Jurassic Park III: The DNA Factor

"Konami should have made this more like Contra"

Jurassic Park III: The DNA Factor was the first game that I had picked up for the Game Boy Advance. I was tempted into picking it up because I liked the movies and the SNES games. Well, this game is NOWHERE near as good as those. Konami did a sloppy job at rushing this in time for the movie. Konami has made Contra, which would be a great model for this type of game.

The game is a cross between an action/platformer game and a puzzle game. You go through two paths, depending on the path there are different DNA particles. Neither of the different parts are that good. The action part is by far the worst, and unfortunately, is where you will be the majority of the time. The puzzle portion isn't that bad, but it is definitely bland. Now let's get on with the scores.

Graphics/ Visuals

The graphics are a mixed bag. On one hand the character, whether a boring male or an equally boring female, are animated pretty well. The backgrounds on the other hand are nasty looking. The Game Boy Color could have produced these. The only decent background is fort the first level. The map screen is rendered alright, it is nice and colorful. The cutscenes are decent, too. The sprites in the game are extremely small (except maybe the boss dinosaurs, who (except for the [spoiler] T-Rex) have bad animation. The DNA particles are way too small. It is near impossible to see them.

5/10 (average)

Sound Effects

The sound effects in this game are crummy. They are really staticky (is that a word) and come at the wrong times. The dinosaur calls sound like different farm animals getting killed in strange and unusual ways. The guns sound pretty strange, too.

2/10 (terrible)

Music

The music is the greatest thing about this game. It sounds like the movies. Konami's Honolulu Studios used Musyx Audio (from Factor Five, Rogue Leader) so it is of great quality. It has a mysterious aura to it. Some songs are cheesy though. Nice job, but where they did good at the music, they could have improved other things.

9/10

Gameplay

Where do I begin? This has some of the absolute worst gameplay in a game, ever! Take the first level. At the beginning there is some (tiny) DNA particles. But there are some almost as tiny dinosaurs there to give you a hard time and annoy you with weird sounds. OK so you want to kill them. You have no weapons then except, CHICKEN WINGS! They don't even do what they are supposed to do (lure the dinosaurs away from you)! After a fraction of a second, you are forced to killed them by kicking them. But, to kick you have to jump and... you get the picture. Plus jumping doesn't always work. Sometimes you make it, and sometimes you plummet to your death. The DNA puzzle part is sloppy too.

1/10 (Ummm, the worst possible [I don't give that often])

Challenge

WOW! This game is hard. But not hard by creating harder enemies and lots of bullets like Contra. No, this is hard because of the sloppy gameplay/ jumping/ tiny DNA particless.

I can't give this a number, but its way up there. I say EXTREME.

OVERALL: 2/10 (TERRIBLE)

TERRIBLE!!!
Don't give this game a try. I sold it and I think I ripped off EB for four dollars.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 04/21/03, Updated 04/21/03