The Fossil Fighters series is one of Nintendo’s much more niche franchises. Bearing some passing resemblance to the popular Pokémon series; the games are centered around exploring environments in search of buried fossils, then reviving the fossils and having the “Vivosaurs” duke it out with other fossil fighters’ Vivosaurs. Sound familiar? All parallels aside, the series has certainly established its own identity and stands as an enjoyable gameplay experience, though it’s never quite been able to escape the shadow of its more well known counterpart.
It’s been relatively under the radar, but there’s a new entry in the series - Fossil Fighters: Frontier - due out for a North American release in just a few short days on 20th March (sadly, no update on Europe, yet). One of the important new features of Fossil Fighters: Frontier is the upgradable Bone Buggy, a drivable vehicle that’ll allow players to cover more ground than ever before in the endless quest to find stronger, better dinosaur bones for rejuvenation. Dig sites will be more dynamic than ever before, with some offering speed or puzzle challenges that will tempt players with rare and more valuable fossils. Multiplayer will be a prominent feature with local games featuring both co-op and battle modes, and an online mode will have 1-on-1 battles and leaderboards updated monthly. Even Streetpass will feature, allowing players to battle each other’s teams to train their Vivosaurs further.
Fossil Fighters: Frontier sounds like a surprisingly awesome game, it makes one wonder why it's received so little attention. Here’s some footage from last year’s E3 with an amusingly corny song to accompany it:
Will you be picking this up? Is this series finally ready to step into the limelight? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Comments 21
I enjoyed the first Fossil Fighters quite a bit. The second didn't capture my attention as much, but I have high hopes for this next installment. It looks like fun!
Ok I keep hearing about this, is it really like Pokemon? Like, what are the differences and all that?
This has been on my radar since I love dinosaurs and Pokemon. I'm gonna wait for a NintendoLife review to decide on whether I'll buy it sooner rather than later.. Though I can't imagine it being a terrible game.
In europe too? Or just America?
Honestly, the game is coming out in few days and I heard until now no news about it except this one, I doubt it's gonna get any spotlight at all... more like, the title seems to trying to intentionally pass unnoticed XD;
As @Tobias95 asked however, I have no clue if the article mean NA only or also Europe. Almost surely the former, but a minimun clarification in the article or a source link for dig out more details would have been nice O:
I could dig this. Oh, I see what I did there.
Dinosaur king is what you wanna be yeah
Dinosaur king is your destiny yeah
@ToniK
Wow, that was pretty deep...get it? Deep?
@BakaKnight I've seen the TV Commercial for this game a lot, but besides that and this article, I haven't heard anyone talk about this game.
Not so sure about the gameplay... But I do like dinosaurs~
So, if I'm bored one day and have some cash left over, I'll grab it for kicks.
I'm grabbing this Friday. Love dinosaurs and for $35 it's hard to pass up.
@Tobias95 @BakaKnight Sorry 'bout that guys, I had to get that clarified myself. This is just for North America, unfortunately, but it's still due for European release this year!
Well, putting it the same day as MP10 will probably doom it to extinction.
On the other hand, this series is new to me so I may unearth it to make a discovery.
Nintendo Europe have been useless this year.
I've seen the commercial multiple times now, but for some reason that I can't quite figure out, it doesn't look great. It sounds like a watered down version of Pokemon to me. I hope I'm wrong, but I doubt I'll pick it up anyways.
ive enjoyed this series so ive had this on pre-order for some time, cant wait to get it
I wonder if we'll get this entry in Europe? They had the trailer in the "coming soon" section of the eShop last time I checked, so there's hope, though AFAIK it doesn't show up on any release schedules...
For those asking, i wouldnt really call it a knockoff or dumbed down version of pokemon. The only real similarity is you collect an battle with monsters (or in this case dinosaurs), but the battle system is completely different and i think it offers alot more strategy than the battle system of pokemon. (now when i saying this based on the first 2 games. Obviously ive never played this one. It appears in this one they have gotten rid of the old battle system and replaced it with what appears to be a generic one without any strategy involved, ill have to see.) Rather than catching your team you dig up the fossils and clean them, the better you clean them, the better your vivosaur will be. (arguably a more annoying system than catching what you want but certainly easier than say breeding for ivs in pokemon, as with fossil fighters you have direct control). As a fan of both pokemon and fossil fighters i can safely say that if you like one then the other will be enjoyable, but be aware that they are very different games. I could list more differences but ultimately it doesnt matter, if you see it as a pokemon clone then no matter what i say your mind wont be changed. I would recommend you pick up one of the FF games but i cant say this one would be the best to start with as of now. Anyways im gonna be picking it up when it comes out and i hope you at least try one of the games, they are a blast!
I love this song so much, it always makes me laugh.
Thanks for bringing attention to this game! I've been following it a bit since E3 and am genuinely interested. Hope you guys do a review!
@Sanya If you ever feel that Pokemon is too much like all the others before it, Fossil fighters shakes it up a bit, while still having strong roots to it's core. I've never played the first, but I have played the second, and I have heard the first one is great. So T'd say unless you don't like Pokemon, don't get it. I sure will be getting this one. It looks like the best of the 3 so far.
Ugh. I'm totally disappointed by this game. The first two games were rough around the edges, but they had charm and fun gameplay. In Frontier, the 2D character art is beautiful, but that's where the beauty ends. The graphics are muddy and glitchy, with your vehicle flickering in and out of view during gameplay. The audio is muffled and even breaks up at times when the volume is turned up. The visuals and mechanics for fossil cleaning are ugly and uncomfortable. The old cleaning process was fairly intuitive. This new version just doesn't feel right. Then there are the battles, where the HUD obscures the Vivosaurs on the top screen, and we're robbed of the fun action and "death" scenes from the previous games. The lower screen interface is also rather bland and ugly. There was a nice rhythm to the first two that's lacking here. It's not just that it's different. It feels damaged, rushed or incomplete. Overall it's just an ugly experience. I had hoped this would really be the next step, where Fossil Fighters would really come into its own, but it's really just a step backward. I'm trading it in ASAP. Seriously, I would rather play the original Fossil Fighters from scratch than continue with this new game. Huge disappointment.
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