Dinosaur Island Board Game - Create Your Own Dino Park! Worker Placement Strategy Game, Fun Family Game for Kids and Adult, Ages 8+, 1-4 Players, 60-120 Minute Playtime, Made by Pandasaurus Games

We’ve played this game while visiting my son and his wife a dozen times or more over the past few years. He has the Kickstarter version as well as the water dinosaur expansion. When we first started playing the game, my son was always the “game master” and he led us through each phase. Though we love the game, we didn’t think at home (we live 900 miles from my son) we could play it because it was pretty complicated. However, my wife saw the game at a great price on Amazon. We have played it twice since it arrived and thoroughly enjoyed it. There is very little different from my son’s Kickstarter version. My wife and I had no trouble setting up the game and playing it. I definitely give this game 5 stars and highly recommend it. Whether you win or lose it’s very fun building your dinosaur park. However, I did mark 3 stars for beginners because it’s a pretty extensive game. If you are coming from the “chess and checkers” world, it will be difficult to play. If you are coming from the “Cataan world” then more manageable. The instructions are quite good so I did give it 4 stars regarding easy to learn. The rounds are broken into 4 main phases. Each phase is well explained. Again, this is a great game. It’s a favorite for all ages.

Dinosaur Island has several game mechanics listed on its BGG profile. For instance it has worker placement, but I wouldn’t consider it a “worker placement game”. In fact there are only 3 turns to make 4 decisions at the beginning of each round and there are only a handful of rounds to a game, depending on the end game objectives. The same goes for “tile placement”. Placing tiles is simply placing attractions and exhibits on your player board where they’ll fit. There are no placement requirements and therefore no strategy to be had. As you go through the other mechanics of the game you start to notice a trend. It appears to be watered down.It's a difficult game to explain to people who play a lot of boardgames. They can’t picture how all these lite versions of game mechanics can come together and make fun. But once you gather the workers, DNA, specialists, cash flow, recipes, hooligans, lab upgrades, starting player (huge), you get a game that works. There aren’t a lot of paths to victory and I think some won't like that. You can’t only build dinosaur exhibits and paddock upgrades and then swoop in at the end and build a bunch of dinosaurs- at least when I tried it.The game came out in 2017 and I was on the fence for 2 years. I watched the play-throughs and never fell in love, but recently I watched and read what the overall feeling of the game was. People could pick it apart if they wanted to but most of the people I’ve come to trust who review games came away with the same conclusion, it’s a pretty good game with a unique theme based on the 90s era I grew up in. I decided to excuse some of what looked like weak gameplay and bought it.My take away is the same as what those other reviewers said. It’s a pretty good game. It’s not ground-breaking and there are other games I like more, but this is a solid 7.5+ on BGG for me. I love the theme and I have zero interest in dinosaurs, but I liked Jurassic Park and the 90s. If only it came with some grunge rock. Then it would be complete.Fitting everything back into the box once you’ve organized it without removing the insert is impossible. I bought the broken token insert to solve this, an investment that I think speaks to how much I like the game.

Dinosaur Island is a brilliant Euro-style, worker placement game that actually has a brilliant theme! Also, the component quality (with ONE BIG EXCEPTION) are exceptional! Especially if you can get the kickstarter version!In Dinosaur Island, you're completing with the other players to build the best, most exciting and profitable dinosaur theme park. DI uses a fairly innovative worker placement system where you have two different sets of works-scientists and basic workers. Furthermore, the game has FOUR separate actions boards that all the players use during each of the games phases (their even labeled phase 1, phase 2, etc....). The two sets of workers (scientists, workers) can only be used on certain boards. It's really interesting.During the course of the game, the players will place scientists and workers in order to obtain dinosaur DNA (from amber-colored dice!) to create dinosaurs, hire "experts" that allow to break the rules of the game, or give you a special power. You can build extra attractions to add to your park in addition to the dinos! You can also increase the security of your theme park to keep those dinosaurs under control less the escape and attack your theme park guests (which CAN happen!)!!Victory points are scored in Three main ways:First, obviously, is building up your dinosaur theme park. Every dinosaur you add to your park (both multiples of the same species and/or new and different species) adds to your park's "excitement level." Your excitement level determines the number of paying customers your park attracts at the end of each turn. The customers are meeples that are pulled from a bag. The reason they are pulled from a bag is that there are a certain number of "hooligans" (a different colored meeple) inside the bag. These hooligans will cause your park all kinds of trouble and cost you money and victory points. Each customer you pull pays money to enter your park then is placed on your parks dinosaur attractions, or other attractions like rollercoasters, restaurants, and souvenir shops! Any hooligans you draw are placed FIRST, which can really cost you! The dinosaur and other attractions can score you VPs and/or money.However, before you can score your tourists, you have to check your theme park's "Security Level". Each dinosaur has a "Threat Level" (per dinosaur!). If your security level is higher then your threat level, you're running a safe, family-friendly park. However, if the threat level is higher, your dinosaurs ESCAPE and begin eating your visitors, due to your incompetence and greed!! Hooligans are immune to this. Your park is scored AFTHER your security level/threat level is checked!!Secondly, there are objective cards (the number placed depends on how long you want the game to last.). Players can claim these objective cards buy doing things like have 5 different dinosaurs, or having a theme park who's excitement level is 10, etc. Each objective card is worth a certain number of VPs. Usually, only ONE player can claim each card. However, if two or more players can qualify for the same objective card if they qualify during the same phase. Otherwise, it's first come, first serve. When all the objective cards are claimed, the game ends.The final way to score VPs is end-game scoring. At the end of the game, all dinosaurs, certain buildings, expert cards and/or special abilities are all scored at the end of the game based on their printed VP score. (see above.).Obviously, there is ALOT going on in this game! It's brilliant. About the ONLY flaw this game has is the color pallet of the game. For some reason, the designers chose a color scheme of garish greens, yellows, purples and PINKS! Yes! This game has PINK DINOSAUR MEEPLES! PINK!?!?!?!? W-T-F, Pandasaurus games?? I guess they were going for a cheesy 90's era videogame color pallet....sorta'...maybe! Yuch!

