Dino Galaxy Tennis is a sports action game developed by Vixa Games and features dinos in space. It takes a brilliant approach on the classic pong formula, takes it to space, and throws in some dinos for some intense, space tennis that is extremely fun to play once you have mastered the controls of the game. Spanning across the galaxy, Dino Galaxy Tennis has you flying around in jetpacks, shooting comets at your opponents, and much more. This is our review of Dino Galaxy Tennis in which we fly around space and shoot some comets as dinos.
Dino Galaxy Tennis follows the story of two little dinos who are aiming to take part in the Dinos in Space Tournament. The tournament features plenty of elite players and to win the championship, our dino duo has to travel all over the galaxy and visit different planets in order to challenge the elites at their own game and win. For traveling around, you have your very own space ship that you can control to move around and land on different locations on each planet. Apart from the main matches, each planet also offers different challenges and cool boss battles that you have to clear in order to win the galaxy championship. All of the levels are in a progression tree however once you have unlocked a level, you can play it as many times as you want after clearing it.
You have three main modes of playing Dino Galaxy Tennis. You have the Story Mode which is the main mode of the game following our dynamic dino duo. You can play it in both solo and co-op mode. If you choose solo, there is no AI dino to accompany you and for most of the battles, you will be fighting 1v2 in the story mode. You can also jump in the Vs mode if you want to challenge your local friends in intense couch battles. This is perhaps the most challenging and fun mode of the game. If you are looking for a change of pace, you can also jump in the Challenge Mode where you can take part in different, fun challenges to test out your comet hitting (or avoiding) skills.
An arena in Dino Galaxy Tennis is basically a half planet on each side of the screen with a boundary wall surrounding the entire arena that blocks the comet from flying away. The ball here is an actual comet that gets fiery if you hit it hard enough. As you progress in the main story of the game, you will get to experience different twists and turns in these arenas. Most of the arenas in the game come with additional challenge modifiers that will really test your skill in the game. These include modifiers such as comet eaters that eat the comet at one side and spit it out at an angle from the other side. Some planets have low gravity while some planets feature other modifiers that affect the game in various ways. You have to quickly adapt to each planet if you want to win otherwise you will go home as a loser.
The gameplay of Dino Galaxy Tennis is really tense and challenging but in a good way. I will highly recommend that you play the game on a controller because it is much more fun and convenient to play it with a controller rather than a keyboard. You have four main attacks that you will need to mix and match during your matches to win. You have your regular attack which simply sends back the comet at your opponent. You then have your Spin attack which sends back the comet at your opponents but the added spin makes it a little difficult to judge its path. Finally, you have your Special attack and your Super attack. These attacks require you to fill your attack gauge at the bottom of the screen and once the gauge is full, you can unleash your Super or Special attack.
The Special attack is unique to each dinosaur in the game and it consumes one bar of the attack gauge however for the Super attack, you must completely fill the attack gauge and then unleash it. You have a dedicated key for each of these attacks so landing them is fairly simple. For helping you out in mobility, you have your dash and your jump and if you hold jump, you can fly out in the space for a little time. Jump and flying attacks are more powerful than regular attacks but they require more precision and if you miss them, there is nothing stopping the comet from hitting your planet back down. For mastering the gameplay, you really have to combine all of these together. Some levels come with different powerups as well that you can hit with the comet and use against your opposition.
The gameplay of the game is actually pretty tense and takes precision aiming to win. You have to find the right shot to hit at the right angle in order to maximize your speed and power and make sure it approaches the opponent at an angle where they cannot defend. I will also say here that Dino Galaxy Tennis greatly emphasizes co-op play. Most of the story missions put you against two AI players even if you are playing solo. It now depends on you whether you like the added challenge of 1v2 or take it the bad way as this certainly puts you at a disadvantage. I would have personally preferred that game would stick to 1v1 and increase the difficulty of the AI player rather than having 2 opponents in every game as sometimes it does feel a little unfair.
Matches in Dino Galaxy Tennis take their sweet time as well. It might look like a cartoon tennis title with dinos with it but I actually loved playing it. I am not much of a sports title and I have never played a Tennis game in my life but Dino Galaxy Tennis is a really fun take on the sport. The added challenge of moving in a semi-circle in order to defend your planet from your opponents and trying to land a hit on theirs is too much fun. However, for enjoying the game, you have to learn the controls first and improve your muscle memory because you will not often get enough time to think when a super-speedy comet is hurling in your face.
Visually, Dino Galaxy Tennis features decent graphics and the upbeat soundtrack really compliments the fast-paced gameplay of the title. The effects and explosions are fun to watch and the dinos look great too. You do have some cutscenes in the game but they are just pictures with text and there is no narration in the game of any sort. That does not make any difference because the real strength of the game lies in the brilliant gameplay that really makes it worth your time. The gameplay can be challenging, intense, and fun at the same time and the Vs mode is essentially an excellent mode to enjoy when your friends are over. I will rate it very high among entertaining co-op party games because of its challenge, crisp gameplay, and an upbeat soundtrack.
Final Verdict:
Dino Galaxy Tennis is an excellent co-op game that offers a lot of fun and action as you jump around in space with dinosaurs and play tennis. The gameplay mechanics are simple to learn yet difficult to master and once you have mastered the controls of the game, the fun really starts then. I loved the tense gameplay of Dino Galaxy Tennis and it brings a completely unique take on the pong or tennis title by throwing in dinos and the element of each planet having a unique atmosphere further adding to the challenge of the game. While it is fun in co-op, playing it in solo is equally fun and this makes it perfect for a wide range of audience. If you love challenging games where you have to really push yourself to win and dinos in general, you will love spending hours and hours duking it out in Dino Galaxy Tennis.
Final Score: 8.5/10
