Deinonychus = Komodo Dragon?

I grew up in the shadow of the Bakkerian Renaissance, a time when dinosaurs were no longer considered to be giant versions of modern lizards, but actually much more mammal-like in their behavior and physiology. Also, bird origins became a hot topic, and John Ostrom's 1969 discovery of Deinonychus seemed to seal the "live fast" lifestyle that Bob Bakker dreamed for the Dinosauria. However, in Ostrom and Bakker's minds, the avian anatomy of Deinonychus, plus the fact that a Deinonychus/Tenantosaurus bonebed existed, pointed to a pack-hunting lifestyle for the newly described theropod. This view became quickly accepted by scientists and the mainstream press (and thus, the public) with barely any criticism. So in 1993, when Jurassic Park featured "Velociraptor" (actually Deinonychus) hunting in a group, nobody blinked an eye.


This "pack-hunting" behavior in one theropod, however, began to influence others. Bonebeds of Albertosaurus, Daspletosaurus, and Allosaurus have been interpreted as death sites of a "pack" or "group" of animals. Even the enormous bonebed of Falcarius has been seen as an enormous group of animals, traveling together. While perhaps not hunting as a group, these examples show cooperative and voluntary gatherings of these animals. The Deinonychus mindset has become so ingrained these days that any multi-individual theropod dig site is immediately thought of as a potential "pack" site.

A new paper by Roach & Brinkman (2007) questions this long-held dogma. The authors begin by point out that true cooperative pack-hunting behavior is incredibly rare among any animal. The only two examples are wolves and African hunting dogs, who cooperate on a hunt thanks to their highly social lifestyles. Think about what they're saying here: Only one living lineage of one major family of one group of an incredibly diverse amniote sample cooperatively hunts in packs. Well, how does that fare for Deinonychus' relatives? Poorly, it turns out. Crocodilians will "cooperate" to bring down large game in Africa, but after the carcass is dragged onto the shore, it's every croc for himself. Same with vultures, who will descend en masse onto a carcass, but it's every bird for himself. There are rare examples of raptorial birds hunting in mated pairs, but nowhere else in the (extant) amniote lineage do two or more members of the same species hunt in a cooperative manner.


In fact, fossil evidence may point to a new modern analogue for theropod hunting behavior: the Komodo Dragon. These largest living squamates live on a few islands in Indonesia and exhibit rather brutal feeding strategies. First of all, they hunt alone. Second, a single dragon can kill an animal much larger than itself by inflicting a deadly wound, then backing off until the prey drops from shock or blood loss (or both). At that point, drawn by the smell of a fresh kill, dragons from all over converge on the corpse, fighting amongst themselves for chunks of meat. Dragons will scratch and bite each other on the head while feasting, and amazingly often, kill each other. The dead dragon becomes a new feeding frenzy among the ravenous group.

The implications here for, chiefly, Deinonychus, are huge. The most common prey of the big dromaeosaur, according to shed teeth around corpses, is still Tenantosaurus. Amazingly, Deinonychus seems to have a size preference for its favored dinner--one that pretty much hits the favored komodo dragon prey size ratio right on the head. With its large recurved claws and teeth, it's doubtful that an individual Deinonychus would have much trouble killing Tenantosaurus, an ornithopod with no visible defense mechanism. In all liklihood, the dromaeosaur probably backed off upon inflicting a major wound--risking injury from an angered ornithopod that weighs several times its attacker's size would be silly.

After the tenantosaur died of wounds sustained, or at least became immobile due to shock, the killer would, presumably, begin feasting. Theropods having the nasal cavities that they do, it's doubtless that other resident deinonychi would converge on the scene, at which time a Komodo dragon-like battle royale may take place. The fossil evidence for such a scenario is downright strong, according to Roach & Brinkman.

