Jurassic Park III: The DNA Factor

"Good ideas, horrible execution"

Jurassic Park 3: DNA Factor is one of several games released around the release of the GBA. It is generally accepted to be the worst of the bunch. Although it has some good ideas, it is poorly executed and seems to be more focused on the license selling than on the actual game.

Story. 3/10

One words: Bland. Your plane crashed on an island inhabited by dinosaurs. And on the plane were your DNA samples which, in the crash, were scattered around the island. But not as full DNA strands but as different piece which you must then piece together to construct DNA. See what I'm getting at? Nothing really interesting in this. No risk or danger of any kind if they don't find the DNA. On the plus side there are two characters in the game Mark Hanson and Lori Torres. But they're nothing more than cosmetic differences on the same base character.

Graphics. 7/10

Sadly, one of the best parts of the game are the graphics. The characters and dinosaurs are all fairly well animated. And its nice to see a game with dinosaurs that are to scale. The background are also impressive. At time though the game seems choppy (when getting hit), but that doesn't affect the game too much.

Sound. 3/10

Only deserves a 3 for the feeble dinosaur roars and the somewhat inspired music. But hey, at least you make a grunt when you get hit :-).

Play Time/Replayability: 4/10

Hrm... the games itself is short, however, the game is very challenging, but for all the wrong reasons (unresponsive controls etc.). This can make the game seem much longer. Die-hard players can try to 100% the game by collecting all the DNA strands which I guess warrant the replayability a 4

Control: 1/10

Blah, plain horrible. You have to crouch to pick up items!! The unresponsive, unintuitive controls make the game a painful experience.

Gameplay. 4/10 (Because of the DNA game)

Horrible, Horrible execution. When you start the game you see a side-scrolling kind of game witch a ''Final Fight'' -esque kind of screen. But then you realize its just like stacking two rails on top of each other. For a little while all you get a piece of meat to lure animals into not ripping you to shreds. And then when you finally find a gun you realize that you have to crouch to shoot certain dinosaurs after you've restarted the level three times already. After you're done dodging dinos you pick up little parts of DNA strands. When the level is over you play a kind of top-down shooter, puzzle game thing in which you match the colour balls into the correct place. This game is the one of the ONLY reasons you should buy the JP3: DNA Factor.

Overall (out of 10): 3/10

Do yourself a favour and rent this game first, you'll be kicking yourself in the head if you buy it straight up. Sure its great to see anything Jurassic Park related, but seriously go buy Park Builder or something, this game just isn't work the money. Some of the idea like the DNA game were decent, but overall the execution is just too bad.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 07/31/03, Updated 07/31/03