"A sequel to the first game, it stacks up pretty well"

This game is the sequel to the "Jurassic Park" game for genesis, with plenty of new things added into what was already a decent game.
Story- Ok, besides anything you might find in the manuals, the creators removed most of the story info. Those interesting little summaries of the levels are gone, sorry if anyone misses them. Anyway, its about the same as last time.

Grant is still on the island *poor guy*, and is once again just trying to get out alive. Just like the last game, a player can also choose to play as a Velociraptor. This one is different from the one in the first game *that one escaped, remember?*, but the mission is the same, get off the island by any means. However, unlike the last game, Grant and this Raptor do not meet up for a confrontation.

The ending has been reduced to a picture of your character escaping....yawn.
It's a step down from the last game, but the designers were focusing on the gameplay, so one could see why the story didn't get as much attention.

Gameplay- Once again, its a side-scroller, with the simple goal of reaching the end. The game makers made some major changes in this section. Now, there are items to collect for points, though that seems to be all they are good for. The game designers also did away with the passwords and 3 lives limit, now, the player can get more lives, and there are checkpoints in each level.

The characters also got some helpful modifications.

Grant, apparently sick and tired of tranquilizing his enemies, finally grabs some decent guns, including a machine gun, a shotgun, and a flamethrower. Although, basic darts return, as an infinite ammo weapon for emergencies, as does the taser weapon. He's going to need every last one, as the designers decided to "kick things up a notch" for both characters.

Grant will be running around levels shooting up anything that tries to touch him. Some soldiers drop ammunition, but the player has to conserve it, since it doesn't always happen.

The Raptor has had a few changes too. Sadly, it can no longer dispatch an enemy just by landing on it, so its "pounce" jump is worthless in battle. But it has some new moves, like a tail whip attack*Which is more dangerous than it sounds*.

Because the levels are a little bigger and more open, there's plenty of room for attacks, so the Raptor now has running kick and running bite attacks.
Its jumping kick has been removed, and the Raptor now has 3 air attack moves, such as a damaging double jump.

The Raptor now has a new pickup, cases of lysine. Eat 3 of these, and the Raptor will give a mighty roar, and the screen will turn red. Said Raptor will temporarily become unstoppable, being immune to damage and killing all enemies by simply touching them. Its like Mario's Invincibility star.

The raptor's levels are a little easier, since the raptor can kill most foes in a single hit.

One interesting change of the first game is the appearance of enemies. In the first game, it was simple. Grant VS. dinos, Raptor VS guards and a couple dinos. Now, the player will fight both no matter what character they choose, even when the 2 kinds of enemies are inches apart. While this makes no sense, it can be overlooked, considering it adds a little more variety to the foes, forcing the player to use different tactics depending on the enemy.

The T-rex is now improved over the old version. Instead of it sticking its head in to be a mere obstacle, the T-rex has a whole level to itself to attack Grant in. This serves as Grant's Boss fight *even if it is more of a "Run like Heck" level than a fight*. The raptor gets a new one too, now the player will have a duel with another raptor in the final level, and this one is not about to die easily.

Though, some of these new changes cause slight problems. Such as how they made the raptors jumps non-lethal. Now, the player may accidentally land right on top of an enemy, and not realize it/attack until the enemy gets a shot in. Also, despite the powering up of his weapons, Grant's line of levels is still a little more difficult, so if the programmers were going for balance, they were a little bit off.

Sound- About the same as last time, we've got the raptors roaring, the green spitter dinos with the same grunts, and the simple sounds of things going boom. The only problem is that the raptor roars sound the similar as the T-rex *inspiring some great paranoia*, and anything that goes boom sounds the same. The music isn't as dark this time around, the music for the cargo ship stage sounds almost cheerful.

Graphics- People still don't have faces. Grant and the Raptor look about the same, but the T-rex was changed to a slightly more red color. The effects for the weapons like the flamethrower and the taser seem a little overdone, though thats what this game is about, all the good stuff of the first game.... x10. The levels look as good as ever, with new areas like the aviary, a cargo ship, and the savanna.

The game designers no longer use the large, ominous gate for the title screen. Players starting up the genesis will instead be treated to a close-up of a raptor, with moving eyes and saliva running down from its jaws. Definitely a nice touch to show that this is not the same as the original game.

Summing up- The game designers appeared to be concentrated on changing the gameplay, making it "more extreme". The box declares that the game has "intense, arcade style gameplay". While they definitely succeeded in that aspect, the other areas could have used a little tune-up. Still, its an improvement over the overall fun game that was the first, so it earns an 8.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/16/06