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Name: Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter

It's common knowledge that you cannot reason with dinosaurs. Any attempts at this will likely leave you ignored or spread over a wide area, so Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter leaves you with only one option; hunt them down and shoot them. And keep hunting and shooting them until you run out of ammo or are trampled to death.

Any semblance of story is mostly non-existent. There's no overblown plot about fossilised amber or time travel, and only brief hints dot the place, such as abandoned energy generators and marked crates. The only voice you hear on this time is a pilot, who'll tell you nothing other than he is picking up the bullet-riddled carcass you had left behind. He then flies into view in a vessel conspicuously resembling the Millennium Falcon, and carries off your trophy. This really leaves you to fill in the blanks in any way you choose, my preferred one being that Han Solo is fighting dinosaurs on some non-descript planet using twentieth century Earth weaponry for some, yet unknown, reason. Brilliant.

The setup of the game is mostly straightforward. You have a select budget, and you must use your limited funds to hunt dinosaurs where you'll earn more money to, you guessed it, hunt more dinosaurs. There are five varied and large maps to choose from, each costing more to hunt in than the last. With whatever cash remains, you must also choose what type of dinosaur to hunt and what weapon to bring with you. There's little choice at the early stages, but as you take down more creatures, more dangerous and profitable prey become available, alongside more efficient weapons of dinosaur devastation.

The dinosaurs start out tame enough, just running away as you try to fire your little pistol at their thick hides. As you make your way through the roster of nine dinosaurs, you begin to hit the carnivores of the title, beginning with the Velociraptor wannabe, Allosaurus. Simply shooting and chasing them until they keel over won't work anymore – these beasts will charge at you in moments that'll cause PSP-dropping amounts of fright, particularly when they suddenly charge you from behind. With these creatures zigzagging to and fro, bringing a shotgun to bear is the recommended course of action, but dealing with the larger, more vicious monsters such as the Spinosaurus and the Tyrannosaurus Rex, a rifle or a sniper rifle is the only feasible way to take them out. These guys need distance – if they get the opportunity to get close to you, it doesn't matter what weapon you have.

There are additional pieces of equipment that can help, however. You can wear camouflage or mask your scent in order to try and sneak up on your prey, or a radar system that'll point out the dinosaur you're looking for on the map. Using any of these comes with penalties to the amount you earn from each kill, in the form of a percentage. The only accessory that improves your payments is the tranquiliser shot, though your hunt would then no longer appear in the trophy room. This is a gallery that you can walk around showcasing your latest kills, allowing you to see exactly what you took down without fearing for your internal organs.

Navigating around the 3D environments comes as a surprise at first. Movement is controlled by the face buttons, and you instead change your view with the analog nub. This takes quite a bit of getting used to, but after a few minutes, you become quite adept at it. It's a decent movement setup, but once you pull out your weapon, it becomes a chore. Trying to target a dinosaur moving erratically with the slow turning speed is mostly impossible, as every creature is faster and more effective than you are. By pushing the sideways directional buttons, you are able to use a dinosaur call, attracting any dinosaurs in the area to you. Hence, make sure you use it carefully! Amusingly, depending if the call is a carnivore or not, the little insignificant creatures that are all over the place will run in fear. Not only that, but individual dinosaurs in the species will react differently to your threat. While many raptors will turn and charge at you, I've had some flee for their lives, even running into the ocean in a failed attempt to shake me.

Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter is, in summary, both serene and frantic. How you go about your hunt is entirely up to you, with knowledge of your prey's whereabouts and hidden behind camouflage, or exposed and lost, capable of being caught from any angle, but relishing the pure hunt. While the nature of the PSP's controls may make navigation difficult, and while the novelty only lasts for a short time, the large 3D environments and the fierce challenge make it a standout PlayStation Minis release.