This is almost a total recommend. In terms of being a back-to-basics romhack, what Return to Dinosaur Land is doing here is a direct sendup of Super Mario World's adventure. The level design isn't too tough (not until Bowserland anyway), and the mechanics are all familiar. There isn't a lot of trickery.
The game deviates from SMW by making the adventure almost completely linear and using secret exits as obstacles to be overcome aside from switch palaces and secret zones with easy powerups to grab. For a SMW veteran, that's a good spin on secret exit philosophy.
While the level design is pretty good, it can also get plain in some stretches. Many levels only have one theme to them and some of them don't bring a lot of variety to that theme. Many levels are also very horizontal. I don't think there are more than a couple levels that are outright bland, but there's weren't a lot of excellent ones either.
The lack of a Star World or SPECIAL World disappointed me a bit but the journey is still loads of fun, very breezy, and quite clever. I can see why this remains a highly recommended romhack.
The game deviates from SMW by making the adventure almost completely linear and using secret exits as obstacles to be overcome aside from switch palaces and secret zones with easy powerups to grab. For a SMW veteran, that's a good spin on secret exit philosophy.
While the level design is pretty good, it can also get plain in some stretches. Many levels only have one theme to them and some of them don't bring a lot of variety to that theme. Many levels are also very horizontal. I don't think there are more than a couple levels that are outright bland, but there's weren't a lot of excellent ones either.
The lack of a Star World or SPECIAL World disappointed me a bit but the journey is still loads of fun, very breezy, and quite clever. I can see why this remains a highly recommended romhack.