Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The first few minutes ask you to accept a lot at once: you are Hashimoto, now dinosaur-shaped, and your main answer to danger is a throwable boomerang. That is a decent foundation for a 2D platformer. You move through six stages, pick off enemies at range, and try to keep momentum instead of treating every encounter as a prolonged fight. There is a simple, immediate pleasure in landing a boomerang throw and pressing onward.

The Super Shield is the key power-up because it lets Hashimoto throw more boomerangs at a faster rate. That changes the tempo in a useful way. With the armor, you can play more aggressively and spend less time waiting for openings; without it, the action sounds more deliberate and vulnerable. It is a small upgrade, but it gives the platforming stretches a needed shift in energy.

Then the time capsule arrives and the game becomes a scrolling shoot-’em-up. The genre switch fits the time-travel premise and stops the six-stage journey from becoming completely one-note. Still, this is a game whose parts are more interesting than its flow. Platforming, shooting, and quiz questions all pull in different directions, so your enjoyment will depend on whether you find that variety charming or distracting.

The quizzes are the biggest wild card. Answer correctly and you earn score points, which gives the game a light educational-game streak in the middle of its action. If you like oddball licensed NES experiments, that interruption may be exactly why you remember it. If you want uninterrupted platforming, the questions can break the rhythm just when the boomerang combat starts to click. Two difficulty settings at least give you a choice in how demanding you want the action to be.

Graphics

The game uses side-view, 2D scrolling stages, with Hashimoto’s dinosaur form, enemy encounters, and the flying time capsule carrying the action. Ancient Egypt and prehistoric locations give the trip through time a broad, pulpy backdrop for an NES adventure.

Story

This is not a subtle quest, but it has an enjoyably offbeat Saturday-morning setup. An undead king transforms a studious human boy into a dinosaur, then leaves him to chase the means of undoing the curse. Hashimoto-Zaurus has to travel through time, collect swords from other undead kings, and ultimately confront the king responsible.

That sword hunt gives the journey a clear reason to keep moving from stage to stage. More importantly, it explains why the game can hop between prehistoric territory and Ancient Egypt without needing a grounded world or elaborate lore. It is a videogame excuse, certainly, but a lively one.

The premise does more work than the plot itself. You are unlikely to come away for a layered character drama, but the transformed-hero setup and undead-king threat are weird enough to lend personality to familiar run-and-jump action. For a licensed game from 1987, that oddness is a genuine asset.

Overall Experience

Pocket Zaurus: Jū Ōken no Nazo is easiest to recommend as a curiosity with a solid central action loop rather than as a must-play platforming landmark. Throwing boomerangs, grabbing the Super Shield, and changing lanes into a scrolling shooter offer enough variety to hold your attention. The game has a distinct willingness to be strange, and that counts for a lot.

Its problem is that the same strangeness can make it uneven. Quiz breaks reward correct answers with points, but they do not naturally build on the platforming or shooting. That makes the game feel like several modest ideas sharing one cartridge rather than one idea pushed to its fullest.

Give it a chance if you enjoy Japanese NES oddities, licensed games, or action titles that take a left turn when you expect them to stay in their lane. Go in for a brisk, peculiar time-travel romp, not a polished genre classic. The payoff is a memorable piece of 8-bit weirdness with enough straightforward boomerang action to justify the trip.

Retro Replay Score

5.8/10