Absolutely one of the best games in our collection. There are a lot of rules, but if you have played phase games before you will catch on quick. The only downside I see with this game is it takes up way more space than you initially think. We have a grand table, so it worked BUT if we didn't game play would be difficult. My favorite part about this game is being able to pick the length of game we want (short, medium, or long) AND there is even an option for a solo game!

We bought this because we read some good reviews of it and saw a video on Matt Wilkin’s YouTube channel. After setting it up it did appear a bit confusing and we had to figure out how all the components came together. We did spend a lot of time understanding the rules and in all honesty there are too many elements and it is needlessly convoluted in places. However, we persevered and had a bunch of fun playing it and it seemed perfectly balanced as well. We wanted to play it again soon now that we’ve got our heads around the rules. I wouldn’t recommend for the casual gamer as it does seem complicated at first, but if you are used to games with many elements then you can find a great game at its heart

Você está procurando um jogo um pouco mais complexo para jogar com seus amigos e família? Você é fã de Jurassic Park? Então você pode gostar muito de Ilha dos Dinossauros. Nesse jogo, os jogadores terão que coletar DNA, pesquisar as sequências de DNA de espécies extintas de dinossauros e, em seguida, combinar o DNA antigo na sequência correta para trazer essas criaturas pré-históricas de volta à vida. Todos os jogadores competirão para construir o parque mais emocionante a cada temporada e, em seguida, trabalharão para atrair (e manter vivo!) o maior número de visitantes a cada temporada que o parque abrir.

I bought this to fit a dinosaur themed birthday (for an adult that's nuts for dinos), not thinking it would actually be a good game. I was hesitant, because we are boardgamers and want games with strategy that have well thought out game play mechanics and I wasn't expecting that from something called "Dinosaur Island".Besides being an obvious rip-off of the Jurrassic Park franchise, there's very little to complain about when it comes to the actual game. The rules are obnoxiously written (they could cut it down by 90% if they hired a moderately talented technical writer) so it seems far more complicated than it actually is. But once you get going, the game flows nicely and is well balanced and adequately challenging. The game does take up a lot of table space.For a future edition, I would suggest they have more variety of dinosaur figures and not make them all pink. The game is likely to be purchased by dinosaur enthusiasts, after all. PS. I'm informed that "brontosaurus" was never a real dinosaur, so you should also do a bit more research lol (unless that was merely a nod to the Flintstones)

Que jogo maneiro!Olha dos Dinossauros é um jogo onde você vai administrar um parque de dinossauros, aprendendo as fórmulas dos dinossauros, contratando profissionais que ajudarão tanto na segurança como no desenvolvimento de diversas áreas do seu parque, investindo no seu laboratório e etc.É um jogo onde as suas escolhas podem influenciar diretamente o seu sucesso ou fracasso!Porém, é bem fácil de entender. Os ícones são simples e de fácil compreensão!Jogo bonito demais, qualidade ímpar dos componentes e temática bastante presente!Fora o fato de ter uma rejogabilidade imensa pois vc escolhe os objetivos baseado na duração da partida que vc quer jogar e ainda tem as cartas de reviravolta que impõe regras diferentes a cada partida!Não perde tempo e pega o seu logo!XD

Um jogo sensacional, com mecânicas simples e muito bem interligadas. Não se assustem com as regras, pois uma vez que se sabe o básico, o restante flui de forma muito natural.Mas um grande lançamento da MeepleBR para o mercado de boardgames no Brasil.Recomendo este título para aqueles(as) que são fãs de jogos de alocação de trabalhadores e, claro, do clássico “Parque dos Dinossauros”.