Jurassic Park: The Lost World

"A gun, a few bullets, and a snarling raptor..who could ask for more?"

I walked into the local arcade on a game scout, to see if they had some new titles to try out, and low and behold, there lay the giant cabinet for Lost World. Cashing in about $20 in tokens, I headed for the machine, to see what it was all about...

-Storyline 10/10-

Movie-style storyline, that follows the movie in some ways, but veers off into unique aspects. As a member of the resuce team, it's your duty to find out what is happening on the newest island that dinosaurs have populated, and rescue Ian Malcom, Sarah Harding and the kid from the dangers that await. You have choices in the road ahead, leading to different parts of the island, which open up other possiblities in the game.

Now, as you go along though, you'll notice that the game doesn't exactly follow the movie, some of the dinosaurs seems out of place, and from time to time, you'll see that some of the locations in the movie didn't even appear in the game and vice versa. Think about it like this, when did a movie to game shooter ever become successful when it followed the exact same storyline as the movie? Let me answer that for you...it didn't.


-Graphics 10/10-

First rate shooter. The graphics are clear and crisp, and the motions at which the raptors move, must be seen to believe. From dinosaurs, to fired bullet casings, there was time spent in making this a visual gem. It's hard to find anything that would get on your nerves, and at some points, you'll find yourself racing to keep up with the way the graphics move.

It's fast, there is no question about that. From time to time, you will see a bit of blockiness in the dinosaurs, and on occasion, you may even find a bit of image break-up. On the other hand? You have fast moving visuals to keep your eyes darting across the screen, so unless you really focus in on that one downfall of the game, it's hardly noticable.

Pop-up is apparent as you get into the stages that have anything to do with some sort of mist. The backgrounds will just kind of pop up and make it a little confusing, and even the dinosaurs will seem to come out of nowhere, but again: If you're too busy concentrating on the gaming screen (like you should be), then these things are barely noticable.

-Sound 10/10-

Inside of the cabinet (If you're lucky enough to play it in a sit down as I was) the sounds, music, growls of the raptors, and the chittering of the compys, will have you looking over your shoulder just to see if it's really there or not. Screams of the other rescue party being attacked, come out in crystal clear clarity, usual of such a type of game.

The music is a campy kind of music, giving you the highs and the lows as the movie did. While it's not the same type of music out of the movie, it does keep you moving through the game. It may get a little annoying near the end, once you've heard the same level track repeated about 50 times, but? This is an arcade game and not a home version, so you can't turn anything off, and can't switch on your favorite heavy metal group to bang your head to while playing.

The musical scores for the bosses and some of the levels, do give off a moody and dark tone. Creeping down an abandoned hallway in the dark, and having this weird feeling music wash over your ears, is enough to make you shiver, on the other hand, it may not. It all depends on the mood you're in, and if the arcade you're playing at is fairly empty.

-Replay 5/10-

There isn't much to do after you've finished it once, except go through the alternate routes of the game, once you've done that, that's about it. Although, you can go back through and try for all of the items that are placed through-out the levels, some of these include the point bars, power ups, and a neat little laser sighted gun that seems to have near perfect accuracy.

The true point to replaying a game like this, is to get the top score with a top accuracy. It's rare that arcades will shut down and reset a machine like this, so if you're able to get through the entire game, on just one credit, and with the perfect accuracy and the high score, then you could get your name up on the board, and stay there for a long as the arcade retains the machine. It's worth it to do that much.

-Overall 10/10-

A combination of sound, graphics, and storyline add up to make a great arcade shooter worthy of pumping $20 bucks into, and even consider pumping another 5, just to re-live a couple of the scenarios. When it all boils down, you have the makings of a classic shooter game to go right up there with Operation Wolf and T2: Judgement Day.

Lost World has many many qualities, including the fact that it's a 2 player fun fest, such as the blazing graphics with very minute {unless you're looking hard} a booming soundtrack with effects, and a pretty unique storyline that doesn't always follow what the movie had. It's worth the time and money spent to play.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 05/18/00, Updated 05/18/00