Everyone has a soft spot for prehistoric animals. The best dinosaur games currently available are listed here. Here you can locate the next dino-themed game. Despite the fact that dinosaurs no longer exist in the wild, their popularity in video games shows no signs of waning, especially on the indie circuit where there is no shortage of dino-themed side projects.
Here are some of the best dinosaur games currently available, perfect for anyone interested in creating their own Jurassic Park, taming reptilian monsters, or perfecting their dino-hunting skills. The best dinosaur games of 2023, both on Steam and the Nintendo Switch, are highlighted here. Please check back later for updates, and let us know if we forgot any of your favorite dinosaur video games!
Gigapocalypse
In Gigapocalypse, you play as a mutable dinosaur- and alien-inspired monster called a “Gigas,” in a game inspired by classic arcade monster games like Rampage. Many of the Gigas look and act very similarly to dinosaurs, and you can even give them a boost with special mutations and abilities.
The gameplay consists of stomping your way through 2D sidescrolling pixel art levels filled with destructible buildings, vehicles, and human enemies. You can acquire helpers to fight alongside you, dinosaur skins, and other hidden items by completing quests and defeating bosses.
Animal Revolt Battle Simulator
ARBS is a sandbox game in the style of Totally Accurate Battle Simulator that allows you to simulate battles between a wide variety of animals, including dinosaurs. Once you’ve chosen your beasts and the terms of the fight, you can watch as they engage in a ragdoll brawl in real time.
And if you feel like getting in on the action, you can do so in this game, entering the arena with an arsenal of deadly weapons at your disposal. There are currently over 70 different creatures to choose from in Animal Revolt Battle Simulator, and new ones are added every two weeks while the game is in Early Access on Steam.
Jurassic World Evolution
If you’ve ever wanted to play the role of a twisted mad scientist tinkering with the DNA of extinct animals rather than a park manager, then Jurassic World Evolution is the game for you. The legendary Muertes archipelago is your first stop on this adventure, and it’s still full of dangerous reptiles.
Thereafter, you can specialize in either science, entertainment, or security, with each of these areas having a different but significant effect on your park’s standing in the community. You could also wait for the November 2021 release of the sequel, Jurassic World: Evolution.
Parkasaurus
Parkasaurus is a bright and colorful theme park sim in which you take charge of a herd of long-extinct reptiles and attempt to make a profit while doing it. It’s like a real-life version of Jurassic Park, with an emphasis on creating impressive displays of prehistoric animals, cutting-edge laboratories, and other visitor-friendly features.
More than 24 species await your discovery, each with its own unique habitat that you can create from scratch. You can let your dinosaurs loose and enjoy watching the visitors’ panic as they flee the park just as easily if safety and regulation aren’t your thing.
Horizon Zero Dawn
Horizon Zero Dawn is a stunningly colorful action role-playing game set in a post-apocalyptic world where machines and humans coexist in less-than-peaceful conditions. You take on the role of Aloy, a hunter who sets out to protect her people from the machines in the hopes of earning her people’s acceptance and ensuring the survival of humanity.
The story unfolds, revealing the origins of the machines and the secrets of Aloy’s past. Most of the enemies in this game look like metal dinosaurs and act and attack in ways that are similar to the real thing, making them difficult to defeat.
Monster Hunter: World
Monster Hunter: World, another action role-playing game, features dinosaur-like foes, and casts the player as a green hunter venturing into a new, vibrant world. Like its predecessors, this game features a plethora of weapons to learn and perfect, with a variety of upgradeable weapon trees, charms, and decorations to help players specialize their play.
There is also a large cast of formidable enemies, including everything from giant flying dragons to bipedal reptilians. The Iceborne expansion adds new monsters, a previously unexplored region, additional weapons, armor, and more to the already robust base game, making it worthwhile to play even if you enjoy the game already.
Dauntless
Similarly to Monster Hunter, Dauntless is a free-to-play action RPG that allows for crossplay between PC and console players. Like the Monster Hunter series from Capcom, you’ll be tasked with slaying a wide variety of powerful creatures known as Behemoths in intense battles set in different, exotic environments.
Each Behemoth has its own distinct attack pattern and behavior, some of which are inspired by prehistoric animals, making it a formidable foe that requires a tailored approach. With the materials you collect from each hunt, you can forge new weapons and armor or improve the ones you already have.
Ark: Survival Evolved
Ark: Survival Evolved has been called both an exceptionally ambitious open-world survival game and a terrible hot mess that runs like a potato, depending on whom you ask. But one thing that holds true across the board is how well the dinosaur AI and taming systems function in-game.
Although the specifics vary by species, it’s usually worth it, especially since dinosaurs can keep working even if you can’t. If you manage to tame a wild dinosaur, you can put it to use in a variety of ways.
Time Carnage
Dinosaurs are fun to tame and train to do things like carry your stuff or perform tricks for visitors, but they are primarily aggressive carnivores that think of humans as nothing more than tasty meat snacks. In Time Carnage, a wave-based dino shoot ’em up, you travel through time to fight off our scaly forebears, and you might as well bring a gun with you to even the odds.
Getting to the game’s dinosaur sections requires some work, but it’s well worth it for the chance to slaughter hordes of velociraptors and giant T-rexes, dinosaur game. While Time Carnage is advertised primarily as a virtual reality (VR) experience, it can be played on PC and console with the more traditional controls of a mouse and keyboard or gamepad.
Second Extinction
Second Extinction is a multiplayer-focused co-op shooter that takes inspiration from Left 4 Dead but features dinosaurs instead of zombies. After you’ve prepared your team, you’ll be dropped onto a massive map with important objectives to complete while dodging roaming dinosaurs.
The mutant dinosaurs, which have extraordinary abilities and can be a nuisance to deal with, join the standard fare of large dinosaurs with powerful attacks and smaller, faster dinosaurs that move in packs. Even though Second Extinction is still in Steam’s Early Access phase, the game has already received a number of updates that improve the gameplay experience by introducing new weapons, enemies, missions, and crossplay support.
Lego Jurassic World
Lego Jurassic World, released alongside Jurassic World, adapts the first four films in the franchise across 20 different, standalone levels. Between these stages is a free-roaming overworld where players can explore Jurassic Park in search of collectibles and hidden areas.
The gameplay is similar to other Lego games, but with some new twists, such as the ability to edit your character’s appearance and splice dinosaur genes. Consider picking up Lego Jurassic World if you haven’t seen the original trilogy and want a more humorous, bite-sized retelling of each film, or if you just love dinosaurs.
Far Cry Primal
Despite the fact that the events of Far Cry Primal take place long after the extinction of the dinosaurs, the game still features a number of other larger-than-life creatures such as woolly mammoths, bears that live in caves, and giant rhinos.
You take on the role of Takkar, a lowly hunter who rises through the ranks to become his tribe’s leader by conquering neighboring settlements. Instead of the usual shooting and driving around that characterizes Far Cry games, players will use crude weapons and mount themselves on the backs of animals. Primal may not be the best game in the series, but its novel open world design guarantees that you won’t be thinking about stegosaurs and pterodactyls for a long time.
