* Multiple weapons to choose from adds to fun dino killing
* Can choose to be either Grant or a Velociraptor
* Do not have to play stages in order
Cons
* overpowered enemies make it hard to avoid taking damage
* Gun sound effects can get annoying
* Short game
Any kid growing up in the 90’s loved ANYTHING to do with Jurassic Park. I mean, they were dinosaurs that ripped people apart and for some reason our parents let us watch it. Most people have played the first Jurassic Park game for Genesis and SNES, but a lot of people never caught this game, or like me accidentally rented it because they thought it was just regular Jurassic Park. For this review I will mostly focus on playing the game through as Grant, but playing through as the Velociraptor is quite fun as well.
Presentation : A
Graphics / Animation / Sound
The first thing that happens when you turn your genesis on is a T-Rex screams at you under the Sega logo, then a Menu screen pops up with rockin’ pseudo-guitars and a Velociraptor with blood dripping teeth smiles at you (yes they animated dripping blood in the title). To this day this is one of the most memorable title screens ive ever seen.
The graphics are good for the period, and the levels have an insane amount of detail for the 16 bit era, such as lightning bolts, water falls, and flame throwers. Everything is animated pretty well, as the Triceratops lay down right before they die, and the Compsognathus (tiny dinosaurs) disintegrate after being shot.
The sound is pretty good, and actually on the ‘Cargo Ship’ level in particular the lighting is in sync with the music which adds to the atmosphere.
The sound effects are efficient, but you will get real tired of hearing them real fast. Good thing you can turn them off in the options menu. I guess they knew it would get annoying. Why else would it be in early games?
Single Player : B
Game mechanics / Length / difficulty
So this sequel picks right from the end of the first game, where the helicopter you used to escape the island crashes.
The game mechanics are pretty good. The worst part of the game, is there is no saving or password system. That can always get frustrating. When using Grant, you have a weapon inventory at the top left corner. The weapon shown is what you are using, and instead of a bullet count, it’s a graph behind the weapon. The lower the graph is, the closer you are to running out of bullets. The dart gun has infinite ammo, but is weak. You can pick up shotguns, rocket launchers, grenades, flamethrowers and more to use, all with different effects. Your life bar is represented the same way, it is right under the inventory and when the green is out your dead. You can pick up health (A.B.C. candy bars) and extra lives. When you play as the Velociraptor, you can bite, kick, or tail whip, and it is pretty awesome. If you collect enough Lysine cases you can go into ‘Rage Mode’, and it’s just bad ass.
You can choose any three levels to start as Grant, ‘Cargo Ship’, ‘Savannah’, or ‘Aviary’. (When playing with the Velociraptor you must play the hidden ruins before the cargo ship, as it is the last level). The neat thing about the levels is that they are unique. In ‘Cargo Ship’ you are making your way down the ship, then it starts to flood and you have to find a way out. I played this level over and over again, and personally think it’s the best level.
In the ‘Savannah’ level you are riding on some dinosaur, jumping, shooting and either engaging or outrunning helicopters. While this level is pretty cool, its INSANELY long, and to be honest, all I ever did as a kid was just run through it. I’ve tried many times to actually try to kill every enemy and helicopter, but alas it is too much.
The ‘Aviary’ stage is my least favorite. It’s a fairly confusing maze and Pterodactlys fly around and try to pick you up and take you back to start. Though my least favorite, it is impressive how much detail they managed to cram in there, and there are a lot of hidden items you can pick up for points. (points mean nothing in the game by the way)
After you play through these three stages in any order you then play two more stages. The Next one is the ‘Hidden Ruins’, then ‘River Run’ The ‘Hidden Ruins’ stage is pretty easy to navigate, but full of annoying everything. Again, this is a level that you can just run through, while trying to fight everything is almost certain suicide.
The last level before the boss fight is the ‘River Run’. This level is FULL of glitches. And i mean FULL of them. I guess the testers didn’t think anyone would get this far, but you are navigating a maze on a raft trying to get to the bottom of your screen. When you get close to the bottom a glitch happens almost every time to me, and starts throwing your raft around like your on a Po-go stick. This happened so much that eventually i figured out how to control and play through this glitch, as i wanted to see the final boss fight SO bad.
Once you manage to get yourself out of that terrible raft level, you are trying to escape the island while a T-Rex is trying to stop you…for some reason. I tried for months to kill this thing, as I hit it with my entire arsenal. I even went through and saved up EVERY weapon you could pick up the game, built up its full ammo inventory, and then only used my dart gun to kill anything, that way when i met Ronny J. T-Rex at the end i could blow his head off. Guess what? You can’t kill him. The game wants you to run to the left, and just keep him from eating you. When he gets close, you just shoot him to keep him back. While this REALLY pissed me off when i was younger, i can look back on this and still enjoy the memory of playing it. I guess just escaping would be the most reasonable situation, as Grant is a scientist not a super hero. But damn did that make me mad.
Multiplayer : F
Game mechanics / features / Online features
No multiplayer, such as two player mode.
Replay Value : A
Lasting appeal / Bonus Content / DLC
There is no bonus content, or DLC.
This is one of the finest games for the Sega Genesis, especially for the time, where I struggled to find a fun library of games to play for my Genesis while my friends were playing Super Castlvania 4 or Super Mario World. It has great replay value due to the fact that you can be Grant or the Velociraptor, which means you get to play through all the levels again with a different experience. If you are wanting to dust off your genesis and play a decent title, I’d suggest dropping 5 bucks on eBay and playing this one. Even with no nostalgia factor, it’s very playable and pretty fun.
Overall : A
