Fantasy Mosaics 11: Fleeing from Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs may have gone extinct a few million years ago, but they held dominion over the planet for hundreds of millions of years before that. Some of them are still alive today, however, albeit in different shapes and sizes. Crocodiles are more or less the same they were back in the day, while chickens are supposedly what some of the dinosaurs have evolved into to make up for the lack of food.

Fantasy Mosaics 11: Fleeing from Dinosaurs is a puzzle game in which you have to complete mosaics and draw the pictures using nothing but numerical guidelines. The whole idea is to analyze the numbers and understand where each tile goes, because it’s always possible to figure it out. Obviously, you can also go with instinct and take a few chances, but you can only make so many mistakes.

To begin with, the story talks about a family of penguins that must escape from the land of the dinosaurs and get to safety before it’s too late. However, they are also quite a curious bunch, which means that they are always trying to learn and discover things. Hence, they reach an ancient forest full of secrets and mysteries, which means that you must help them figure everything out.

Gameplay-wise, the rules are simple: you have to place colored tiles on a board and follow the numerical guideline displayed for every row and column. Hence, there can only be as many tiles as the numbers indicate, while the others are blank. They don’t stay blank, however, because there are usually multiple colors you have to use. Each color has different guidelines, and you can easily switch between them to ease your work.

As far as the technical aspects are concerned, the game is pretty basic in most regards, but it still looks sharp enough to pass as cute. There are pre-rendered stills you can admire every now and again, while the actual tiles and drawings can be quite interesting. The music gets a bit too repetitive after a while, but it’s at least possible to turn it off and try something from your own playlist instead.

Fantasy Mosaics 11: Fleeing from Dinosaurs has what it takes to put your mind to work for a while, which is exactly what the developers intended. As long as you can get accustomed to the way everything works, the game has the potential to keep you occupied for a few hours.