First, that famous first kill site that Ostrom found (YMP 64-75), where the remains of a Tenantosaurus is surrounded by three Deinonychus individuals is a lot more like a Komodo kill site than anything else. Whereas the majority of the ornithopod is gone, the three Deinonychus individuals consist almost entirely of feet and tails. These are areas on a theropod's body where virtually no meat would be found. However, like Komodo dragons, it's probably not unreasonable to assume that an individual Deinonychus was capable of swallowing sections of bone whole, thus the incompleteness of the three raptors and the near disappearance of the ornithopod (by the by, the only real piece of the Tenantosaurus that's left is the tail). If we are to buy the dragon analogue, the dead individuals would be those killed by conspecifics and subsequently cannibalized. Interestingly, among Komodo dragons, a strict social heirarchy based chiefly on size is enforced. The largest individuals are also the most dangerous killers, and frequently attack and kill other Komodos with barely a second thought. Immature dragons stay far from any kill site until the larger adults are gone completely, as younger dragons are generally the first to go.
This may explain the lack of young theropods at fossil "kill sites." An immature animal would be less likely to fossilize (and in some cases more likely to be eaten entirely) than adults. Youngsters would be wise to stay away from kill sites lest they be consumed by their older cousins!

Another kill site (OMNH V706), interpreted as a mass death via flood, shows several tenantosaur specimens in various stages of disarticulation surrounding (more or less) a single subadult Deinonychus specimen. Roach & Brinkman interpret the lack of more cannibalized dromaeosaurs to the fact that the amount of tenantosaur meat was far more abundant.

Other non-dromaeosaur theropod kill sites provide more evidence toward a frenzied feeding strategy. The famous Cleveland-Lloyd Quarry, in which allosaurs outnumber the herbivorous dinosaurs 3:1, is usually attributed as a "muddy death trap" where "packs" of allosaurs entered the pits to attack herbivores that were temporarily trapped but perhaps more able to eventually escape. Interestingly, 82% of the allosaurs represented juveniles and subadults. In Roach & Brinkman's view, all the evidence points toward a "feeding frenzy" strategy, whereupon perhaps dozens of individual allosaurs, drawn to the stench of rotting meat after a mire had dried up, converged upon the mass of corpses, only to fight amongst themselves for a spot at the table. This intraspecific aggression resulted in the mortality of several juvenile and subadult individuals, just as in Komodo dragon kill sites today.

Another famous quarry, Dry Messa in Alberta, consists of several dozen skeletons of Albertosaurus sarcophagus which seemingly died en masse. The bonebed has been used to calculate tyrannosaur survival rates by Erickson et al., who concluded that, given the near absence of juvenile tyrannosaurs in the bonebed (and in the fossil record in general), tyrannosaurs must enjoy a fantastic survival rate until adulthood, at which point their chances of survival drop every year they live past physical maturity. However, Erickson et al. forget that their survival rates are based on fossilized animals, which by definition are exceptions to the rule. Roach & Brinkman suggest, logically, that the absence of juvenile animals in the fossil record may be thanks to 1) a preservation bias against smaller animals with less ossified skeletons, and 2) the theory that the juvenile mortality rate may actually be incredibly high, but that instead of being fossilized, juvenile animals are actually being consumed by adults.

The final bonebed I will go into is the Two Medicine Formation in Montana. At that site, at least three individual Daspletosaurus are intermingled with at least five hadrosaurs. Currie et al. of course concluded that the site provided evidence of gregariousness in tyrannosaurs and that the big theropods may have adopted cooperative attack strategies to "break through the defenses" of herds of ceratopsians and duckbills. Interestingly, the authors fail to cite a reason for the presence of the three Daspletosaurus individuals at the kill site. It's hard for me to think that a duckbill could actually kill a tyrannosaur. Applying Roach & Brinkman's Komodo analogue, and everything makes sense. Just like at the Cleveland-Lloyd Quarry, a small group of dead hadrosaurs drew a large group of tyrannosaurs, who fought and killed each other in an effort to stuff their bellies. It's quite telling, in fact, that the daspletosaur skeletons were disarticulated and surrounded with "dozens" of shed conspecific teeth.

There's even trackway and behavioral evidence for Komodo-like feeding behavior, but this post is already starting to run long, so I'll just give you the paper citation. It's really fascinating, and I actually have a PDF of it, so if anyone wants it, feel free to email me. But what's most interesting, perhaps, is that the Bakkerian Rennaisance pulled dinosaurs more toward the mammalian ideal, but what we're finding is that while these great archosaurs may have looked like birds, their behavior was more more like that of big lizards.

