It's hard to believe that there ever were big ass creatures like dinosaurs living on the same planet humans inhabit today. Maybe that's why we have such a fascination with them, and why Jurassic Park captured our imagination for decades (which is why movie is a thing). Dinos really have every great quality. They can be scary, cute, cool, and fascinating all at the same time.

The ancient reptiles have invaded just about every form of entertainment, including games. They have a mindblowing level of diversity - from club-tailed ankylosauruses to pack-predator velociraptors - and the games starring them are almost as far flung. From horror titles to cutesy platformers, dinosaurs are everywhere in gaming. In case you're looking for a few games to knock you down a few links in the food chain, here is a list of some of the dinosaur games you definitely need to play.

There just aren't many multiplayer shooters that allow you to munch on your enemies as a monstrous T-Rex, but Primal Carnage makes it happen. As a human, you play a typical first-person shooter in terms of controls, weapon variety, and overall feel. The human classes get an arsenal of dino-dropping gadgets and weapons, from sniper rifles and tranquilizer darts to assault rifles and rocket launchers. But you don't want to hear about the human side, you're here for the man-eating reptiles.

The dinosaur team is just as varied in their abilities. You can play as the speedy raptors, high-flying Pteranodon, bull-like Carnotaurus, and venom spitting Dilophosaurus. All of these dinos create a mix that's built to surprise the humans. The Pteranodon can swoop down and pluck human players right off their feet, and drop them to their deaths. Carnotaurus can charge into enemies like a battering ram. But the ultimate experience is playing as the massive T-Rex, snatching up hunters with your massive jaws and ripping them to shreds.

What if the Nazi's infamous military research yielded something even more terrifying than impractically huge tanks?Maybe a way to bring prehistoric, dino death machines back to life? Well, they would probably put machine guns on their heads and train them to do their dirty work. In Dino D-Day, that is the exact situation. The Nazis have a dinosaur army at their beck and call, and the historical WW2 battlefields have become prehistoric feeding frenzies.

Alongside the German soldiers, who are armed with the standard set of World War 2 weapons, players can take control of Nazi Velociraptors, a Styracosaurus that functions as a quadrupedal machine gun turret, and a T-Rex with guns attached to the sides of its face. The matches feel a bit one sided, because the allies' only dino friend is a three-legged, baby triceratops, but how often do you get to battle ancient dinosaur Nazis in an online multiplayer game?

The N64 shooter Turok: Dinosaur Hunter bears many of the scars of an early console shooter. You don't really have to aim because the game's auto aim just does it for you, and the platforming sections are so difficult it's just cruel. The shooting may seem a bit dated by today's twin stick, Call of Duty standards, but Turok is still a blast to play.

The best part of the original Turok, and the reason why it's on this list, is you actually get to fight dinosaurs. It really has no story to speak of. You just start off the game killing random human attackers and charging raptors, but eventually the giant monkeys and dinosaurs start brandishing alien weaponry, like mechanical arms and energy cannons. And it's all just leading up to a battle against a T-Rex boss with, you guessed it, a laser attached to its head.

Looking for a little more horror in your dinosaur adventure? Look no further. Dino Crisis is a classic PlayStation title that takes the tank mechanics and fixed camera gameplay of the Resident Evil series and drops them into a Jurassic Park-like setting. Meaning dinosaurs are out to eat your face off, and there's no fast way to turn and run.

Take a classic Resident Evil game, replace all of the zombies and mutated monsters with velociraptors and mutated prehistoric monstrosities, and you know exactly what to expect. The game is all about waiting for the next scare. The fixed camera sets you up for frightening ambushes, limited ammo ups the intensity of encounters, and there's cheesy dialogue galore. Dino Crisis has it all.

Even decades after its release, this 16-bit action platformer is still a must play dinosaur title. Tranquilizing dinos and taking on the vicious velociraptors is no less intense than when the game's graphics were cutting edge back in 1993.

You play as Dr. Alan Grant as he navigates the environments seen in the first movie, from jungles infested with raptors and triceratops, to the Visitor's Center guarded by a massive T-Rex. Best of all, you can play as one of the island's escaped velociraptors at it attempts to evade or eat its human captors. Few things are more satisfying than pouncing on security guards as one of Jurassic Park's most dangerous predators.

What's a Mario game doing on this list? Well, one of Mario's best buds is a saddle-wearing dinosaur. To leave Yoshi off of this list would be a crime against every video game dinosaur out there. So, here he is. In Yoshi's Island, you don't play as the mustachioed plumber, but instead as an entire race of friendly dinosaurs.

Mario is in a bit of a vulnerable state in Yoshi's Island. He's a defenseless baby and must rely on Yoshi to guard him while the dino attempts to rescue Baby Luigi from the clutches of Baby Bowser. This was the game that locked down all of Yoshi's now-standard abilities, allowing him to toss eggs at enemies, eat anything with his long tongue, and flutter jump to extreme heights. Not only is Yoshi's Island a must play title on the SNES, it represents the best of the most popular video game dinosaur ever.

