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"Guess Mesozoic park didn't have quite the same ring to it...."

Based on the popular film and book Jurassic Park is another quick and fun shooter that actually contained some originality here and there.

Story: If you haven't heard the story to Jurassic Park you either have Alzheimer's or have been living under a rock. Scientists cloned dinosaurs on a small island and planned on making a giant amusement park based on the creatures. However the island lost power and now the dinos are out of control. Your job is to tranquilize and capture the 4 main dinosaurs in each of the 4 areas: Triceratops, Velociraptor, Brachiosaur and Pteranadon. If you manage to beat all those levels without using a continue you can fight the T-Rex.
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Game Play: You start off each level in a Jeep and you have to fend off little dinosaurs using a machine gun, which you aim using a cross hair. As you kill each enemy they will drop either one health, an item to increase your health by one meter, or an extra life. After that a boss will come attack you. If you run out of health in this area you don't lose a life, you simply leave. The downside of this is you lose either points or a valuable chance to lengthen your life meter from 3 to 4 or the maximum of 5. After that you go from the standard side scrolling level or a mixture of side scroller and platformer. Your job is to make it to the end boss and detain him. You defend yourself from the boss and any other dinosaurs you run into a long the way using one of your three weapons a flame grenade for tougher enemies, a weapon that shoots bullets that split horizontally for flying enemies and a standard wave gun for any other situation. You'll have to make your way through the levels shooting, climbing, jumping all the way through. Both the driving and action stages are high paced and you have to try and keep up.
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Controls: In action stages button one shoots and button two jumps. The directional pad controls where you move. You can also use the up and jump buttons to hang on to walls and other flat surfaces above you or hold down to crawl. In the racing stages buttons 1 and 2 both shoot. The controls are very responsive and I never have had any problems with them. My only complaint is the inability to aim some weapons which can make conquering some enemies a much bigger challenge than it should be. For example your wave gun can only shoot straight so if you want to take out flying enemies you need to switch weapons. However since most areas only contain one type of enemy you shouldn't find this to be too big a problem.
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Graphics: The graphics are done quite well. All the wildlife looks lush and detailed and all most all dinosaurs are detailed quite well. The Jeep is fairly realistic looking and all the electric shocks look like real electricity. Probably the most beautiful animation is the lightning striking into the water,and you can even see the electricity flowing through the water. Very nice for a game of its time.
My main complaint is your character doesn't look very detailed. His face is basically a distorted square without many details. His clothing and the rest of his body are decent looking, which somewhat makes up for it, but it could have been much, much better. However it's nothing serious, just a minor disappointment.
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Music: All the music has a great techno feel to it. I especially like the opening theme that plays during the intro when it shows you driving up to the island. Some of the music in the game reminds me of that of past NES titles such as Ninja Gaiden. It's upbeat and fast feel fits such a fast paced game. Overall a great catchy soundtrack.
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Sound Effects: The sound effects are all done quite well too. From the roar of the T-Rex when you first turn the game on to the sounds of your bullets in your driving stage all the sounds are very realistic. Also all of your weapons have their own unique sound. The flame grenade in particular has a very nice and crisp sound.
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Overall if you want a fun shooter to play check out Jurassic Park, it's really nothing new, aside from the whole drive and action levels but it's still a blast to play. You'll find yourself coming back for another play over and over again.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/06/01, Updated 08/06/01