Hello there, my name is Jess. Now, I love games, everyone says that, but I was a gaming nutcase growing up. I always have been, I've played the popular ones; Sonic, Mario, Pokémon, Crash, Spyro. You name it and I have probably have played it. But let's not dwell too much on those games, there's a game I've been dying to talk about, Fossil Fighters: Champions. If you have never heard of this game before, think of something like Pokémon but with just dinosaurs, and this game was my instant favorite - as growing up I always adored seeing giant dinosaur skeletons in museums and always wondered what it'll be like if these behemoths were still alive and just how dangerous or cool they'd be if they were.
The joy I had when I first got this game, I had a DSi XL, everyone else may have a 3DS nowadays but for me the DSi was where it was all at. The flipnote studio I adored making animations and little moving doodles on, but again, let's not get too far off track. One day I was scouring the internet for a new game to play, I searched through Amazon first before looking through eBay, however nothing caught my interest, so for my last resort I tried out Craigslist. As shady as it was, I was hoping to find something there, and just my luck! I found a never seen before DS game of Fossil Fighters, however there was no label on it and it appeared the original was scratched and peeled off as I can see some sticker residue that remained on the box. In crudely written handwriting with red permanent marker I could make out the words that read "Fossil Fighters: Inferior". 
I was totally interested! I knew of Fossil Fighters: Frontier, but to be frank it never really struck me as a good game - just the idea of cars and dinosaurs just doesn't mix too well. But without any hesitation I have contacted the seller that I am interested in purchasing this game and they have told me there was only one cartridge in existence. Ever. That's such a huge shocker, I never knew that this game was super rare but the person selling it was giving it away for only $5.00! Pretty cheap if you were to ask me, so without much hassle I had successfully bought this item and I just couldn't wait for it to be delivered at my door. Two weeks had passed since then and I got a knock at my door - I answered it to be greeted by a mailman who handed me a small package the size of a DS game case, I thanked him and closed the door behind me! I was so happy to finally have this strange rare game! However, opening it up I found a sticky note attached to the back of the case as it read some sort of secret code, "Up Down Left Left Down Down Up, Use this code in this one specific part of the game." 

Confused but intrigued, I open the case as I pull out the little game card to find it's label had been peeled off as well, the part the game system reads however was perfectly intact. Shrugging, I grab my DSi and take out whatever card was inside and slid my new game into it's slot. My face hurt so much from grinning so excitedly, when the game loaded I'll give you that; it did glitch out a little bit - probably a bug in the game itself or something but other than that, the rest of the opening played out smoothly. As other players do when they get a pre-owned game, or at least I do, I check where in the game the last player was on. But oh, there was no save file despite being a pre-owned game card, to be honest it didn't bother me much, some people will wipe old save files off games before selling them again, I knew this as fact. 
I started a new game, I chose to play as a girl, cause obviously, well, I am a girl and all. It would be strange playing as a boy but you do you. The game's intro was normal and so was the gameplay, being introduced to the game's characters I realized I already had one vivosaur medal on me, and it's of a U-Raptor. However it's medal's sprite wasn't very clear to look at and everyone I had talked to so far told me that my vivosaur was stunning to glance at. I had no idea what they were talking about. So making little by little progress into the game before entering a forest with lush green trees and a dirt pathway, I came across a stone tablet with strange symbols written on it. "Oh, this must be for the secret code! It just has to be!" So I input the code while playing and a special cutscene had played showing a wild Acro running out towards me, and a battle was started. Upon looking at my team, I only had one single vivosaur, that U-Raptor all the NPCs told me about when I spoke to them, having no other choice I chose it and the battle started. When I saw my team in-game, the U-Raptor wasn't it's original red color but it was now coal-like in color, blue markings, and a dark cherry red underbelly, with red eyes with icy blue feathers and claws. It was it's appearance if it was super revived by a silver body fossil. Upon more inspection, it had a name; Blake. Blake the U-Raptor. Not bad, but I'm curious to all to hell how do I have this guy in my team if I haven't dug up any fossils yet? 
Believing it was just part of this game, I decided to attack this wild Acro anyways even if my team consisted of one vivosaur, when I did, I realized Blake had 50 stars and all it's skills, assuming Blake was to be a boy's name, I decided to also give this guy he/him pronouns, since it'll be easier that way. But who the hell genders their pixels? Well, I just do it for fun, looking at how many FP points I had left which counted 666 and looking back at the other team which only had 150 FP points. I was even more puzzled, I selected Raptor Rage anyways but the game automantically chose the move known as Scorch Breath. As a wildfire of flames shot out of Blake's maw, I saw the Arco roar out as if it was in pain as it's sprite went up in flames, it's HP decreasing incredibly fast before disappearing completely. However, instead of the classic turning back into a medal, there was no medal on the ground where I had fought it, signaling as if the move had killed this other vivosaur. My breath felt like it was caught in my throat as I swallowed the saliva down my throat to clear it up. The hell did Blake do? Was this an official licensed game by this company? What the hell? Thinking it was some sort of sick twisted joke, I went up the dirt pathway, passing by the body of the acro, no guts, no blood, but just charred to pitch black. My eyes went wide as I passed it by. The fuck, why would this even happen. I'm just gonna dig up some fossils now and get the hell back to the city to revive more vivosaurs for my team.