I know what you're thinking: "Skylanders is a game about cute, mystical monsters, not dinosaurs." To which, I say to you, "Wrong!" Skylanders allows players to take a variety of bizarre characterizations of animals, mythic monsters, and heck, even vegetables, then level up the collectible toys as you play. But if you didn't think a children's game built around monsters wouldn't include some awesome dinosaurs, I'm here to open your eyes.

There are dozens of characters to collect, but the most awesome by far (especially for dino enthusiasts) is Chopper. This charming little guy is a young T-Rex that is a bit tech savvy. Along with his vicious roar attack, he can blast his enemies with the rockets attached to his sides, and use his helicopter backpack to dice up enemies or become one of the first airborne tyrannosauruses in gaming.

The Monster Hunter series might not feature dinosaurs per se, but the massive creatures you battle in the game are incredibly similar to their prehistoric counterparts. Can we just say they're close enough? I mean, taking on humongous beasts with complex attack patterns and various weak points using giant weapons is something we can all get on board with, right?

In Monster Hunter, you choose a class of hunter who can carry anything from unreasonably large warhammers, to unreasonably large daggers. The intricate inventory system, battle mechanics, and unique hunting features make each battle unique. Facing off against these mighty creatures is incredibly thrilling. With monster designs that are undeniably inspired by ancient dinosaurs (and dragons. There's lots of dragons), this is the closest to hunting dinosaurs you're going to get.

Need some dinosaur fighting game representation on this list? It's right here, baby! Gaming never fails to follow trends, and in the mid-90s what could have been more trendy than mixing a Mortal Kombat-style fighting game with prehistoric apes and dinosaurs? Primal Rage is one of the most memorable games of its era, though not necessarily for being great.

You choose a variety of beast combatants that range from King Kong-like apes to T-Rexes with varying degrees of evil motivations. Each monster is revered by the world's lowly human inhabitants as gods and they happily cheer you on as you battle your foe with special moves and combos. What makes the game unique is you can eat your opponent's cheering humans for health bonuses, and following the likes of other successful fighting game franchises of the time, each prehistoric combatant can finish off opponents with a match-ending fatality.

Yes, we generally stick to the console side of gaming here at GamesRadar, but this dino adventure is just too good not to get a mention. Light gun shooters may have come and gone on the console space, but in your local arcade, they are just as entertaining as ever. When it comes to dino blasting action, Jurassic Park: The Lost World's arcade cabinet, remains king.

The on-rails shooter takes you through all the events of the 1997 film. From the stampede intro that challenges players to avoid the bowel excretions of a brachiosaurus, to face to face engagements with the king of all dinosaurs, every second of the entire game is challenging and thrilling. Throw in a co-op player, and you've got an unforgettable quarter-sucking experience.

There you have it. Those are our picks for the dinosaur games you definitely need to play before you become a fossil yourself. Do you have any favorites to add, or memorable moments from one of these games that you want to share? Let me know in the comments below.

For even more game recommendations from GamesRadar, be sure to check out our list of the .

Mario's adventures are full of whimsy, but they wouldn't be half as fun if they didn't hew to a consistent set of physics. After all, jumping around with precision and speed requires a degree of confidence in Mario's ability to adhere to the rules of gravity. That said, though, dealing with physics is kind of an all or nothing deal.

And the Mushroom Kingdom is full of so many seemingly unanswerable questions (discounting the , anyway). Why does eating a mushroom make Mario grow so big? Why do creatures eaten by Yoshi turn into eggs? Why can Peach glide through the air with no apparent propulsion system? It turns out there's a perfectly logical, scientific explanation for each of them. Let's read and find out!

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Mario is a master of aerial acrobatics, but his 'ground pound' ability can't be explained through leg strength and coordination. Far beyond simply altering his trajectory mid-flight, Mario can outright cancel all of his momentum with a 360-degree aerial flip, then send himself plummeting keister-first toward the ground. How on earth does he do that? Well, let's just say there's a reason that he's such a big fan of whole-grain pasta.

First he lifts his legs, angling his rear-end to oppose his current velocity. Then he begins a near-imperceptible series of micro-flatulations that arrest his forward momentum within a split second. The tiny farts send Mario somersaulting through the air, ended by a final tremendous emission, which also speeds his descent to the ground below. It's gross, but you gotta do what you gotta do to clear Bowser's endless death traps You didn't think he kicked up all that dust just from falling, did you?

Peach isn't the first person to imagine that a fancy dress could work like a frilly pink parachute, but she is one of the few to pull it off. Actually, her system works even better than a parachute. Instead of just slowing her fall, Peach can actually float in the air for several seconds, with the remarkable ability to move back and forth at will. It may seem like magical princess stuff, but it's actually quite technical.

