Jurassic Park: The Lost World

"Jurassic Big Game Hunter"

Six years ago, the fine folks at Sega released this handsome light-gun arcade game.
The really interesting thing about this dinosaur blaster, is the fact that it comes in two forms.
You have the standard standing cabinet, and then you have the ultra-cool Jeep cabinet.
Either way you experience it, you'll never likely forget the thrill this cabinet emits.

Gameplay:
The Lost World: Jurassic Park loosely follows the plot of the movie of the same name, and allows you to vent a little light-gun extinction against your scaly foes. The true beauty of it all, is The Lost World isn't meant to go solo. You and one of your gun happy pals get to share in the thrill of kicking dinosaur ass. Even better, is the shooting actually has some strategy. Something you likely didn't expect from your average light-gunner, huh?. Each dinosaur have specific effective hit zones, that are thankfully, clearly marked with bold target zones. So, even though a good aim is must, you never need to worry about remembering where is best to shoot. Which brings me into another bit of strategy. If a big dinosaur such as a T-Rex grabs your buddy in his jaws, quickly blasting away at the hit zones that appears on-screen frees your pal from his jaws unharmed. Fail to do so, and your buddy gets severely harmed. Which brings me to what you get to shoot.
The selection of dinosaurs include the aforementioned T-Rex, as well as Raptors, and Compys just to name a few. Basically, expect to see all the dinosaurs from the first two films, and then some. The only one that gets me
is the weird chameleon dinosaur in the factory. I really fail to see where those critters come from. To add a little more depth, the developers added a few ''action zones'' to mix things up. Basically, the game will require you to do something within a short time limit, or else things will be a bit harder on you. For instance: You come up to a keypad to lock a door, if you fail to input the security
code correctly, you face a pack of Raptors you wouldn't have to fight otherwise. The only real problem with all this, is the same fact that haunts most light-gun games. The game is too short. You can finish it in about an
hour if you are skilled enough. Still, I've come back many times, something I can't say about any other arcade game.

Graphics:
Wow! Okay, so maybe the graphics won't dazzle your eyes stacked up to current arcade offerings, but they certainly impress seeing as the game is six years old.
The dinosaurs are highly detailed scaly devils, and animate very fluidly. Environments are well detailed and colorful, but are plagued by pop-up. (Especially in the foggy portions of the game) The various targets that pop-up
on the dinosaurs are very bold and easy on the eyes. The only real problem in the graphics are the horrid human character models. Otherwise, The Lost World still holds up pretty nicely.

Sound:
Your audio experience varies greatly on whether you are playing the cabinet or the Jeep version. If you are lucky enough to play the Jeep version, your ears are in for a treat. The Jeep has a very effective surround sound system, so the booming music will keep you on the edge of your seat, and the various growls of the dinosaurs will have you looking behind your shoulder often.

Control:
Butter! It's just you and your trusty light-gun against hoards of hungry dinosaurs.
Thankfully, there is no complications to be had.

It's amazing how this title is already six years old, yet every time I go to an arcade that has it, I play it through at least once. It is one of those few arcade titles that are so finely polished, that it's timeless. I consider it one of my all time favorite games, and with good reason. Dinosaur shooting has rarely been done so good.

Score:9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/20/03, Updated 06/20/03