"The unforgiveness of researching wildlife at an affordable price at your local arcade"

It ain't easy being a researcher at the wilderness of the planet as you're forced to do the following: drive around the wilderness, catch animals, net the animals, and check them out. Studying the animals is the only thing that matters to most researchers. And Wilderness Researching is quite possible the toughest occupation available in the job market today.

Enter Jambo Safari, a Sega AM3 release that has all the toughness, difficulty, and unforgiveness of having to research wildlife like a real-life researcher would. You're doing your researching on a jeep and armed with some equipment that should help you during your quest to research wildlife. It's basically close to experiencing the harshness of wildlife research without having to shell out $20,000 US to visit Africa and do a lot of research amongst wildlife animals.

As the theme suggests, you're a super-daring researcher in a quest to research the remaining wildlife ''characters'' at the wilderness of Africa. You will be doing your ''wildlife sighting'' via the binoculars. Once you see the wildlife that you want to catch and research, then proceed to the chase. You have a few techniques that I won't mention that will help change the outcome for the wildlife catching. You will need to master those techniques in order to catch the wildlife in a hurry. Once you get close to the wildlife, be sure that you catch them and get close to them QUICK before it escapes. Once successful, continue onto your toughest job ever.

The controls are simple and are easy to get used to (although the special techniques that I will not mention to you takes a lot of time to master). You have a steering wheel that steers your car left and right (depending on how you ''twist'' the wheel, treat the steering wheel like you would with real-life cars) and moves the binoculars left and right as well. You also have a gas pedal with potentiometers to control the feed of the gas in your vehicle used for wildlife research. You also have a brake mechanism that performs all the braking functions of your jeep.

Unlike most racing games that had a ''gear-change stick'' that performs all the gear changing that helps adjust the speed and stability of your vehicle, Jambo Safari's ''shifting stick'' basically performs all the rope and net functions that you need to have during your quest for wildlife research. This stick allows you to throw your rope and pull the rope as you drive, and eventually whenever you get close enough to your target, you can even throw a net to catch your target. Your jeep is an automatic transmission so it's only practical that the shifting stick performs all the ''wildlife catching'' mechanics needed for Jambo Safari.

The game quite possibly runs under the Naomi Board (the same board that powers the Dreamcast System) and the graphics are smooth. The detail on the wildlife is excellent but the graphics on some of the human figures should've been tweaked up a little. The animation is crisp with minimal to no slowdown at all. The textures of the backgrounds are pretty much eye-candy, as the backgrounds really replicate the wildlife environment pretty well. The sound is pretty good, although I haven't played this game for too much (I only played this game twice).

As far as game choices are concerned, you can select whether you want to train yourself into the world of Wildlife Research or to see how good you are in real-time Wildlife Research. You have about 4-5 characters to choose from, each with their sets of strengths and weaknesses. To become the best researcher in the game requires that you play each character to see whether he or she will fit your researching needs or not and to make sure that you master every special technique offered right through the book.

This is not your typical racing game because now you're playing the part of a representative who's working for the hardest job in the market ever. You can shell out an approximate $20,000 US just to indulge on some Wildlife Research, but I wouldn't cough up the approximate expense if I were you. I'd rather play this game (although I don't play this game too often) because Jambo Safari is just as fun as real-life wildlife researching. It's just as close to the real thing and it's just as fun. Although you would never try to play this game often, I suggest that you give this Wildlife Researching Game a try.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/21/00, Updated 04/07/02