You see, Peach's petticoat is lined with thousands and thousands of molecular-scale lift-generating structures. These nanomachines essentially function like a battalion of little plane wings. By the time she appears in Super Smash Bros Melee, in which pervy players quickly discovered she battles sans-slip, the technology was miniaturized even further, to the point where it could be directly applied to the surface of her legs. As for the parasol, have you ever tried to carry one in a strong breeze? It works like a parasol.

If you want to grow up big and strong, you'd better eat your vegetables. Lots of vegetables, for years. Mario, on the other hand, just needs to consume a single mushroom. How can one Mushroom (oversized though it may be) possibly lend him that much extra mass? Simple: it doesn't. It just creates a thin, symbiotic system of fibers that let his body inflate to twice its normal size without grotesque distortion.

When he runs into an enemy or is otherwise injured, the shock ruptures embiggened Mario's skin. The inert gas, which keeps his frame appearing plump and healthy, rushes out of the wound, producing a distinct sound and causing Mario to shrink back to his normal size. It happens in a heartbeat, but they say if you pause the game at just the right time you can see a horrid, deflating Mario stuck between his two forms…

How do Yoshis reproduce when their egg-laying mechanism also functions as a form of waste disposal? It's actually much simpler than you might think. Both the reproductive and digestive behaviors for a Yoshi begin in the exact same way: they find a victim and slurp it up. If the Yoshi isn't in heat, its powerful stomach acid quickly dissolves its prey into a nutritious slurry. The material which isn't digested is reshaped into an eggshell and expressed from the rectum.

However, while the Yoshi is in heat, its stomach acid is suppressed. In this way it can keep the victim deep in its primordial gut for several months, breaking it down and reshaping it into the deformed polyp commonly referred to as a Baby Yoshi. Once the metamorphosis is complete, the Baby Yoshi is expelled from the adult within a colorful spotted shell, from which it will hatch within a few days. Isn't nature beautiful?

In most of his adventures, Mario demonstrates the ability to remain underwater for a seemingly unlimited amount of time (or at least as long as the level timer lasts). As you may be aware, normal humans - even humans who can jump really high and have worn the same pair of denim overalls for the last 30-some years - need to breathe regularly to stave off the icy grip of death. It turns out Mario's mysterious ability to remain submerged for extended periods comes from his mustache.

Much like the concept for the Triton rebreather device, Mario's mustache uses the surface area of each individual follicle to filter out the small amounts of oxygen that can be found in most bodies of water. This oxygen is funneled up into his nose, allowing him to inhale and exhale normally. The same goes for Luigi and all other mustachioed plumbers (never know when you'll need to do some wetwork) but why didn't it work in Super Mario 64? Look at his mustache - it's just a flat texture on top of his face. Not enough surface area.

Have you ever jumped on a turtle? God, I hope not. Turtles are so cute! Alright, let me back up. Let's imagine what happens when you jump on a turtle - either the shell holds up and you fall over and feel like a real asshole, or the shell cracks and you get turtle guts on your shoes and you feel like a real asshole. In neither of these scenarios is the turtle ejected from its shell. So why does it happen when Mario hops on a Koopa Troopa, which is ostensibly a humanoid turtle?

Duh, they're not actually turtles. Koopa Troopas and their shells are actually two separate organisms, the latter of which is not at all pleased to be worn by a creepy lizard guy in a sweat-stained tank top. When Mario smacks a Koopa, the shell takes advantage of the brief shock to pop off, and it secretes an oily substance from all of its orifices to make it more difficult for the Koopa to grab. Mario's wearing specially engineered gloves, so he has no problem picking it up and using its near-frictionless surface for some Koopa bowling.

At first you might think that the Mushroom Kingdom has a somewhat tenuous grasp on the concept of capitalism. Traditionally, money is exchanged between individuals for goods and services, whereas in the Mushroom Kingdom method, it's simply left hanging in mid-air or collected in question-mark stamped blocks. With all these coins hanging around the place, what value could they possibly still have for Mario? Well, as it turns out, all that cloning gets kinda expensive...

...you did know that Mario has thousands of clones, right? Or more accurately had thousands of clones, since all but a few of them are impaled on spikes, burnt up in lava lakes, being digested in the bellies of giant fish, or still falling down bottomless pits. Fortunately, Mario's always just a 100-coin payment away from a fresh new him, ready to live, adventure, and (most importantly) collect more coins. The Mario cloning industry is the economic center of the Mushroom Kingdom, supporting nearly all of its residents and allowing its nobility to live in grand castles and bake fancy cakes. So it works out well for everybody.

See? Nothing unusual about Mario at all. Definitely nothing horrifying going on in the Mushroom Kingdom, no reason to try to blot this out from your memory the next time you start playing. In fact, you might as well submit some of your own favorite Mario eccentricities and their possible explanations in the comments below! Looking for more? Turns out some games provide their .