Jurassic Park
Nintendo Entertainment System
In the early 1990s I was fully enveloped in Jurassic Park mania. Anything that had the Jurassic Park name on it, I was going to check out. This included all of the many, many Jurassic Park video games. I owned both a Sega Genesis and an NES at the time. As an eleven year old, my funds were pretty limited. Since the NES was on its last legs, I ended up buying the Genesis version of the game and only renting the NES one. The Genesis version looked way cooler anyway. I played the NES game over and over again on that weekend I rented it. Although now I can beat it in one sitting, back then I thought it was pretty hard. I did end up beating the game, but it took quite a lot out of me!
The story of how I ended up owning the game is a funny one. I would say it was at least four or five years after I played the game initially. I was at a birthday party for one of my mom’s friend’s daughters. While everyone was outside eating and socializing and having fun, I ended up going inside and going down into the basement, where they had a rec room set up with a ton of video games. The NES wasn’t even hooked up to the TV. It was in a dusty box in the corner. The box next to it was loaded with an even dustier collection of games. I already owned most of the games, but when I saw Jurassic Park a strong urge to play it again washed over me. What did I end up doing? Stealing it, of course. Shame on you, Dan. Shame on you. My justification was that it was sitting there neglected in a dusty old box in the basement, and would probably never be played again. At least I was going to put it to good use. I keep telling that to myself every night before I go to sleep. In reality, some sad girl (or her dad) is probably out there crying herself to sleep every night, wondering what happened to her prized copy of Jurassic Park for the NES. Wishing and longing to be able to play it again, if only for one last time…
Yeah, probably not. Most people I know have never played this game. And if they did play it, they didn’t like it. I am one of the few who actually thinks that this is a pretty solid game.
The game takes place from an isometric perspective. Like pretty much all of the Jurassic Park video games released around this time, you are in control of Dr. Alan Grant. You must wander through the game’s stages, collecting eggs and completing various objectives. You are under constant attack from dinosaurs. To destroy them, you have to shoot them with your funky Nerf ball shooter. When you kill them, they vanish in a puff of smoke, leaving ammunition behind for you to collect. You will collect different colored Nerf balls as you progress. Standard Nerf balls will kill dinosaurs in three to five shots. Stronger ones deal double the damage. There is a blue one that can kill most enemies in one shot. A red one that has a wider range of attack.
Each stage has different tasks you must complete. One constant is that you will be collecting or destroying dinosaur eggs. Getting them all gives you a keycard that you can use to unlock new areas in the game. The first stage takes place in an open outside area with a couple of little maintenance buildings nearby. You have to collect all the eggs outside, which will give you a keycard. This unlocks one of the buildings. Enter that building and collect all the eggs in there. THAT gives you another keycard. Enter the second maintenance building and collect all the eggs once again. That gives you a keycard which you can use at a computer terminal to unlock the main gate. When you progress through the gate, you must rescue Tim from a herd of stampeding triceratops. When I first played through this as a kid, I thought it was borderline impossible. But through the years and countless number of times I have played this game, I can beat it pretty easily. I still get hit once or twice, but I consider that a major win. I vividly remember dreading the stampede sequences (there is another one later) as a kid, though. The second stage has you looking for Tim’s sister Lex, who is trapped in the tyrannosaur paddock. Same formula here. Kill dinosaurs. Collect eggs. Get keycards. Access new areas. There is a funky rafting section here, which I actually thought was pretty fun. The stage ends in a battle with the T-Rex. Again, easy to beat in present day. As a kid, I would often get here and lose all my lives. You have to shoot the T-Rex, but it is only vulnerable when it brings its head down to try and eat you. Not only can it eat you, which results in instant death, it can eat Lex as well. That also results in you losing a life. Maybe it was just dumb luck on my behalf, but on my most recent playthrough I only died once during both of the game’s T-Rex battles, when it ate Lex. Constant motion seemed to be the key for me here.
In the game’s ensuing stages, you complete more tasks and do more things. One stage has you restoring power to the park. I found this level to be quite annoying. You have to turn on computers in the proper order, but there are quite a few computers to be found in this level. Only through trial and error can you find the correct order. You have to backtrack back and forth a LOT between computer stations. Not only is it obnoxious and time consuming, but the dinosaurs respawn every time you enter a new area. So you are going to be fighting and losing ammo and taking unnecessary damage the whole way through. Another stage has you entering the velociraptors’ volcanic lair and destroying all of their eggs. This stage reminded me a bit of a scene from the book that wasn’t included in the Jurassic Park movie. Another stage has you exploring a large dinosaur infested boat that has communication equipment that can connect with the outside world. The final stage has you going through an InGen complex as you try to make your way off the island.
All throughout the game I found myself having a lot of fun. The game is not entirely perfect though. As I mentioned, the tedious backtracking and the respawning dinosaur bit can get a little old. In addition, dinosaurs often hide or are obscured behind objects in the environment and come rushing out at you with little to no chance for you to defend yourself. On the flip side, raptors for some reason can’t walk through open doorways and enter new rooms. As a result, you can just stand on the opposite side of the doorway and pick them off through the opening with no resistance. Another thing I don’t like: the mystery boxes. You will find boxes scattered about as you play. They have a question mark on them. The boxes either contain precious, precious health or they will explode and zap a decent amount of your health bar away. Collect at your own risk. It is pretty much a 50/50 split. It helps add to the tension level of the game a bit, I guess. You are low on health, down to your last life, and desperately need a little bit of health to survive and go on. Do you get the ignore the box because of the risk that it will kill you, or do you take the plunge and go for it? Personally, I found this to be more annoying than anything.
Graphically, the game isn’t much to look at by today’s standards. But it is by no means ugly, and it looks pretty good when you consider just how old the game actually is. The music is decent, though, and has some catchy tunes. One theme I enjoy the most is the one they play during the game’s opening sequence with the big scary T-Rex head. I actually found myself dancing along to the song when it kicked into high gear. I am not normally a dancer, but I may or may not have been under the influence when this happened. Don’t tell anyone. Dang, first I admit to stealing and now THIS? You must think I am a terrible person. And you are undoubtedly correct about that. But the music is in the video at the top of this review. It kicks into high gear around the 27 second mark. TRY not to dance along. I dare you.
The game took me somewhere in the area of an hour to complete, but that is because I have played the game many times in the past and knew exactly what to do and where to go in all the levels. If you are playing this for the first time, it may take you a couple days to finish it, depending on how often you play. Of all the old Jurassic Park games out there, this has turned into probably my favorite title. It doesn’t hold quite the sentimental sway for me as the Genesis version does (since I owned that game and played it nonstop for months on end), but it may actually be the better of the two Jurassic Park games. You know what? I am actually going to give it a better score than that game!
If you are a fuddy duddy you might take a look at this game, maybe play it for a half hour or so, and then call it quits. I have read a few online reviews where this has happened. It's too old! It is too hard! The graphics suck! I don't know what I'm supposed to do! But if you stick with it like I did, you will find that this game is a very fun and rewarding experience.
Overall:
B+
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