
	Platform SNES Genre Adventure Developer Ocean Publisher Metro Games Year released 1992
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Jurassic Park

The big franchise for the year of 1992 was Jurassic Park, the movie which quickly became posters, toys, Happy Meals, amusement park rides, and then eventually video games. Based on the novel by Michael Crichton, there were two big gaming versions of Jurassic Park on the 16-bit consoles - a Mega Drive version (a ho-hum platformer with some nice graphics and boring gameplay) and a far superior SNES version, which I'm looking at today.

Jurassic Park was a great title in it's heyday, and it's still a great deal of fun now - this is partly due to the clever mix of gameplay, which mixes RPG elements with two different gaming genres, and the huge, nonlinear gaming style that Jurassic Park uses to maintain interest. Where the Mega Drive takes a linear approach to the title with the same platformer gameplay that we've seen in a zillion other games, the SNES game is bigger, much more interesting experience, combining top-down dinosaur-mauling action with some impressive-for-their-time first-person scenes which can be unbearably creepy.

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Taking the role of Alan Grant, you're thrown onto the terrifying Isla Nublar where everything in the once amazing Jurassic Park has gone wrong - from the electricity going down and freeing the dinosaurs, to the deadly Raptors breeding and trying to leave the island on a scheduled, unmanned ship due to leave the harbor to the mainland in just a few hours.

You begin as Grant in the island compound with a top-down perspective, moving out to battle the escaping dinosaurs and

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start the island generator to turn on the power. From there, the game gets more open-ended as objectives are listed to be completed as the player continues. The game loosely follows the plot of the movie, throwing in more dramatic elements and problems for Grant to sort out before he can leave the island. These goals give the game an RPG feel, as Grant must collect ID cards and move around the island into new areas to complete more objectives and defeat more dinosaurs to get further in the game. The game becomes quite huge, with many, many, many hours of gameplay, which is hindered only with the lack of a save feature. This is probably the only area where Jurassic Park fails - it needs a system to save, like passwords or something, which would make it more playable. However, for it's time, the size of the game was especially impressive, and was an achievement to have completed the full game.

The game uses a lot of dramatic action in both gaming perspectives. The dinosaurs are big and scary in top-down perspective, including the terrifying, rampaging T-Rex, which is quite scary to see when you first stumble upon him, and he cannot be killed. Other dinosaurs are deadly as well, like the Raptors, which always attack in groups. Fortunately, Grant is armed to the teeth to stop them, with his armory including shotguns, missile launchers, the faithful cattleprod, and my humble favorite, the bolas. He can carry two guns at once, and can pick up more ammo and weapons as he finds them. The top-down parts of the game have a proper RPG feel about them, as you move from one section of the island to the other, trying to escape the maze that is Isla Nublar.

The first-person part of the game is a whole different game in itself. As you wander the halls of abandoned, silent warehouses and raptor pens and ships you'll feel the tension, wondering if there's just one more dinosaur left around that corner... You'll wander and then scream as the raptor from the side leaps into view, and you'll run to kill him to get to the computer to reset the power, before you're attacked by more. It's really well done. (The dinosaurs aren't as numerous in the first person scenes, but they sneak to kill and you're always the prey.) Although the graphics aren't great, there is a special appeal about this that makes is quite creepy and fun to play. And the sound is great, from the scary dinosaur roars to the annoying elevator music.

Overall, Jurassic Park is another title to add to the "must have" games of the SNES collection. This is a great Classic title, with lots of play value a decade after it's release. For it's time, it was gold, and it shows. One of my favorite ever movie-games, Jurassic Park is a stroke of brilliance.

- Shocka

(December 1, 2002)