Jurassic Park: The Lost World

"More entertaining than the movie, but both end in pure stupidity."

Far superior to The House of The Dead 2 in my opinion, The Lost World isn't just a bunch of blood splattering zombies that need to be shot down, but it does include the same poor voice acting (why do all of Sega's arcade shooters have this?).

In most arcades, you'll find the delux version of The Lost World, which includes a mini jeep (complete with a roof and a curtain for a door) for you to sit and feel the rumbles as you drive deep into the jungle. This kind of prevents TLW from being the "group" shooter that it could have been, since the jeep only seats to people and most sit in there until their money runs out and the time ends too, stopping anyone from continuing with someone else's game.

So in a way, The House of The Dead 2 is a little bit more fun, because playing a shooter by yourself can get pretty boring, and all of my friends are either hooked on racing or Capcom's Vs. series and won't play anything else, whether I am or not.

But as an overall game, The Lost World is so much better. Shooting fast running raptors that you can see coming towards the screen from a far is a lot more fun than shooting a zombie that pops up in front of your face and tries to eat you.

Not everything you have to kill in this game is a dino (as you'll see when you head for the docks) which is kind of dumb if you ask me. Why make a shooter based around a dinosaur movie and then ruin it by putting an existing animal that still lives today? Pointless. Oh, I forgot, it's a "giant" gader, my mistake. Lets go and stare at this marvelous creature as our eyes are amazed at the spectacular effect that this egg-laying animal presents.

The disappearing dinosaurs in the factory (which is the second to last level, I think) is also pointless. I know The Lost World came out first, but doesn't it remind you of the fake dinos in the Tekken motion picture anime? You might think that this is nit-picking, but it's not, this is a great game with a lot of flaws, most of which didn't have to be.

The only thing more ammusing than getting poop shot at you by a plant-eating dinosaur is watching couples make out in this seemingly private jeep. Yes, that is see-through glass behind you two love birds... and people can see through it both ways.

Gameplay: 8
Pick up your color-coated, plastic made, fake-looking gun that shouldn't "offend" any mothers, begin firing at "computer graphic" dinos and you'll be hooked. In fact, up until I beat The Lost World, I had a desire to play this game everytime I went to an arcade (which averaged out at about once a week back then). This game sucks you in and won't let you out until you've seen it all. Just bring a little extra cash (maybe a $10 or a $20) and beat the game already! It's a lot easier than spending $5 every time you go to an arcade for three months...

After you've beaten it, you'll enjoy showing off your "mad skillz" to the small group that gathers outside of the machine on crowded weekends. No, these aren't the gaming type, they just love to admire people that play games "better" than they do, so they usually stick around a while.

Other than that, The Lost World is just a fun (but expensive and time consuming) game that you'll want to play here and there, just not every week, and certainly not everyday. Some people might have stronger feelings for this game that I do, especially the kind of gamer that thinks The House of The Dead 2 is the "greatest shooter of all time," but everyone else probably won't need to buy the Dreamcast version, or if there is one, a PC version, of this game.

Sound/Music: 5
Can you say "annoying?" Of course you can! And you will if you have to sit through The Lost World's music for more than an hour. Since I've played this game a lot more than just an hour, I've been saying annoying for quite a while now. It really gets to you... the composer of this game didn't know what he was thinking. Maybe he was trying to mimick The Lost World movie's music, which it kind of sounded like, but not nearly as original.

However, the sound fx in this game are quite entertaining, especially hearing the sound of a dying raptor, a fallen T-rex or another human being eaten alive by any one of the dinosaurs in this game.

Graphics: 9
The textures on some of the dinosaurs in this game still amaze (and disappoint) me. Saying that this game is colorful would be a major understatement. The Lost World has more than just "millions" of colors, hundreds of games, if not thousands have "millions," The Lost World however, puts them to use in a way that most games never have before.

None of the dinos are fully rendered, nor are the backgrounds, which really stinks and is probably the biggest graphical mistake in the game, a mistake that didn't have to be made. Needless to say, the raptors are far more detailed than those featured in Turok 2: Seeds of Evil -- and aren't nearly as square-looking.

Texturing is a BIG part of the detail and is one of the things that makes everything (except the humans) in this game look so much better than all of the others. I know games "now" have topped TLW's graphics, but back in 1997 when this game first came out, it was the overall best looking thing out there, period. Part of the scenarios even remind me of the forthcoming Dino Crisis, just not scary in any way.

Story: 1
Not really following the movie's plot, you're a dino-shootin' freak who must protect the compound and make sure no one dies. Later in the game you must break into Ingen's factory and fry (er... "put to sleep") more dinos in, only this time you're in the dark! The lighting is done very well in this game, but the T-rex chase scene is filled with a familiar Turok quality -- fog. As for the story itself, it ends horribly, but telling you exactly what happens would violate the rules of this contest...

Replayability: 8
Very high in the arcades, very low for a home system game (if it becomes one, that is). As I've stated several times before, The Lost world is a game that will suck you in for a while, and once it's been beat, will continue to pull you back in a few times a year. It's a fun and entertaining game that is more than just an "experience."

Should I buy The Lost World?: No.
This game has passed. It's over, it's done. To all you arcade owners that bought it first and shocked me in the fall of '97, giving me a chance to play a new game on time for once, I thank you. To all who were too cheap and wouldn't spend the cash, I say something else that violates the rules of this page! A sequel will probably follow Jurassic Park 3's release, so be sure to get that. The Lost World was an expensive game, so you may wanna start saving for the sequel now... it should be out in the fall of next year (since JP3 is due out next summer).

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99