Dino Dawn

Dino Dawn is yet another of literally thousands of 2D retro pixel platformers infesting Steam and lowering the average quality of all video games everywhere. This shovelware platformer is very poorly made by filling out stuff in the craptastic Construct 2 game construction kit, it's ultimately a very lazy, clunky and awful experience. From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard. A choice was made to use obsolete, decades old retro pixel "art" as a substitute for contemporary PC graphics. It's unclear if this is due to lack of budget or talent, regardless, the overall visual quality of the game is extremely low as a result. There's no options to change the resolution for the game or customise the graphics settings. There's no way for gamers to ensure this is running at the native resolution of their displays... there's no guarantee this game will look right on any PC as a result of this hamfisted design decision. There's no way for gamers to try improve the low quality graphics. The controls can't be customised, which will be an annoyance for many, but it can also render the game unplayable for differ…

Let's start with some good things about the game. I think the music is pretty good and fits the game fine and I kinda like the pixel art style the game has going on. Except maybe for fact that the eggs literally look like Yoshi eggs. Next let's discuss the bad things. The game has very little enemy variation. It only has two enemies, both of which I don't feel like fit the game with the dinosaur you control. One of the enemies is a humanoid grey wolf and the other is some sort of a flower. The position of these enemies in the levels are mostly random. They don't appear to have any restricted spawn locations, so sometimes you literally have these mfs spawn [b] under [/b] you upon starting a level. Apparently there's a boss at some point too, looking at the achievements at least. I haven't gotten that far yet. You attack these enemies with fireballs you get from chili peppers found around the levels. There are two things wrong with the fireball attack. The main one being that instead of giving you a couple of fireball shots to use at your own leisure, the game gives you the ability to use fireballs for a couple of seconds, before you have to find a new pepper if you want to kill en…

This game barely functioned as a platformer, it's honestly terrible and so are the hitboxes, the delayed fire mechanic and the jumping. Not a single redeeming quality, I've got this with 95% discount iirc, but I wouldn't finish this again even if I got paid for it. Even the level design is atrocious with some trial and error random enemy placements, it's just god-awful and it's a joke that it is priced the way it is.

I try to give every game a chance when I play it. This game is the worst game I have ever played.

Dino Dawn, developed and published by neonboxgames, is a retro-inspired 2D platformer that centers on a simple but charming premise: a determined dinosaur embarks on a journey to recover stolen eggs and ensure the survival of its kind. On paper, the concept feels like a natural fit for the genre, combining classic side-scrolling mechanics with a lighthearted prehistoric theme. In practice, however, the experience reveals both nostalgic intentions and noticeable shortcomings in execution. The gameplay follows a straightforward platforming structure. Players navigate horizontally scrolling stages filled with platforms, gaps, enemies, and hazards. Movement consists of basic jumping and directional control, while progression hinges on collecting eggs scattered throughout each level. A small twist comes in the form of a fire-breath mechanic, activated by consuming red peppers. This ability allows the dinosaur protagonist to defeat certain enemies and adds a modest layer of combat interaction to otherwise traversal-focused gameplay. While this mechanic introduces variety, it remains limited in scope and rarely evolves beyond its initial implementation. Level design aims to evoke early-…

pretty not good