Godzilla: Worst Five Monsters

#1. Gabara

Without a doubt the worst monster off all time (not just Godzilla movies) is Gabara, a cheaply-made ogre-like creature from Godzilla's Revenge, which is worse than the last few Showa-era Gamera films. Gabara can make energy rings come out of his palms, or something. I didn't really pay attention. The whole plot of the film is terrible and is just a vehicle to get kids into movie theaters. Some kid in Japan is getting bullied at school and he imagines himself on Monster Island and Minilla is his friend and Minilla speaks perfect English (or Japanese) and there's a bunch of stock footage from Son of Godzilla (also horrible) and Gabara represents the bully...it's all just so very terrible.

#2. Jet Jaguar

Godzilla vs. Megalon, a late-era Showa entry to the series, has the honor of introducing not just one, but two completely awful monsters into the Godzilla mythos. Jet Jaguar is the one that really really sucks. In the film, in which Godzilla must battle Gigan and...*sigh*...Megalon...a Japanese toy-maker creates Jet Jaguar, an action figure that can, somehow, grow to monsterous proportions. Without Jet Jaguar by his side, Godzilla would surely be defeated by the horrible ring of fire that he and Jet Jaguar are at one point trapped within. No military weapons on Earth can even scratch Godzilla, but a tiny circle of flame? It's his achilles' heel! If Jet Jaguar has any powers (other than being stupid), I've completely forgot them. Oddly, Jet Jaguar's got quite the fanbase in Japan. I can't explain it.

#3. Varan the Unbelievable

What's unbelievable is that this flying squirrel/iguana thing got his own movie (called, predictably, Varan the Unbelievable) before helping Godzilla and Co. help defeat King Ghidorah for the eightieth time in Destroy All Monsters. Varan can glide with his two...you know, membranes. Just like a flying squirrel if, you know, said squirrel weighed 80 tons and was almost 100 feet long.

#4. Megalon
I hate Meglon with a passion matched perhaps only by my hatred of Nazis or possibly Neocons. Megalon's costume is actually not as nice as this picture. I get the feeling this is a sculpture of his likeness. Onscreen, the Megalon costume looks like a pair of pants with paper mache fins or "armor" attached to it. The helmet seems to have been made out of a trash can. Megalon can fly at speeds of Mach 3 (I guess), can shoot a lightning beam from his horn, and can burrow through the Earth by clasping his hands together, whereupon the silver sections act in concert like...you guessed it...a drill. Megalon is not an alien but the guardian of Seatopia, an undersea city that has become angry with the ground-dweller's polluting the oceans. So they send Megalon to deal with mankind. Megalon sucks, and so does Godzilla vs. Megalon, which also, incidentaly, features Jet Jaguar.

#5. Minilla (in all his forms)
Some people refer to Minilla as "Godzuki." This is actually an error made by the stupid Godzilla cartoon of the 1980's. The "baby Godzilla's" real name is Minilla (or Minya) and he is a bastardization of the King of the Monsters I so love. From his original incarnation in Son of Godzilla to his revision in Godzilla vs. Spacegodzilla to his horribly anthropomorphic turn in Final Wars, Minilla is always there to throw some suck into an otherwise good kaiju film. While the Showa series was awful in its own right, the Spacegodzilla version of Minilla (there called "Little Godzilla") looked like one of the Bubble Bobble dinosaurs, with a head as large as his papa's, and eyes that were actually larger. This is bizarre, because Baby Godzilla, from Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II actually looks like what a baby Godzilla would look like, and Godzilla Jr., from Godzilla vs. Destroyah, looks like an immature Godzilla. But the Spacegodzilla version doesn't match up, instead just looking stupid. Minilla is a pox upon the series that refuses to go away. I hate him so much.

