Dinocop (2025, Pieces Games) is a genuine banger. A wacky premise and tone, noir tropes abound, and it’s easy to go in thinking this is all just a gag before it sneaks up on you with its well-realised characters, its genuine heart, its savvy politics, and twists I never could have seen coming hidden right behind the ones I could. Excellent use of the 24-hour time cycle, and some very clear Majora’s Mask inspirations in both its systems and its content (look at how the garden gets used)!

Some unfortunate technical fumbles that can be distracting. — Abrupt soundtrack/ambience changes — Typos in the dialogue, and sometimes other strange wording choices that are suggestive of rushed copy-editing. — What seem to be some memory management issues. This would probably be fine if I weren’t also streaming, but I had to quit and restart the game every hour or so as the frame drops started to creep in. I found that surprising, given some of the other games this machine can handle + streaming just fine.

But, I absolutely found it worthwhile to push through those problems. I loved this game, and I can’t wait to see what the devs do next.