Jurassic Park III: Park Builder

"A brave attempt at something new on the GBA"

Finally you have a chance to be a scientist and do genetic experiments on bits of fly infested amber to make dinosaurs! And what's more, you get a theme park thrown into the deal. Considering how rubbish most theme park games are and how rubbish most Jurassic Park 3 games are it's amazing
that this made it as a good game!

Gameplay - 8/10: The game has a very simple concept: build a theme park, fill it with different dinosaurs, and keep the public happy while making a profit. Now the game might have been ruined by bad controls or graphics or something, but not this one! The controls make it easy and fun to
play - use L to access the administration side of things (prices etc.) and the bringing to life of dinosaurs. Use R to build stuff and A, B and the control pad to navigate the menus.
At the beginning of the game you'll need to build a park (putting in roads, paths, restaurants, hotel, fountains, enclosures for dinosaurs and so on) and advertise it. People will soon come flocking to your gates, only too willing to hand over the entry fee (as long as it's not too expensive) and spend money. However, if things aren't up to scratch, which is hard to do, you will loose a lot of money and people will storm out of the park. You will soon be in debt and the
game will end. This difficulty means that it will take quite a few tries before you get the hang
of the game enough to survive more than a few months. The instruction manual is no help, and there's no tutorial mode. On top of this you will have to cut down any trees in the way which also costs money.
But if you can get past the initial difficult stage then you can start building and examining away, and even if the range of buildings is a little limited the fun of collecting dinosaurs will make up for it. There are 140 dinosaurs to collect, each with a unique set of DNA to collect from somewhere in the world. Once you start collecting, the game is so absorbing that you won't want to eat, work or sleep until you've got them all - a little bit like pokemon really.

Graphics/Sound - 9/10: The graphics are really good by Gameboy Advance standards. The normal map graphics are suitably simple, with realistic looking lakes and trees and buildings and people. But what really looks good are the dinosaurs. In the log book that keeps track of which dinosaurs you have you can view the stats of your cretaceous creations and there is a picture of each one which would look good on the playstation. No really, it's photographic quality (well, I know no one's ever taken a photograph of a dinosaur, but you know what I mean).
What prevents this section from getting ten out of ten is the sound. While the sound effects are
okay (''Grraaoohh''-like cries for dinosaurs and bleeps and bloops when you select something) the music is truly annoying. There are about five repetitive themes, some of them similar to the music in the films but all of them really annoying. In the end you'll want to play with the music off, which is a shame.

Lifespan - 10/10: This can last forever if you have a good imgination. The game restarts automatically after twenty years, but who cares, since you can start again with a different park?
Another thing that will keep you coming back is the dinosaur-collecting. It really is deeply absorbing, and I can't describe the sense of satisfaction you get out of seeing the words ''100% complete'' at the top of the log book. But you have to like this kind of game for it to last this long.

Final Verdict: I'd really like to give this ten out of ten, but the fact that it won't appeal to a wide public and the fact that it's too difficult at first means I've had to bring it down to an eight. I can't see the point in renting this, as you'll never survive the twenty years and you'll have to pay more to keep it out. Instead, buy it if you like theme park simulators, pokemon or Jurassic Park or don't buy it at all.
Final Score - 8/10.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/05/02, Updated 10/22/02