Once I retrieved some fossils from the forest area, I went back to the Clean Z. Fossil Cleaning-Party Emporium to clean up multiple rocks I got. I got some treasures I could sell but also some fossils! I found a skull of a V-Raptor, Breme, and a M-Raptor! I have a whole raptor squad now! I smile in delight, as I saw the beasts being revived for my team. I can't wait to find out what other fossils I can find, however when I fought with other fossil fighters I couldn't select my other vivosaur's moves, they kept refusing! Or, maybe it wasn't much them as much as it was Blake, it's almost like having this strange vivosaur on my team prevented me from using any other teammates, and I was frustrated. "C'mon, dammit.. Lemme use M-Claw on this guy's Spinax! Just let me!" However, the game automatically used U-Venom, as Blake ran up to the Spinax and gashed deep wounds into it's side, exposing ribs and causing it to bleed. It's almost like Blake's claws leached out this strange destructive venom that poisoned the other vivosaur fairly quickly, I gasped as I saw it's sprite and in-game sprite's skin slowly turn a sickly pale green and a golden poison symbol appeared on it's sprite on the touch screen. Disgust washed over my face as the sprite for the Spinax in-game looked like it's wounds were now extremely infected, and every turn it's health was ever so slowly being chipped away at.
My FP didn't even drain or add onto unlike the other team's! My FP remained at 666, the entire battle. This poison effect continued until the Spinax faded away from the screen when it's HP hit 0, coming back into the overworld, the other fossil fighter looked at me and said, "What did you do?! My Spinax! You! You killed them! Murderer!" Before running off, confused but also terrified, but I shook it off. This has to be a hacked game, I thought as I made my way to the Fighter Station, to clean up more fossils I have dug up. Great, more vivosaurs I can't use with Blake in my current team, and I definitely cannot use him for any colosseum battles, that would just be cheating! So I went to a VVM to change my team and ultimately tried to remove Blake from the 1st row, however the game responded to me with "You cannot remove this vivosaur from your team right now." I scowled in a mix of emotions and kept trying to remove him from my team's slot, but the game kept replying to me with the same thing. It was repetitive, before suddenly a screech came from my DS, making the it vibrate - they don't even have a vibrate function! I stared with blank, wide eyes into the screen as it flashed white before to black and froze for a bit. I tried everything, restarting the system, going back to home, nothing worked. It remained a black screen.
Once it unfroze, Blake faded in onto the screen - staring directly at me. His sharp teeth bared and his claws flicked out wildly, "You cannot get rid of me, Jess." A textbox appeared on screen as the vivosaur stared at me with a serious look in his glowing eyes. "You never will." The textbox resumed without me even pressing A, "You may think you're the master here, Jess.... But you're not. Oh you never were. I'm the master now, Jess." The U-Raptor glared as his fangs glinted with a wide growing grin on his face, "And master commands you to take me to the colosseum, so I can take my rightful place as champion." The textbox resumed before the screen fading back to the game, however, I was at the colosseum entrance now - and everything in the town was petrified, people encased in stony graves, their bodies frozen in place. I had no choice, but to enter the champion battles. I did, and I won all of them - Blake had shredded through the other fighter's vivosaurs like they were thin pieces of paper. Dead bodies of vivosaurs littered the battlefield, some charred, others gutted and eaten away at. The screen went back to focus on Blake, who once again turned to directly face me. "You have done well, Jess." Another textbox appeared, as the U-Raptor grinned. "But I'm afraid there can only be one winner. Only one champion." 

My eyes went wide as the U-Raptor suddenly charged towards my character, I let out a shriek as I threw my DSi onto my bed as loud snarls and a girl screaming from it played from it's speakers - the next sound that followed, was a horrible, gruesome... Chewing sound. Like an animal was eating flesh off of bones. Slowly and with shaky knees, I went back over to my bed and picked up the handheld system... Only to be greeted by a terrible pixelated sight of Blake tearing into my character's body, her entrails hanging from the vivosaur's bloodied jaws. "I am the champion now. Only me. JUST me." Before the screen faded out to black and froze for a few good minutes, all I did there was stare in absolute shock and terror. My hands trembled as I held the DS, when the title screen appeared - the fossils making out the logo were shattered and damaged, bloody handprints on it, and scratched at like some beast had a field day. I went to my saved game, trying to continue it, but only to be greeted by a textbox reading, "You can't do that. Cause you are already dead. I am the champion." I haven't played my DSi XL ever since then, but I still adore video games and dinosaurs despite this horrible experience, I now own a Nintendo Switch and I play a lot of Super Mario Odyssey and Crash Team Racing. I hope you all have learned something from this, not all you find or want will be golden - but some that glitters can't always shine. This has been my story, and I still do own this game, but I am unsure of what to do in it's presence now... So I keep it and my DSi XL hidden deep somewhere in my closet.