customizable, with different beginning biomes and budgets. I chose an unlimited budget for my own park but monitored my profits and losses. Players must determine what research to unlock, which dinosaur fossils to excavate, and how much food to purchase each day among other decisions. This requires strategy, amounting to a busy but rewarding time.
All in a Day’s Work
What does a day in the life of a dinosaur keeper look like? Well, the playstyle in this game is highly customizable to suit your individual preferences. I begin by purchasing food and checking on my dinosaurs. Next is spending time building the park which involves placing decorations, prettifying habitats, and planning new exhibits.
I also send employees on expeditions through a spacetime portal to retrieve new dinosaur fossils. Alongside daily tasks, I am always thinking about my next research goal which requires science points and hearts to unlock. Any one of these systems is simple by itself, but together they accumulate into a complex network of tasks to juggle.
Let’s Talk UI
Having an intuitive user interface is essential in management sims. Too complicated and you risk frustrating players. Too simple and players will feel lost. Parkasaurus strikes a decent enough balance. At first glance, it looks exceedingly complex, with buttons, toggles, numbers, and taskbars, but after playing a campaign mission or two, I quickly got the hang of it. My only gripe is text size. There were moments both docked and handheld where I had to squint to read the fine print.
Home Sweet Home
Dinosaur exhibits consist of terrain, trees, bushes, and rocks. A feeder is also a must, and you need to purchase multiple servings of food per dinosaur each day. Additional enrichment items can be added to keep your dinosaurs happy. These include tire swings, boxes, showers, nests, and more.
As you research new upgrades, you can add more enrichment items and shelters to your exhibits, creating the coziest home for your dinos! Variety is the spice of life, and the limited number of biomes made my exhibits look a bit too similar. There are ways to avoid this, such as through terrain tools, living plants, and decoration items, but these only do so much to differentiate one enclosure from another.
The Stars of the Show
Let’s talk about the dinosaurs! There are over 30 different species. The dinosaurs in Parkasaurus begin as eggs. After hatching, they gradually grow to adult size, at which point you can plop a silly hat on their head. You can create more dinosaurs via breeding, or by excavating fossils through the aforementioned spacetime portal. By combining fossils with mysterious gems, you will generate dinosaur eggs to hatch in your park.
Your dinosaurs will grow happier as you improve their exhibits and meet their social needs. Some dinosaurs prefer to live in herds, whereas others prefer pairs. As a bonus, your dinosaurs do not die. This means the time you take to nurture, name, and clothe them will not go to waste. Thank goodness. I have grown quite attached to my seismosaurus wearing an astronaut helmet!
Design Flaws?
The Switch isn’t always optimized for management games which require sleight of hand when placing paths, buildings, and objects. Moving the joystick just a little too far will result in misplacement. This is also true for Parkasaurus, although I find the controls much smoother than I anticipated, with a helpful grid for placing items. It’s not perfect, however, and I did run into difficulties with the terrain tool.
I also struggled particularly while placing string lights and elevated walkways, as these require small movements to indicate both horizontal and vertical orientation. Neither of these difficulties detracted too much from my enjoyment, but they did make it harder to translate my visions into reality.
Conclusion: A Roaring Good Time
I can happily say that I have enjoyed my time with Parkasaurus. It’s less about beholding the majesty of the dinosaurs, and more about silly fun. Park management elements feel much tighter and snappier than I expected. I watched new exhibits populate the map. Arranged flowerpots, donation boxes, and benches. I witnessed my losses slowly turn to profits. And most importantly: I put hats on my dinosaurs! Sure, there are some drawbacks with the Switch version, including occasional stutters, small text, and inexact controls, but none of those detracts from the irresistible charm of Parkasaurus.
Final Verdict: I Like it a Lot. 