Prehistorik 2

Prehistorik 2 is a colorful platformer about a prehistoric hunter armed with a club whose only real goal is to eat his fill. The player moves through levels full of dinosaurs, mammoths, insects, and other prehistoric inhabitants, clubbing them and collecting everything edible along the way, from roast chickens to giant cakes. Collecting food isn't just decoration, since it's exactly what makes up the score and the bonuses that decide your progress. Besides regular combat, there are hidden rooms, platforms over chasms, and enemies that need several hits, so the game gradually ramps up and can challenge even experienced players in the later levels.

Visually it's a very pleasant title. The graphics are drawn in a bold cartoonish style with strong colors, the characters are large and easy to read, and the individual worlds are clearly distinct from one another, from green prehistoric plains to caves and snowy regions. The screen scrolls smoothly and the game ran well even on more modest computers, which was an important selling point at a time when more demanding titles kept requiring ever stronger hardware. The soundtrack is simple but infectiously cheerful, and together with the hero's exaggerated animation it rounds out the light-hearted mood typical of the whole game.

Prehistorik 2 became one of the most widespread titles on computers in schools and homes across Central Europe, played by entire generations of kids, often without knowing who actually published it. At the time it wasn't a genre-defining breakthrough so much as a solid, skillfully made platformer that delivered exactly what was expected of it. Today it stands as a showcase of the European platforming school: straightforward, fast, tough in its second half, and free of any unnecessary padding. For many players it remains a strong memory of their first encounter with PC gaming. Playing it today means returning to the simple joy of moving, jumping, and swinging a club, a joy that later, more complicated games often lack. Getting through it takes barely a few hours.