Jurassic Park III: The DNA Factor

"Frustrating games aren't very fun"

Okay when I see Jurassic Park for the GBA I'm thinking of a better version than my Jurassic Park game for the Sega Game Gear. The box says it's an action/puzzle game. Sounds pretty fun. Then I played it.

Graphics: 7/10
Sure the graphics on this game are pretty descent but I'm sure they could've been better. I mean the intro movie wasn't even animated, just a scrolling camera over a still image with some lightening effects in the background. All in all they could've been better.

Sound: 6/10
Not very memorable to say the least. Typical gunfire sounds of ''pop'' and a screech is all you really get, aside from your grunt when you are hurt.

Gameplay: 5/10
Frustrating. It's basically a side scrolling adventure, except that instead of 1 line to scroll across you have 2. Think of it like this, you are walking from left to right down one side of the street, then you see something across the street so you find a crosswalk, walk straight across then follow that sidewalk. The game gives you the illusion that you have a much wider walking field but you don't. Plus if for example a rock is directly in your path you can jump on it, but if it is block your way from the top of the screen to the bottom of the screen you can not jump on it. I guess the characters don't understand jumping north and south. All the while you have too limited ammo, or some chicken to throw to distract the dinos, and you have to collect DNA scattered about. Then once you finish the area if you collected enough DNA you get a broken DNA strand to which you have to shoot the different colored DNA things to fill in the gaps, while avoiding the floating things that will ruin your game. Also if you die, you start over completely (from that level), this is true if you are just starting the level out, or 1 DNA gap to finishing it. Very frustrating.

Control: 5/10
It is horrible. I don't even want to go into detail, but it's really uncomfortable.

Story: 6/10
Well, it's not very original but it's also packaged along with a Jurassic Park logo so I didn't expect it to be. A plane carrying Dinosaur DNA crashes on an island, and you are sent off to collect it, and use it to create dinosaurs.

Replay Value: 5/10
I guess there is something out there for that perfectionist who wants to find 100% of the DNA even though it's only needed if you aren't very good at the DNA ''puzzle''. Or to play it as the other character, which I can't find any difference with.

Overall: 6/10 (rounded up)

Buy or Rent?
Rent, even if you are dead set on buying it, still rent it before you buy it.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 08/27/01, Updated 08/27/01