Honorable Mention: King Ghidorah
Supposedly the supreme villain of the Godzilla movies (and the most popular), I actually can't stand Ghidorah. He's got a boring, never changing design (fat body, three Chinese dragon heads, broad wings) and is overused. He was in Godzilla vs. Monster Zero, Godzilla vs. the Astro-Monster, Destroy All Monsters, Godzilla vs. Gigan, Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, and Final Wars. He's always spitting lightning bolts (sorry, "gravity beams") and chuckling to himself. The Heisei series saw some improvement with Mecha King Ghidorah, but even that seemed kitchy. King Ghidorah has the potential to be pretty bad-ass (Rebirth of Mothra features a much cooler "Death Ghidorah") but overall, King Ghidorah kind of sucks.

Godzilla Top 5 Monsters

If you've been reading this blog since its original incarnation (see newly refurbished Links to the right--thanks, Will!), you'll know that I'm a huge Godzilla fanboy. I grew up with Big G, and one of my all-time favorite movies is, without a doubt, Godzilla 1985 (release it on DVD already, Tristar! WTF?). Anyway, throughout the course of kaiju history, Godzilla has faced many foes and has had some strange allies. I give you now my Top Five Favorite Godzilla Monsters. Perhaps next you'll see the Top Five Worst Godzilla Monsters, followed by a Gamera outing. I also love Gamera. Anyway, onward and upward!

#1. Godzilla
And really, who didn't see this one coming? Godzilla is a gigantic dinosaur with huge, nasty-looking dorsal spines; and long, sinuous tail; and an incredibly powerful heat ray. He's the freaking King of the Monsters! However, in my mind, there's a definate heirarchy among the various Godzilla designs over the years. The best look is from most of the Millenium films (2000, Megaguiras, Mechagodzilla 3, Tokyo S.O.S.). This Godzilla just looks mean and classically dinosaurian. Toho did away with the oddly mammalian nostrils and the triple-row of symmetrical dorsal spines and instead gave us a toothy-grinned, wild-spined Godzilla that's modern, yet evocative of the 1954 design. The next-best design is definately the one shared by the entire Heisei series (except for 1985). With its beady eyes and bulky look, the Heisei Godzilla gave a real sense of power and strength, and indeed, he wasn't afraid to throw his weight around just as much as his heat ray. After these two designs, things sort of go downhill quickly. In order, from next-best to worst, are: Final Wars, Giants Monsters All-Out Attack, early-era Showa films, and late-era Showa films. And the absolute worst design ever? Godzilla vs. King Kong gave us an amphibian-esque Godzilla with lazy eyes, a frog face, and cheese, cheese, cheese!

#2. Anguiras
His name is usually mispelled as "Angilas," and if you saw Godzilla Raids Again, he didn't even get a name. However, Anguiras is, perhaps, Godzilla's only real ally. Although it's true that Big G roasted the big nodosaur in Raids Again, Anguiras has proved himself quite the monster-fighter since them. Without his noble efforts, Earth may have fallen victim to King Ghidorah in Destroy All Monsters or Gigan and...King Ghidorah...in Godzilla vs. Gigan. However, at the beginning of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, Anguiras is supposedly betrayed by his saurian compatriot when Mechagodzilla, disguised in a Godzilla costume (oy vey) rips out poor Anguiras' tongue! Ouch! And then there was a twenty-year absence until Final Wars, when a very modern-looking Anguiras showed up for all of three minutes and was one of the only monsters not killed by Godzilla (along with Rodan and King Caesar). Anguiras doesn't have any special breath weapons, but he's got brute strength, a lot of heart, and Rollout, which is now a Pokemon attack.

#3. Biollante
Technically the second fim in the Heisei series, Godzilla vs. Biollante besowed upon us one of Godzilla's most fearsome--and gigantic--opponents. Biollante is the result of cross-breeding a rose with Godzilla's DNA. The enormous monster begins life as an enormous rose that rises from a lake. After Godzilla sets fire to the big plant, it mutates (or something) and becomes Biollante. It's nuclear core powers a fearsome crocodilian maw and dozens of toothy tendrills. In addition to all the sharp dentition, Biollante can spew forth an acidic spray which burns and blinds Godzilla. Still, being a Grass-type, Biollante is still no match for Godzilla's Fire-type attacks (Enough with the Pokemon references! -Ed.), and upon the destruction of its core, Biollante disipates into spores which escape into the stratosphere, only to reappear several years later in the form of Space Godzilla (who is not on this list). While not really a match for Big G, Biollante is perhaps my favorite creature design from the entire Godzilla lineage.

