The Flintstones: The Rescue of Dino & Hoppy (1991). Play online

Summary

The Flintstones: The Rescue of Dino & Hoppy (often just called Flintstones Rescue) rolls onto the NES as a vibrant, cartoon‑inspired platformer. A quick opening cutscene launches Fred, Wilma, Barney and Betty into a hunt for the scattered pieces needed by Great Gazoo while Dr. Butler fiddles with a future‑bound time machine for his zoo. Taito’s 1991 release leans on bright, faithful animation that makes the prehistoric world pop, and the control scheme lets you club foes and scale ledges with surprising ease—a point AllGame highlighted when giving the title 4 out of 5 stars. GamePro admired the sheer amount of levels and the crisp graphics, though it found the music less inspiring. A later 1993 sequel, The Flintstones: The Surprise at Dinosaur Peak, confirmed the charm was enough for Taito to revisit the stone‑age antics again.

Storyline

The Flintstones: The Rescue of Dino & Hoppy opens with a brief cutscene showing Fred, Wilma, Barney and Betty enjoying a sunny day in Bedrock. Suddenly, Dr. Butler, a scientist from the 30th century, kidnaps Fred’s pet Dino and Barney’s pet Hoppy, stealing parts of Gazoo’s time‑machine in the process. Gazoo, now visible only to Fred, promises to rebuild his device if Fred can recover the missing pieces.

Each level tasks Fred with battling a boss while collecting another fragment of the time machine, and along the way he bumps into familiar faces like Wilma, Barney, Betty and even a cameo by George Jetson in the future stage. As Gazoo welds the pieces together, Fred regains more of his temporal power.

When the final piece is secured, Fred travels forward to the future, confronts Dr. Butler, and rescues Dino and Hoppy, restoring the balance between Bedrock and the 30th century.