Play Dinosaur Planet Online

Summary

Rare began work on Dinosaur Planet in 1997 as an ambitious open‑world adventure for the Nintendo 64, aiming to match the feel of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The team built it for the Expansion Pak and packed it onto a 512‑megabit cartridge—the biggest the console could handle—while juggling development of Jet Force Gemini. A polished demo was even slated for E3 2000, showcasing two intertwined storylines and a cast that included Sabre the wolf, Krystal the fox, sidekicks Tricky and Kyte, and a wizard named Randorn.

The project’s scope proved a tough fit for the aging hardware, and Rare eventually shifted the concept toward the upcoming GameCube, grafting Star Fox characters onto the framework. This rebranding birthed Star Fox Adventures, effectively shelving the original Dinosaur Planet.

A late‑development build dated December 2000 resurfaced online in February 2021, and a separate prototype dump appeared in March 2021, giving fans a rare glimpse of what might have been.

Storyline

Dinosaur Planet centers on Sabre and Krystal, whose stories run side by side throughout the game. The narrative weaves two interlocking threads that keep the player moving between their perspectives.

Joining them are the quirky sidekicks Tricky and Kyte, while the wizard Randorn serves as both Sabre’s biological father and Krystal’s adoptive father. A unique gameplay element called the SwapStone lets players instantly switch control between Sabre and Krystal, reinforcing the dual‑story structure.