#4. Gigan
This bizarre creation is a cybornetic alien entity originally built by ape-like aliens (actually cockroaches) from Nebula M Spacehunter! Aside from its insectoid face, Gigan is quite the biped, with two menacing sythes for hands, three (count 'em--three) wings, and a nasty buzzsaw on its belly. The monster is much more organic-looking in its original two fim appearances (Godzilla vs. Gigan and Godzilla vs. Megalon), but was altered greatly for Godzilla: Final Wars. Now a fully-robotic kaiju, the Final Wars version sported a shotgun-like eye laser, but was still no match for Godzilla and, embarrasingly, Mothra. Interestingly, Gigan was the first opponent to make Godzilla bleed (in Godzilla vs. Gigan), when Big G was slashed by Gigan's scythes and buzzsaw belly. Gigan's is among the best creature designs of the Godzilla series, and his "kill first, ask questions later" attitude in all three of his films give him a real personality, too.

#5. Kiryu
Mechagodzilla has gone through some significant changes--almost as many as his organic counterpart. The Showa series Mechagodzilla is hard to watch now, looking more like a kid's home-made Halloween costume than a menacing monster. The Heisei series Mechagodzilla fared much better, however, with a sleeker design and the ability to actually kill the King of the Monsters (and he would have, too, if not for those meddling kids--I mean, Rodan). However, Kiryu, from Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla takes the cake. As I mentioned to my friend Brian just last Friday, Kiryu looks like a Zoid toy, but an uber-awesome one. Aside from the usual array of missiles and lasers, Kiryu has an "Absolute Zero" ice ray, which, in theory, can freeze anything, including Godzilla (that's the plan, anyway). What makes Kiryu so damn awesome, though, is that it's built around the skeleton of the original Godzilla from 1954. In fact, during its intial scuffle with Godzilla, Kiryu refuses to obliterate its living cousin and instead goes on a rampage of its own. Too freakin' cool! Kiryu was heavily damaged by Godzilla at the end of the film, but returned in Tokyo S.O.S. and faced not just Godzilla but also Mothra. Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla and Tokyo S.O.S. are my favorite two Millenium films just because Kiryu is so awesome.

Honorable Mention: Orga
Godzilla 2000, the first Millenium-era Godzilla film, introduced Orga, an alien life-form interested solely in sucking the DNA out of the King of the Monsters. Originally protected by a large bicyle seat-shaped spaceship, Orga showed off an impressive energy beam but was ultimately shot down by Godzilla. Upon emerging from its ship, Orga was shown to be a squid-like creature which sucked out some of Godzilla's Regenerator G-1 genes and began taking on the form (sort of) of Godzilla himself. Every time Godzilla damaged Orga, however, the big alien beastie merely regenerated just as quickly and, in fact, continued to mutate. Eventually, Orga attempted to swallow Godzilla whole (thus absorbing all of Regenerator G-1), but was blown apart from the inside when Godzilla activated his "nuclear pulse"--perhaps his most devestating energy attack. The Orga fight also has the honor of being one of the longest single battles in all of Godzilla film history, taking up the entire 3rd act of Godzilla 2000. Despite his awkward appearance, I like Orga's character design, but his lack of personality hurts him, thus removing him from the Top 5 proper.

Links are up! However...

In my template, I have 16 links. Only 8 show up here. If anyone knows anything about HTML or, possibly, Blogger, can you tell me how to get all my links up there? Thanks in advance. Now everybody go check out these awesome websites!

Yinlong downsi and the "Heterodontosauriformes"

The little troublemaker on the right is Yinlong downsi, an unbelievably primitive marginocephalian from Xinjiang, China. Interestingly, it's name, which means "hidden dragon," is a reference to (what else?) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which was filmed partially in Xinjiang. The animal is older even than Psittacosaurus, having been unearthed from unquestionably Late Jurassic strata. The type specimen includes a complete skull and the majority of the skeleton--much of it articulated. What makes Yinlong special (aside from the fact that's it's more primitive than Psittacosaurus) is that is retains many features which may connect it to pachycephalosaurs and, more surprisingly, heterodontosaurs. Yinlong is beyond a doubt a ceratopsian, however, as it has a rostral bone. However, its ornamented squamosal bones where previously thought to be unique to pachycephalosaurs. In addition, Yinlong exhibits enlarged premaxillary teeth and features of the antorbital and temporal skull regions which were thought to be synapamorphies of the Heterodontosauridae.

