I <3 Jurassic Park!

[Zadoc]

Nope, not the movie, and I am not talking about the highly acclaimed Genesis version either!

Released: March 3, 1994
Platform: Super Nintendo
Publisher: Ocean
Developer: Ocean
Genre: Action/Adventure

Jurassic Park is one of those gems lost in obscurity. I am sure there were plenty of reasons to explain why – The game was suffering from being a movie license. The Blue Sky developed version of Jurassic Park on the Sega Genesis was getting more press and better reviews. There were many other stellar game for the Super Nintendo on the market at the time. Whatever the reason, the SNES iteration of Jurassic Park just never translated into a hit. What a shame.

It had it all

Usually, a game licensed from a movie or TV show is enough to send me to the hills. The world has had enough Catwoman, A-Team, ET and (insert license here) games to fill up a desert landfill one hundred times over. However, with Jurassic Park, the license screams video game! Ocean saw the popularity of the move not just as a way to cash in quickly on a license and then move on to the next project, they saw it as a way to develop a compelling game and to apply to world of Jurassic Park to a video game; and they did just that.

At the beginning of the game, the player takes control of the hero of the Spielberg film of the same name, Dr. Grant. Grant has several objectives. He must get safely off of the island, but before he does that, he must restore power to the facility, collect dinosaur eggs, and evade predators and fight off dinos all at the same time.

Searching for dino eggs gives the game a real "quest" kind of a feel. This is done outside in the wilderness of the island, and this world is a top down view shooter with a platform feel. Dr. Grant will navigate through an unforgiving environment and solve puzzles and collect ammo and new weapons along his way.

Grant’s mission to reestablish power will take him into a whole new realm! When entering buildings, the scenery turns to first person. It was truly a treat in 1994 to explore the facilities of Jurassic Park in glorious sprite based 3D! The core of the first person experience is exploring and shooting. Many gadgets, such as night vision goggles, aid Dr. Grant on his mission.

The only real fault of this game is lack of a save feature. This led me to starting over from the beginning on a number of occasions. Still, Jurassic Park is skillfully executed. No other game, at the time or since, really creates the feel of exploring the island, walking through the abandoned structures, or the fear and anxiety of lurking dinosaurs.

If you haven’t played this game, don’t get the rom, but the cartridge. It can be found with box and booklet for one to five dollars on Amazon or eBay.

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Box Scan:

[thetoxicone]

I've never played the snes version, I'll have to try it sometime if I see it cheap locally.

[DigitalSpace]

SNES Jurassic Park was good in my book. The lack of a save feature of any kind definitely kills the appeal, though. This is one game you have to save for a day when you have nothing better to do but play through it and figure out what you need to do to beat it.

[Daltone]

Jurassic Park 2 was pretty good too, although totally different.

[64Bits]

I was just thinking about the Genny version the other day, and how much I miss playing it. I have never played the SNES one though.

[theshizzle3000]

Both Jurassic Park games are quite enjoyable. I had forgot about the SNES version until you brought it up. Its amazing to see that there are examples of movie-to-game ports that don't completely suck.

[Borman]

The SNES version is actually the only one I ever played, I loved that game growing up, must have renting it 10 times over the years

[cityside75]

I only rented this game a couple of times while I was in college, but have a humorous story about it. I was playing it with my wife-to-be Gretchen, and we were reading the instructions figuring out what to do. In the instructions it made reference to being able to feel a rumble in the ground when dinosaurs were getting near. I think this was a reference back to the movie, but needless to say the speaker in my 13" TV wasn't going to rumble anything.

Anyway we were playing it and were a little tense, expecting a dinosaur to jump out at us when all of the sudden Gretchen says in all seriousness, "Did you feel that???"

I don't know if someone had slammed their door downstairs or what, but there was a rumble in the floor and she was convinced, at least for a second, that she was feeling the dinosaurs approaching.

