Duelosaur Island is built around a clever hand-management mechanism. Each card in the game serves three potential purposes. They contain the DNA sequences for dinosaurs you could create, the blueprints for attractions you can build, and certain actions that you can take by discarding them. Do you create the dinosaur on the top of the card to attract guests to your park? Or do you build the attraction on the bottom of the card, which can add to a player's hand-limit, income, and end-game victory points? Or do you discard the card to combine DNA towards creating another dinosaur?
Duelosaur Island comes with five new full-color "DNA dice". You can mix and match dice between Dinosaur Island and Duelosaur Island for even more variability in both games, such as the new security symbol that can appear on dice to upgrade your security level instantly!
- Streamlined version of much larger parent game
- All DNA mechanics from original preserved
- Good art
- Compact size - fits with Dinosaur Island Rawr & Write in one box
- Two-player focused design
- Multiple game lengths available
- Games feel short even on longest setting
- Building a dinosaur park and attractions
- Dinosaur theme park
- Abstract engine building with DNA mechanics
- Dinosaur Island
- Dinosaur Island: Rawr & Write
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- DNA resource management — Gathering and using DNA dice to create dinosaurs
- I split you choose — Cards split between dinosaur top and attraction bottom, players choose
- Multi-use cards — Cards can be used as dinosaurs or attractions
- set collection — Collecting attractions and dinosaurs for points
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Look, we're not size queens. No, you know, sometimes smaller is better.
- This is something that happens a lot in board games where there will be a game and then there it's kind of like a spin-off, like a TV show
- Combo Womos. Love the wombo combo.
- I will always basically just play Trails
- Fleet the Dice game is so successful that there's now been a bunch of games that are like 80% the same
- It's honestly better than the original
- I would never suggest anyone start anywhere in this universe other than Jaws of the Lion
- This is the poster child for these kinds of games
- I never need to play Maraco again
- Sometimes when you're a trendsetter, you got to get the love and get the number one spot
References (from this video)
- beautiful distillation of original Dinosaur Island
- extreme 90s aesthetic
- wonderful playground of genetic manipulation
- ingenious I split you choose system
- great theme
- great look
- plays way faster than original
- favorite version of Dinosaur Island
- 90s aesthetic
- genetic manipulation
- dinosaur theme
- playground theme
- Dinosaur Island
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- there are a lot of great games and there are a lot of great games that play excellently at two players
- so simple and so elegant and so refined and yet so puzzly and ingenious
- one of the best tactical miniatures games out there without any miniatures whatsoever
- the thing is is that if you sell in bulk you get extra bonuses but if you sell early then you get the most valuable versions
- it gives you so much to consider and be cognizant of as you are drafting every single card but it is incredibly indelibly accessible