Cadillacs and Dinosaurs Review (Arcade, 1993)

I consider myself pretty well versed in the world of beat ’em up games. I’ve played all the Final Fights, Streets of Rages, and a lot in between. I love this kind of game; it’s nice just to sit back and mindlessly beat up oncoming thugs sometimes. It brings me back to a simpler time now that every developer out there is trying to overcomplicate what once did, and still does, work. Cadillacs and Dinosaurs is a beat ’em up released exclusively in the arcades that flew under my radar because of the fact that there has been no home release. I hear it mentioned often, and just had to try my hand at this odd sounding title. I’m sad to say that I’ve been missing out; Cadillacs and Dinosaurs is one of the best offerings in the genre.

Cadillacs and Dinosaurs is based off of an old comic book and television series. Don’t feel bad if you’ve never heard of it; the property was and still is awfully obscure. The story is a little convoluted to be honest. You play as one member (of your choosing) of four from a ragtag group of friends in the twenty sixth century. Dinosaurs run rampant in this time period, and an evil gang has been poaching them. The group punches and kicks their way through eight stages (each contains several acts within) to stop the black marketing gang from profiting off of the dinos. It’s a pretty goofy scenario, and all of the plot twists are crazy. In that sense Cadillacs and Dinosaurs certainly feels like an early 90s Japanese game. What I found hilarious is the fact that they really tried to Americanize everything. There are lots of guns, and recovery items are food like pizza and hot dogs. You even find point value items like baseball mitts.

Guns are a pretty big part of gameplay. Pretty unique for a beat ’em up game, right?

This game at first appears to be a pretty typical beat em up. You’re given your choice if four playable characters with the typical strong/slow and weak/fast set up we’re all accustomed to by now. You move your character in all eight directions and defeat enemies by generally using punches and kicks. When your life bar runs out you lose your one additional life (more are gained as you reach milestones for points) and are thrown right back into the mix. Lose both lives and you must insert another coin. Easy, peasy, Japanesey. Or not. There are a lot of elements that set this one apart from the crowd. The first and most significant feature is that this game allows for three players simultaneously. That’s pretty wild for 1993! Additionally there are dinosaurs in most stages that function as environmental hazards. They start out green when docile but turn red when agitated and attack both players and enemies. This wasn’t an original feature (the arcade game Growl did this years earlier with wild animals) but there’s a strong emphasis on it here.

What really sets Cadillacs and Dinosaurs apart from the crowd however are the weapons. These are dropped by enemies or found in barrels, and can be picked up by the player to be used against foes. Most similar games only feature melee items such as lead pipes and knives. While these are present here there’s a distinct focus on guns which really does affect gameplay. You can find pistols, semi automatic rifles, shotguns, and even rocket launchers. They’re very common but feature limited ammunition. What is cool is that when you’re out of bullets they can still be used; the butt of the rifle can be used to strike foes, pistols can be thrown, etc. Upon using a continue you start out with a rocket launcher to even the odds. How cool is that? The weaponry is generations beyond anything else in a beat em up game.

These features of the game are really what make it special, but something must be said for the style and setting. When you hear ‘Cadillacs and Dinosaurs’ you expect cars and reptiles, and that’s what you get. It’s extremely cheesy but you can’t help but love it. Then you have the American flare I mentioned earlier, and the fact that your character shouts “that’s good!” every time you pick up a food item. I absolutely love it. One stage even lets you drive a cadillac and plow through most of the enemies in the stage which is not only a nice change of pace but fun as heck. My only complaint is that the game is a little easier than your standard Final Fight or Streets of Rage. I went in expecting to spend a ton of quarters and I didn’t. A master of the genre I most certainly am not, and so I’m pretty sure Capcom toned down the difficulty here.

Load up the caddy and rescue some enslaved dinos!