A Game So Forgetible That It's Hard to Review...
Plot 6/10
"Jurassic Park" (the game) is an overhead action game that loosely follows the plot of "Jurassic Park" (the movie). Basically, the plot progresses in a manner much like the NES title. You play as Dr. Allan Grant. You are trapped in Jurassic Park, which is infested with hundreds of rampant, angry prehistoric beasts, and you must fight your way through them, with the aid of a bazooka and various types of ammunition that you conveniently find laying around, to a helicopter that will airlift you off of the island. Since this is a movie tie-in game, the plot is, for all intensive purposes, already written, and this game does a somewhat decent job of following the plot of the film. The story progression is mission based, but after you rescue Tim from a stampeding herd of triceratops and Lexie from a hungry T-Rex, the events seem somewhat random, or at least so loosely connected that the plot becomes unimportant.
Gameplay 7/10
This is an overhead action game with very basic controls. A is shoot, B is jump, and select chooses your current type of ammo. Yes, its that simple! Basically, the game is comprised of six levels of slightly increasing difficulty, wherein you wander around shooting up angry dinosaurs, finding keycards to flip various switches and open locked doors, collecting dinosaur eggs, and collecting ammunition, of which you have four types to choose from (round-tip bullets, flat-tip bullets, armor piercing rounds, and bolos). The simplicity of this game is actually one of its good points. The gameplay is actually rather fun, and the bosses (of which there are only two) do provide somewhat of a challenge, but by the end of the game, it seems to lose its novelty and becomes rather annoying. there is also a stage where you have to raft upriver. Rafting against the current and dodging various monsters and debris, while all the while trying to collect all the dinosaur eggs is rather frustrating. However, the gameplay does suit the game well, and I like the birds-eye-view.
Graphics 3/10
These graphics aren't the worst I've seen on the original Game Boy, but they are pretty bad. Even taking into consideration the fact that the game was released way back in 1993, when the Game Boy was still a bulky, grey slab with a dim green screen, the graphics could have been better. The whole game, even though it's supposed to be a serious action title, comes off as being cartoonish and cheesy. The mean character looks like a midget with an eating disorder, and many of the dinosaurs look like smiling chickens (yes, I said chickens!). Even setting aside the graphic design, the images look blurry and pixilated, even by Gam Boy standards.
Sound 2/10
The only thing worse than the graphics is the sound. There are no more than fourteen sound effects in the entire game, and they are all incredibly obnoxious. The gun doesn’t even make a shooting noise. Instead, it sounds more like cartoon "Boink" effect. The dinosaurs' roars, instead of sounding menacing and ferocious, actually make me laugh, and the music, which doesn’t change throughout the entire game, is an annoying serious of bleeps and blips that loosely make up a tune. After about ten minutes of gameplay, I was already sick of hearing the music loop that plays through the entire game (Except for boss levels).
Replay Value 5/10
Although I don't know why anyone would want to play through this game twice, it has decent replay value because of its length. Since the game is so short, it is good to play when you are waiting in line or in the car. It is a game that can be beat in one sitting.
Content/ Extras n/a
Overall Rating 5/10
Despite the bad sound and poor graphics, this game is not without its certain charms. It is fun for a while, and has a certain amount of camp and kitsch that give it an odd sort of appeal. Overall though, this game is unremarkable and just doesn’t come close to standing up to repeated playing.
Buy/ Rent/ Ignore?
Ignore. If you, like me, still collect older Game Boy games, I highly recommend that you steer clear of this one. The NES title is basically a better version of the same game.
Bottom Line
It was actually hard to write a good, comprehensive review of this game because it is so completely forgettable. I've had this game