A long time back I was talking to someone about Jurassic Park related games, they were of the opinion that Jurassic Park games suck, I was in the opposite camp as I have played and enjoyed at least a couple of them. It’s not that I don’t consider some of the Jurassic Park games to be complete and utter failures, because I do, but not all of them.
My very first introduction to Jurassic Park in gaming was the Super Nintendo Jurassic Park game that was released by Ocean. Coincidentally this was possibly the first game I also discovered actual fear in.
I should probably stop here and explain.
You see I’m a terrible gamer.
Not in the fashion that I’m not good at playing (although Tracey may argue this point) but in the fact that I get way too caught up within the game. I get so absorbed into the game play that I actually get worked up in an especially tense or scary game. As games have gotten more realistic this has only continued to get worse. It’s a double edged sword, it means I’m way too cautious when playing but it also means that when I buy a video game I’m also buying an experience.
Now Jurassic Park (I’m talking about the game here) was possibly the first game that I discovered this about myself.
Jurassic Park is a combination game, half of the game is played from a top down viewpoint and the other other half is played in first person shooter style looking through night vision goggles.
It’s also one of the first games that featured surround sound which is pretty neat when wandering through the park and around you you can hear the various calls of the dinosaurs.
So what’s it all about?
You take up the role of Alan Grant and essentially you have to complete a number of tasks to get off the island. The game doesn’t make the mistake, like a lot of movie tie ins to just follow the storyline of the movie rather than capture the tone and experience of the film.
I think in this rather simple adaptation of the general story the game succeeds.
From the top down
So when you are outside you play the game in pretty much the same way as Zelda, you wander around the park dodging a lot of velociraptors just jumping out at you, recover dinosaur eggs, collect ammo and weapons and avoid the dangers such as water and electric fences.
That’s all well and good but the real fun is in teasing the two tyrannosaurus rex’s who will come after you and all you can do is slow them down and run!
You will die at least three times because you imagine you can kill a T-Rex.
You can’t.
But you’ll try anyway.
Let’s go inside
Ummm let’s not.
Seriously, the velociraptors have gotten into the buildings and the boats, it’s more often than not dark in there and you are in an enclosed space. You know what I’m doing? I’m waiting for the army or inGen to come get me and standing out in the open where I can see whatever is coming after me.
Like I say, not a great gamer.
But the object of the game which is to get off the island so then into the structures we must go. Looking back at this today the graphics are obviously simplistic at best. I think it has a lot to do with the background music of this game as it sets the tone of the experience.
Essentially the 3D aspects of this game are Wolfenstein with velociraptors, fractals and neat computer interfaces.
Anything else?
Well the main complaint I had of this game is that it has no save point. You have unlimited lives but there is no save game point where you can come back to it. You have to play it out in one hit and it takes apparently according to Wikipedia around two to three hours or so to play completely through though some dude did it in one hour and nineteen minutes.
You can also watch the entire game being played through by a guy on youtube and finally I got to see the very end of the game.
So have you played Jurassic Park on the Super Nintendo? Did you finish it? Happy memories? Haven’t played it but would like to?
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