Wow, that was quite the detour to arrive at our game review! Given the disappointment that is the actual gameplay, let us meander a bit longer and cover the basics of this fictional setting. In the near future, the Earth has suffered some kind of catastrophic destruction that has left modern society in shambles (BILLIONS DEAD! CITIES IN RUINS!!!!). While the survivors try to pick up the pieces, there's the added complexity of dealing with prehistoric threats in the form of D I N O S A U R S walking the Earth!!!! Mechanics, those with the necessary knowledge and ability to keep pre-cataclysmic machinery working, are valued and treasured members of these new societies. In fact, you play as one such member, Jack Tenrec, who acts as the driver of the titular Cadillac. The second playable character is Hannah Dundee, a scientist (and Ambassador of Wasoon, aka ruined Washington DC apparently), who acts as the gunner!?!?

Before we deep dive into the game itself, well, shallow end, toe in the water really, given the simplicity of the gameplay, let us backup a minute to talk some more about the presentation. Again, the setting is a strong draw for me. The game being based upon the alternative comic Xenozoic Tales, written my Mark Schultz (first published in 1986 and republished multiple times since), it is a given that the game's strongest point is attempting to nail the atmosphere of this post apocalyptic world. To wit, the game kicks off with a full motion video intro that looks cool, artistically at least, but is typically grainy, low budget Sega CD FMV. What's weird about the poor quality of the actual video is the intro contains very little animation. It's mostly still images with a rather good voiceover (seriously, there are many CD games of the 1990s that have worse voice acting than Cadillacs and Dinosaurs). There are some bits of animation to some of the scenes, but it's not anything like Time Gal's or Devastator's intros which were very good artistically with full animation sequences, as in a legitimate cartoon quality, even if they too suffer from the usual Sega CD FMV graininess.

Each stage, sorry "chapter", starts with a cool looking, yet overly grainy storyboard FMV sequence. The same problems as the game introduction, more panning and zooming with very little animation, but the voices are again a bright spot. Playing as one player is probably harder given the need to steer the vehicle with sloppy controls and a limited driving area conspiring to run the poor red Cadillac into rocks, sticks, skulls, other bones, and even dinosaurs! Some collisions seem to cause damage as the meter in the top, middle of the screen fills with red as you collide with more obstacles. Even if you are not killed by the smaller objects, colliding with one sends the Cadillac sliding all over play area. In contrast, hitting the bigger objects, like some of the largest logs or dinosaurs, will cause a loss of life (with a neat death sequence played back in dithered 64 color glory) . Shooting objects makes your score increase (who knows to what end), and there is a timer that keeps ticking down while you die over and over attempt to complete the chapter and eventually the entire game. The later levels, 7-9, offer some wrinkles in gameplay, swapping the red Cadillac and jungle of the first 6 levels for a minecart and tunnels. Additionally, we are now offered a color coded pressure gauge for shooting the proper colored steam pipes, a geiger counter for finding/fleeing the reactor, and a compass for navigation.

Continuing to the setup screen. Very simple layout , we are offered the ability to toggle music on/off, to play as one or two players, easy or hard difficulty and to start the game. Not sure of the difference between easy and hard since I failed to make it past the first level playing as a single player or even two players with my daughter. Single player requires you to steer and fire, but in two player mode, first player steers the vehicle as Jack and the second player is Hannah the gunner. A and C seem to fire the weapon by tapping those buttons, but a hold of the A or C charges up the weapon for a more powerful shot (not sure it serves a purpose or not). B is allegedly turbo boost in chapters 1-6 but seems to reverse the camera in chapters 7-9. Not that I could actually get to those later levels with normal playing, as mentioned, I just kept dying on the first level. Over and over and over and over. A hidden level select code certainly came in handy to explore the next eight chapters.