Smithsonian: Digging For Dinosaurs is an interactive adventure game for kids, developed by Graphite Lab and published by PlayDate Digital. It’s an easy game for kids to play on their own, though it could be a great learning and bonding experience between them and their parents if played together.

Growing up, most kids are fascinated by dinosaurs. I was not one of those kids. I was more into sea creatures. My knowledge of dinosaurs comes from The Land Before Time and that’s about it. However, I played this game while at a friend’s house and learned she was, and still is, a dinosaur enthusiast.

The entire game is point-and-click with full narration. It’s minimal effort to dig for dinosaurs in this title, but the learning and fun facts never stop.

The overworld is a giant picture you’ll fill in as you discover the dinos. You can click on certain images in the background, and the narrator will explain a cool fact about dinosaurs. If you see a question mark, it means there’s a fossil to be found. You’re brought to a digging screen where you repeatedly click everywhere to break the dirt blocks. Then, you need to blow the dust away to reveal the fossil.

Once the fossil is revealed, you need to put the bones together like a jigsaw puzzle to reveal the dinosaur you’ve discovered. It’s more about dragging and dropping the pieces together. Once you grab a piece, the area where it’s supposed to go will highlight. So, the puzzles aren’t difficult at all even with the smallest of bones.

Upon completing the puzzle, you’ll receive a card for that dinosaur which contains fun facts and stats about the dino. Then, rinse and repeat until you find all the dinos.

My friend and I played Smithsonian: Digging For Dinosaurs for a couple of hours. We discovered all the dinos, revealing their day cards only to realize there’s more. So, we kept going. We ended up discovering the same dinosaurs, but instead of their day card, the game gave us their night card. The stats and facts were the same, and so was the image of the dinosaur. But instead of a light-colored background, the night card had a dark colored background. I believe this was the game’s way of having replayability, which can be great for kids. But, for a couple of adults, it was just repetitive for us. 

Smithsonian: Digging For Dinosaurs also rewards you with coins, which you can then use to upgrade your digging tools. For example, you can get a mallet or iron gauntlet to bust through the dirt faster. You can also upgrade your brush to sweep the dust away faster, too. These upgrades are a bit silly; one of the brushes is a horn that made a hilarious sound my friend and I found delightful. I think that variety will keep kids intrigued enough to keep digging.

Finally, this title also has a quiz. It’s a brief multiple choice quiz that asks questions based on the dinos you’ve revealed and the facts from their cards. There are no consequences if you don’t get all the questions correct, but you’ll earn coins if you get a few right.

While you can’t turn the narration off, I appreciate the game is fully voice acted so kids can play this title on their own. The controls are fluid and simple, too, so young kids shouldn’t need too much help to play Smithsonian: Digging For Dinosaurs. If you have a young one who loves prehistoric creatures, this game is worth getting.