A while back there was an interview with some former Data East employees… they revealed that Karnov’s appearance was based on a boss at Data East. And said boss was none too happy when he found out. Although the game did become a pretty big hit for the company.
Ha! Entertaining review. Hadn't thought about this one in a long time. I'm pretty sure I rented it back in the day. I do remember the box art grabbing my attention, but not the gameplay. I'm not sure who, exactly, I most expect to be battling dinosaurs unarmed (if not a caveman or something), but not a bald, shirtless fire-spitting mustached man in fancy red pants. That wasn't on my bingo card.
It seems that Karnov is supposed to be fat, based on his sprite and other depictions of him, but I like to think the box art there is how Karnov imagines himself. How can the ladies resist?
And you know, it's funny, in my mind, Data East was a reasonably good company. But when I try to think of their best games, I realize my impression may be based entirely on another dinosaur-killing game of theirs: Joe and Mac. Which I don't think is even that good a game, but it embodies happy memories as a key early SNES co-op game for me and a friend, and it memorably includes an awkward voice sample saying "Data East" at the beginning.
The SNES really did lack good multiplayer options at the start. Think about the fact that SNES Final Fight is 1P-only, for example. Same for F-Zero. Contrast this with all of the NES 2P-simultaneous games we had been enjoying for years, even going back to Balloon Fight. In that context, Joe and Mac is good.
Thanks! Outside of the protagonist's eccentricities, the game itself is pretty forgettable. Wouldn't be surprised if lots of youngsters rented it based on the cover, then were disappointed when they started playing it. Karnov isn't the first and it won't be the last.
Yeah, Karnov gets ridiculously huge in later portrayals. Almost obscene.
I know very little about Data East, except for the fact that they made the game Fighter's History and Capcom sued them because it was so similar to Street Fighter II. Not sure who won, but I think Data East did. There were lots of SF II clones, of course, but if I recall, Fighter's History was particularly egregious.
And yeah, you're right, the SNES lacked good co-op options at the beginning... except for Super Mario Kart.
The problem with Fighter's History that I think generated the lawsuit was that the character designs are such blatant SF2 rip-offs. A lot of fighting games back then were uninspired in terms of gameplay, and there were surely a lot of projectiles generated via the hadouken motion, but there was actually pretty good variety in character designs. E.g. Eternal Champions: bad game, but its roster is instantly recognizable.
As for Super Mario Kart: that game came out a full year after SNES' US launch! Which doesn't sound like much in 2025, but I bought the SNES at launch, and playing games with friends was huge for me, so I felt the drought. Excluding sports games, I think Joe & Mac was the only 2P-simultaneous game available for Christmas 1991. And back then, that Christmas deadline was huge. If a game came out in January, there was a good chance you weren't playing it for several months.
Not sure if true, but I recall hearing somewhere that SMK had its origins as an F-Zero sequel, with two-player added. But they realized they had to slow the pace way down from F-Zero to make 2P work on the SNES, which is where the idea of go-karts came from.
A while back there was an interview with some former Data East employees… they revealed that Karnov’s appearance was based on a boss at Data East. And said boss was none too happy when he found out. Although the game did become a pretty big hit for the company.
Oh man, haha. That's pretty great.
Ha! Entertaining review. Hadn't thought about this one in a long time. I'm pretty sure I rented it back in the day. I do remember the box art grabbing my attention, but not the gameplay. I'm not sure who, exactly, I most expect to be battling dinosaurs unarmed (if not a caveman or something), but not a bald, shirtless fire-spitting mustached man in fancy red pants. That wasn't on my bingo card.
It seems that Karnov is supposed to be fat, based on his sprite and other depictions of him, but I like to think the box art there is how Karnov imagines himself. How can the ladies resist?
And you know, it's funny, in my mind, Data East was a reasonably good company. But when I try to think of their best games, I realize my impression may be based entirely on another dinosaur-killing game of theirs: Joe and Mac. Which I don't think is even that good a game, but it embodies happy memories as a key early SNES co-op game for me and a friend, and it memorably includes an awkward voice sample saying "Data East" at the beginning.
The SNES really did lack good multiplayer options at the start. Think about the fact that SNES Final Fight is 1P-only, for example. Same for F-Zero. Contrast this with all of the NES 2P-simultaneous games we had been enjoying for years, even going back to Balloon Fight. In that context, Joe and Mac is good.
Thanks! Outside of the protagonist's eccentricities, the game itself is pretty forgettable. Wouldn't be surprised if lots of youngsters rented it based on the cover, then were disappointed when they started playing it. Karnov isn't the first and it won't be the last.
Yeah, Karnov gets ridiculously huge in later portrayals. Almost obscene.
I know very little about Data East, except for the fact that they made the game Fighter's History and Capcom sued them because it was so similar to Street Fighter II. Not sure who won, but I think Data East did. There were lots of SF II clones, of course, but if I recall, Fighter's History was particularly egregious.
And yeah, you're right, the SNES lacked good co-op options at the beginning... except for Super Mario Kart.
The problem with Fighter's History that I think generated the lawsuit was that the character designs are such blatant SF2 rip-offs. A lot of fighting games back then were uninspired in terms of gameplay, and there were surely a lot of projectiles generated via the hadouken motion, but there was actually pretty good variety in character designs. E.g. Eternal Champions: bad game, but its roster is instantly recognizable.
As for Super Mario Kart: that game came out a full year after SNES' US launch! Which doesn't sound like much in 2025, but I bought the SNES at launch, and playing games with friends was huge for me, so I felt the drought. Excluding sports games, I think Joe & Mac was the only 2P-simultaneous game available for Christmas 1991. And back then, that Christmas deadline was huge. If a game came out in January, there was a good chance you weren't playing it for several months.
Oh man, I should know that about the original SMK, haha. For some reason I thought it was a launch game.
Yeah Fighter's History was pretty darn blatant as I recall.
Not sure if true, but I recall hearing somewhere that SMK had its origins as an F-Zero sequel, with two-player added. But they realized they had to slow the pace way down from F-Zero to make 2P work on the SNES, which is where the idea of go-karts came from.
I remember hearing that as well, would make sense to me!