In 2008, Turok: Son of Stone will adorn multiple shelves in every Blockbuster and Hollywood Video in this great land. As it should. Because it’s about a fucking indian fighting hordes of dinosaurs with bows, arrows and tomahawks, making every single human being in any other dinosaur versus humans film look like a total pussy. Turok, IIRC because I’m far too lazy to wiki this, was a somewhat crappy comic book from the late 80s and early 90s, that started out strong and got shittier and shittier as time went on. The title had a resurgence of popularity following the release of a videogame for the Nintendo 64 – but, like the comic, sequels got shittier and shittier, until Acclaim finally killed the franchise off with a crapfest launch title on the PS2, Gamecube and X-Box.

The first game was about Joseph Fireseed, a Cherokee who one day wakes up to find that he has inherited the mantle of Turok when his father is killed. A Turok is a spiritual warrior who must fight for the Lost Land, a jungle populated by dinosaurs, the ruins of a lost civilization that once had unspeakable power, and the military wing of a violent dictator, who was struggling for domination of the area with the native flora and fauna. Pretty awesome. I don’t remember all of the sequels, but the last one for the Nintendo 64 was about zombie Joseph Fireseed trying to kill his nephew and niece while leading an invasion of 24th century earth with cyborg dinosaurs that had frickin’ laser beams attached to their head. The premiere Turok title on the following generation, and the last Turok game for nearly a decade, was about an indian and a psychotic confederate colonel who had killed eachother in battle, and woke up in crazy ass alien dinosaur land. The game looked terrible, and didn’t play very well at all. It sold about as much as it deserved to.

It is no surprise that someone is trying to restart the Turok train. The concept is awesome and bears repeating. Indians. Bows and arrows. Dinosaurs. Claws and teeth. Yes! The coming game reboot only kinda follows this, but doesn’t look as horrible as previous attempts – it’s about a guy with a mohawk who invades a dinosaur infested planet, and then kills some dinosaurs and enemy soldiers. It’s half cyberpunk, half Jurassic Park, and too early to tell if it’s going to be horrible or not.

As someone who would probably enjoy Pathfinder, I have high hopes for this franchise.