Dino Rex ダイノレックス - Barney - ALL - 959.000pts

A funny jank fighting game with dinosaurs including Barney, made by the director behind Metal Black and Gun Frontier??? What the hell, let's goooooooo lmao

Despite having extensively played Metal Black and Gun Frontier in the past, I was merely vaguely aware of this game which is the final installement in this pseudo-trilogy, and only played it for the first time very recently as part of the Metal Black survival kumite against CPS (    • Metal Black Survival Kumite - CPS vs ...   ). I had no idea what I was doing and mostly got wrecked but that was such a riot lmao. Lots of laughs were had all around

The game was obviously rushed and not made by FG connoisseurs, especially given the very janky hit detection. But it has something very unique going on with its dual narrative, its hilarious bonus stages, and pretty engrossing atmosphere

Still, it could have just stopped there...but with the current Dino Rex tourney hype, I had the silly idea of a 1CC of this game with none other than Barney, everyone's favorite purple dinosaur! Apparently there are no 1CC runs of him online anyways, so let's make history lmao

Problem is...Barney kinda sucks at fighting. Worst character in the game lol. He has trouble approaching opponents, and some attacks have way worse range that you'd expect (like the hori tail sweep). I mean, is that really surprising for a children's show dinosaur who only knows love? Lmao. I had to devise a whiff punish gameplan mostly based on waiting for very specific attacks I can counter with the combo move (A+B, if it connects, uses all your power bars to automatically attack the opponent in a scripted sequence) and then move back while recharging the bar, rinse and repeat. The Triceratops variants can also be dealt with the bite attack (down right + A) since it knocks them (and only them, not the other dinos!) down

Another tool in my moveset is the giant belly flop (up - left - down + A) that I use not in order to attack opponents (even though it's cool if it hits) but mostly to move behind them and force them to move back, giving me precious space. Oh yeah I forgot mention you can't turn around in this game lmao. Move past the other dino and you get repositionned automatically. Strange but I could abuse it at times to reset the situation or waste seconds

The hardest fight in the game was Day 5 (out of 7), and while all the others had relatively simple solutions, I had to seriously lab this one and use a bunch of counterplays against all its dangerous moves. The belly flop is there against the ground stab dash as to dodge it, the up right + B tail sweep as an anti-air for its combo attack, and the up - left- down + B tail sweep against its wavedashed combo attack

With a game plan in mind, I made Day 5 more manageable, whereas past attempts had me straight up murdered in the corner over and over again with no hope whatsoever. Still, even here it was very close, as I ended up timing out both rounds. Fighting game inputs also nearly screwed me over on round 2 when that tail sweep didn't come out and Barney roared instead, making me take a combo hit and getting cornered, which could have cost me the round. Man, I absolutely despite fighting game inputs, they are so goddamn dumb. Assigning overly complex, unreliable and unfun motions for basic attacks, yikes. Some of these games have like 6 buttons but none of them can do a special attack on their own, what the fuck is this genre, seriously

Anyways, the last two dino fights after the scary Day 5 should theoretically be victory laps but holy hell for some reason the opponent dinos decided to be pretty agressive. I still managed to beat them both without even losing a round (which surprises me) but man that was close. The gold Barney fight surprised me the most because it's one I could realistically double perfect since all I have to do is counter its own belly flops with my combo attack, but here he always attacked in ways that made it cumbersome to charge and land said combo attack. But hey, I beat it anyways! Purple Barney is the real Barney!!!

Oh and at the end you fight the soon-to-be-former Dino Rex dude, but it's piss-easy. He only has a jumping attack which whiffs if you crouch outside of the corners, so just crouch and spam the attack button lmao. Now that's a genuine victory lap lol

I am now the new Dino Rex! I always believed in you Barney! Well, maybe the in-game purple T-Rex isn't officially Barney...but in my and everyone's hearts it will always be Barney

It's also hilarious to me how I was turned off HARD at survival play in very competent fighting games in Calice Cup (Garou MotW, Waku Waku 7) yet pulled off this unlikely 1CC lmao

Hey pssst...actually I never watched Barney in my life LMAO. I was a Teletubbies guy instead hahaha. Maybe seeing Barney as the Dino Rex fat T-rex instead of the real one makes me appreciate it much more than if I actually saw it as a kid lol

Played on ShmupMAME v4.2, recorded with OBS Studio
#DinoRex