The Flintstones: The Rescue of Dino & Hoppy Review

Many retro game collectors are familiar with The Flintstones: Surprise at Dinosaur Peak, an NES game that came out near the end of the console’s lifespan. Very few copies were released, making it an incredibly rare and expensive game. Oddly enough, however, Surprise at Dinosaur Peak wasn’t the only title in its series; it was actually a sequel to The Flintstones: The Rescue of Dino & Hoppy. This game often gets overshadowed by its successor, so let’s see if the original is still worth checking out.

The story is not quite what you’d expect from a Flintstones game. In the opening cutscene, we’re introduced to Dr. Butler, the game’s main antagonist. He arrives in a spaceship from the future and abducts both the Flintstones’ and the Rubbles’ pet dinosaurs, Dino and Hoppy. He then announces his plan to use them in a museum exhibit in the 30th century. To make matters worse, he destroys The Great Gazoo’s time machine, stranding our heroes in the stone age. It’s up to Fred to help Gazoo collect the scattered pieces of the time machine and travel to the future to save the kidnapped pets. This setup is… different, I’ll give it that.

As a side note, I always found Gazoo’s inclusion in the series a bit odd. What does a reality-warping alien have to do with the modern stone-age family? I used to think that he was the most out of place thing in the series until I saw that The Flintstones had that weird crossover with WWE.

Anyway, once you start to play the game, you’ll notice that the controls are a little stiff. Whenever you jump, you’ll find it difficult to control where you land while in midair. When Fred runs, he screeches to a halt and scoots forward anytime he stops moving. This makes your movement feel a little slippery, almost like you’re sliding across a patch of ice. Any time Fred takes damage, he gets knocked back a few paces, which means you might get pushed off a cliff if you’re not careful. If you hold down on the D-pad, Fred cartoonishly ducks his head into his shirt, which is a pretty funny substitute for crouching.

You can hang onto ledges by holding down the A button and climb them by pressing up on the D-pad. A lot of the level design is centered around this mechanic. It gets especially complicated when moving platforms are thrown into the mix, so you’ll have to time your jumps just right to stick the landing. With a lot of the jumps, it feels like you’re just barely able to make it to the next platform.

Fred’s club serves as your primary attack. It has a very limited range, so you’ll have to get up close and personal with your enemies to hit them. If you hold down the B button, you’ll sacrifice your movement speed temporarily for a charged attack that deals more damage. Thankfully, the club isn’t your only move. Occasionally, you’ll find secondary ranged weapons that require ammo to use, such as a throwing axe, slingshot, and egg bomb.

Your enemies mainly consist of dinosaurs, cavemen, birds, and other prehistoric creatures. Sometimes, though, you’ll find something strange like angry clouds that try to blow you away or Easter Island heads with arms and legs that come charging at you. Most stages end with a boss fight and you’ll need a secondary weapon with plenty of ammo to take them down. If you find yourself armed only with your club, you’ll have to time your attacks just right to avoid taking damage.

When selecting a level on the overworld map, some passages lead you to a basketball mini-game. You only fight against one other player, and the AI is pretty predictable. The controls are a little different during these segments. You’re given more freedom to move around the screen as you try to outmaneuver your opponent. You can ram into the other player with the B button and stun them temporarily. It’s nice that they wanted to add a little variety to the gameplay, but basketball seems like a strange choice. A bowling mini-game probably would have made more sense, since that was one of Fred’s favorite pastimes in the original show.

If you win the match, you’re rewarded with a powerup that can be used in other levels. There are a total of three power-ups that can be accessed from the pause screen. The “fly” power-up gives Fred a pair of wings, the “jump” powerup summons a dinosaur that helps Fred jump up high, and the “dive” powerup lets Fred swim underwater. The latter ability can only be used in one stage, which seems kind of like a waste of a power-up. These abilities take the same kind of ammo as your secondary weapon, so they should be used sparingly.

The game’s overall difficulty feels balanced for the most part. There aren’t any cheap or unfair deaths to speak of and most of the stages feel beatable. Perhaps one of the most frustrating aspects, however, is the lack of a password system. While it’s nice that you’re given unlimited continues, it’s still inconvenient that the game can only be completed in one sitting.

Once you collect the final time machine piece, you finally make it to the future. Shortly after your arrival, George Jetson, another famous Hanna-Barbera character, makes a brief cameo. A Flintstones / Jetsons crossover probably would have been a better premise for a game. The final level is an endurance test. It’s filled with tight and precise platforming with very little room for error. Once you get to the final boss, you have to fight Dr. Butler in three separate forms. If you manage to beat him, you’re reunited with the captured pets and return with them to the stone age.

The Flintstones: the Rescue of Dino and Hoppy is a little uneven, but it’s by no means a bad game. Overall, it’s a passable platformer that’s not without its charm. It’s a great choice if you’re searching for a cheap alternative to the elusive Surprise at Dinosaur Peak.