Yinlong's authors posit a new taxon, the Heterodontosauriformes, to include Heterodontosauridae (as the outgroup) and Marginocephalia, which still includes Pachycephalosauria and Ceratopsia. This is fairly heady stuff, as it would mean that a significant ghost lineage existed prior to the Oxfordian stage of the Late Jurassic, when Yinlong lived. After all, heterodontosaurs proper are known from the Late Triassic/Early Jurassic periods, and Yinlong is an early ceratopsian, meaning that the Marginocephalia must have split prior to the Late Jurassic. Indeed, if the Heterodontosauridae is the outgroup to the Heterodontosauriformes, then we should expect to find early representatives of the Marginocephalia as early as perhaps the Early Jurassic.

That seems pretty cut and dry, really. So Marginocephalia originated farther back than any of us thought? Great. Well, not so great. Just a few weeks ago (you may have read my post on it), Eocursor parvus was discovered and kind of tossed a bone (HA!) into the Heterodontosauriformes scenario. Eocursor is a primitive ornithischian and has the good fortune to be the most complete member of that taxon to have ever been found. More complete than Lesothosaurus by far, in fact. Eocursor seems more derived than the heterodontosaurs, but less so than the Genasauria, the massive ornithischian group that includes thyreophorans, duckbills, and (gulp) the Marginocephalia. It's simply unquestionable that pachycephalosaurs and ceratopsians are among the Genasauria, but Eocursor's authors regale the Heterodontosauridae to the base of the Ornithischia, well below the Genasauria and even the Neornithischia.

So there are still a few options. First, perhaps Eocursor's authors are wrong, and the heterodontosaurs are not more primitive than the Genasaurs. That's certainly a possibility, given the seemingly arbitrary reasons for demoting the Heterodontosauridae (so they've got wide, grasping hands--so what?). Another possibility is that the Heterodontosauriformes is real, but it also primitive, as Eocursor would have it. That would mean that the Marginocephalia went through an incredible amount of convergence with more advanced Genasaurs. It's also possible that Yinlong's authors are wrong, and the Marginocephalia has no connection beyond a little bit of convergence with Heterodontosauridae. This would, again, leave the origins of the Marginocephalia a mystery (other than is forms a sister group to the Ornithopoda).

I suppose the ultimate verdict will depend entirely on where Heterodontosauridae ends up on the Ornithischian family tree. As I understand it, several studies are currently underway as to a further understanding of these strange beasties. Perhaps in a few years, we'll know for sure one way or the other.

Awesome Joke

Beliefnet brought this hilarious send-up the table. Thanks to Pondering Pikaia for bringing it to my attention. I share it now with all five of my own readers:

Why God Never Received Tenure at Any University

1. He only had one major publication.
2. It was in Hebrew.
3. It had no references.
4. It wasn't published in a referred journal.
5. Some even doubt He wrote it Himself.
6. It may be true that He created the world, but what has He done since then?
7. His cooperative efforts have been quite limited.
8. The scientific community has had a hard time replicating His results.
9. He never applied to the Ethics Board for permission to use human subjects.
10. When one experiment went awry, He tried to cover it up by drowning the subjects.
11. When subjects didn't behave as predicted, He deleted them from the sample.
12. He rarely came to class, just told students to read the book.
13. Some say He had His son teach the class.
14. He expelled His first two students for learning.
15. Although there were only ten requirements, most students failed His tests.
16. His office hours were infrequent and usually held on a mountaintop.

Absolutely knee-smackingly funny! I'm so printing this on nice paper and making it a poster.

