If you were a gamer in the 90s, and spent time in arcades, Capcom was a name you knew very well. Street Fighter II was released in 1991, and was a smash hit, popularizing the one on one fighting game genre. But if you were looking for a less competitive experience in your video gaming, Capcom was still a big name, producing some of the greatest co-op arcade games of all time.
A quick glance at Capcom’s arcade releases from the time reads like a list of all-stars. The 19XX series. U.N. Squadron. The King of Dragons. Captain Commando. The Punisher. Alien vs. Predator. Both Dungeons & Dragons games. On this list are several examples of superb shmups and brilliant brawlers. Each one of them, of course, came with a hefty dose of co-op.
From this hallowed developer, in 1992, came an unusual and memorable title: Cadillacs & Dinosaurs. It was a video game based on a short-lived cartoon series based on a comic book called Xenozoic Tales; layers on layers, a bit like Inception, but with Tyrannosaurs and vintage cars that run on dino poop instead of weird gravity and mind tricks.
Based on a colorful pre-existing property, and created by arguably the best beat-em-up makers in video game history, Cadillacs & Dinosaurs is the exact opposite of a generic brawler. The story takes place in the future, where humanity was forced to move underground to avoid the dangers of pollution. When humans come back up to the surface hundreds of years later, the land has been overrun by prehistoric creatures. It's pretty much Mad Max meets The Lost World, which is totally awesome.