[Snapple]

SNES Jurassic Park would've been so, so awesome if it had a save feature. Even without a save feature, it's still always been a really good game.

I should play it again on emulator so that I can actually save my game.

The real Jurassic Park gem though has to be the one for the R-Zone.

[bangtango]

The Super NES version is good, better than the Genesis one. The Genesis copy of "Jurassic Park" has more bugs in it than that first chamber in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom."

[savageone]

Been awhile since I've played that game but I remember renting it and thinking the first person sections were just about the most awesome thing on earth. It was kind of like a poor mans Doom. Gonna have to pick this thing up at some point, did Jurassic Park 2 have any first person sections?

[Sotenga]

I got this game a long time while ago, back even before I saw the film. I found its gigantic overworld map to be impressive, and those 3D scenes always impressed the hell out of my little mind. However, I sucked badly at it, and I never beat it, even with the assistance of a Game Genie.

It is definitely one of the better licensed titles out there, and I'll go back to give it a play someday. Maybe I'll get around to reaching the T-Rex, a point which I never reached. I hear that the big T is really scary in-game, though.

[Zadoc]

...did Jurassic Park 2 have any first person sections?

Not as far as I am aware.

[Kitsune Sniper]

I think the pseudo-sequel was a bit better, even if it was annoying as heck.

[shopkins]

I had a younger cousin who was addicted to the SNES version. He kept renting it and bringing it over to my house because he wanted me to watch him play it. I think he was a little spooked by the first person sequences.

[Shrooin]

im happy there are other people who enjoy this game as thoroughly as i did and occasionally still do. lack of save feature is a bit of a downer but it makes it more challenging and because of that i still havent finished it after all these years. ive gotten pretty far, gotten all the id cards or maybe missing 1 or 2 and gotten all the eggs but then you have to figure out how to stop the raptors from entering the park from their pen which is where I get stuck. possibly something to do with a nerve gas bomb you find (dont tell me if you know how).

another really good jurassic park game is the mega/sega cd version. it uses some FMV sequences but only a little just to show people talking to you the rest is normal graphics. its a point and click type adventure game but there is some shooting involved although most of it is puzzles where you have to think. ive gotten most of the eggs in that one but it gets difficult to work out what to do. i cant work out how to get past the trex area

[Zadoc]

im happy there are other people who enjoy this game as thoroughly as i did and occasionally still do. lack of save feature is a bit of a downer but it makes it more challenging and because of that i still havent finished it after all these years. ive gotten pretty far, gotten all the id cards or maybe missing 1 or 2 and gotten all the eggs but then you have to figure out how to stop the raptors from entering the park from their pen which is where I get stuck. possibly something to do with a nerve gas bomb you find (dont tell me if you know how).

another really good jurassic park game is the mega/sega cd version. it uses some FMV sequences but only a little just to show people talking to you the rest is normal graphics. its a point and click type adventure game but there is some shooting involved although most of it is puzzles where you have to think. ive gotten most of the eggs in that one but it gets difficult to work out what to do. i cant work out how to get past the trex area

You know what, I do think that the lack of a save feature does completely suck. However, I was just thinking about the emotions that this game envoked in me all of those years ago. One of them was real FEAR! Fear of dying in the game. I was so full of anxiety; so afraid! I would wager that this is why Ocean left out saves and password saves.

Not that I am saying it was worth it at all; just saying that it worked.

[kainemaxwell]

I beat this game once, only cause I had a day to kill. Lack of a save feature really kills mos tof the appeal of this game. I even found a secret item/weapons cache (that I found no mention of in a tips mag either) when I played through this for a day too!

[Tanthala5]

Been awhile since I've played that game but I remember renting it and thinking the first person sections were just about the most awesome thing on earth. It was kind of like a poor mans Doom. Gonna have to pick this thing up at some point, did Jurassic Park 2 have any first person sections?

Inside the buildings is all done in First person, in fact it's compatible with the SNES mouse.