Raidin' Dem Tombs

I should, first of all, make it entirely clear that I did not play any of the "old-school" Tomb Raider games. Since the series' debute on the PlayStation back in 1996, I basically ignored the entire franchise until just recently, when Tomb Raider: Legend released last year. There were a few reasons I didn't play the original few games, including the fact that I didn't own a PlayStation. Also, I kept hearing that the series just got worse and worse as time marched forward. So when I read a Game Informer review of Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness, in which said game was essentially blown through an elephant's digestive tract (read: it sucked), I was merely unsurprised. But then an amazing thing happened. Crystal Dynamics, most famous for its Legacy of Kain series, snatched up the license from Core and rebuilt the game. I followed, with some interest, the previews and cover stories that followed the development process of Tomb Raider: Legend, which promised to rebuild the franchise from the ground up. When awesome-looking screenshots and a very attractive female lead began springing up on the interweb, I became more inclined to try the game out.*

*I'm a sucker for an attractive female lead.

So anyway, I was at GameStop last year around the time Tomb Raider: Legend hit shelves when I was selling some games for credit. I almost left without getting anything, but I remembered seeing a review of Legend that said it was a great game. At just $20 (used), I couldn't really say no. I played Legend for ten days straight, found all the items and unlocked all the costumes and art galleries. I loved it. What made it so great was the physics-based gameplay. The puzzles and exploration were all based on real-world physics. Lara Croft wasn't superhuman--she was just extremely nimble. But if you screwed up, Lara generally died.

So I liked Legend. There were a few spots that could've used some cleaning up, but overall it was a great game. So I was basically first in line to buy Tomb Raider: Anniversary when it came out last month. What made me excited about the title (moreso than simply getting to play more Legend gameplay) was that Anniversary is a remake of the original 1996 game, which I of course missed out on the first time. Anniversary is a much longer game than Legend was, and features a lot more puzzles and varied environments. Sure, in Legend, you trekked through a good variety of places. But none of them were especially connected. In Anniversary, you go through several "stages" at a time, without pausing in between. The four stages in the Peru level, for example, later make up levels on their own during Time Trial mode.

The gameplay is essentially similar, but everything is on such a grand scale this time around. In one gigantic stage, for instance, you must traverse a giant vertical shaft while trying to figure out how to get into four neighboring doors on an ascending wall, each of which leads to a perilous trail wrought with puzzles and monstrosities, in order to obtain four keys to unlock the big door at the bottom of the pillar. And that's not even the most complex stage in the game.

The combat could use a tweak or two, sure, but it doesn't break the game. You basically lock on and shoot, although if your opponent becomes enrages, you can dodge (at the right time) and shoot their skull (at the right time) to initiate a one-hit kill. That's kind of cool, and it's an essential part of boss fights, but overall the combat is not what keeps you playing. Instead, it's the constant sense of "how the heck do I get up there?" And to help her get around, Lara has a few new tricks up her sleeve including a wall run with the help of her magnetic grapple.

There are a few places where the game stumbles, however. In Egypt in particular, the physics engine is actually your worst enemy. Wall-running is great, but there is a certain section you've got to be lighting fast with your button presses because Lara's falling, and there's a grapple point, and you'd better hit that Square button right now or else you'll die. Or...worse. Worse? What could be worse? There are other times where you'll fall down to a lower level of a puzzle room from a higher level and, in doing so, activate a checkpoint. So if you die, you don't start up top, but down below. There were a few times where I wanted to kill somebody because I kept falling down and having to do the same darn room over again. And then there are some just unfair parts of the game, like having to activate a timed route but also having to fight off flying, overpowered mutant demons.

The unlockables make it all worth it, though. There are tons of art galleries, music tracks, lots of costumes from (apparently) previous Tomb Raider games, a fun "Croft Manor" bonus level that's basically one big puzzle (find this to unlock this which opens this which leads to this...you get the idea). But, in my mind, the best unlockable is the commentary for various stages. The original Tomb Raider creator and the director of Anniversary gab about the remake and how the game has changed since its original conception. I'm a huge fan of commentary tracks, so to see one in a video game is awesome.

So if you're in the market for a good PS2 game (in the system's last days) or Windows Vista game (which has cleaner character models), this is a great platformer. It's a thinking man's platformer, dammit, and that's why I like it. Next up: Odin Sphere!