Thanks to Limited Run Games, the 8-bit and 16-bit era of Jurassic Park games have been bundled together to create the Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection and finally brought to modern devices in an official capacity,
Does this collection modernize the older games and bring up to standard or is this ultimately a dead as dino compilation ? Let’s find out shall we!
Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection
The Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection features 7 classic Jurassic Park Games. These being:
- Jurassic Park 8-BIT
- Jurassic Park PORTABLE
- Jurassic Park 16-BIT
- Jurassic Park GENESIS
- Jurassic Park Part 2: The Chaos Continues 16-BIT
- Jurassic Park Part 2: The Chaos Continues PORTABLE
- Jurassic Park: Rampage Edition GENESIS
Starting off with the first one, Jurassic Park 8-Bit released on the NES and is a top-down shooter. Players will have to collect raptor eggs here and face off against dinosaurs trying to eat them. You’ll have a rather large map to explore and you’ll have to access terminals out on the map in order to progress. Jurassic Park Portable is exactly the same albeit in monochrome due to the fact that this title released on the original Nintendo GameBoy.
Jurassic Park 16-Bit is slightly different. This title released on the SNES and while also involving the collection of eggs, this game included a rather strange first-person shooter mode upon entering buildings. The game is quite hard and players will have to play strategically if they want to get anywhere in this title.
Moving on to Jurassic Park Part 2: The Chaos Continues 16-BIT. This SNES title is a side-scrolling shooter which is also quite difficult. Players will have to platform their way through levels and face off against quite a lot of raptors that are out to get them. Jurassic Park Part 2: The Chaos Continues PORTABLE is the Gameboy version of the SNES title but plays out quite differently and has a different graphical style too. Overall it’s pretty simple and straightforward as a side-scrolling shooter platformer.
Now finally moving onto the real stars of the show here and the possible main reason anyone would want to buy the Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection – Jurassic Park GENESIS and Jurassic Park: Rampage Edition GENESIS.
These two Sega Genesis/Mega Drive titles were iconic back in the day and were the perfect tie-ins with the movie. The original Jurassic Park GENESIS is a cult classic and players would take on the role of either Dr Alan Grant or a Raptor as they make their way across Isla Nublar. Jurassic Park GENESIS arguably featured some of the best platforming gameplay on the SEGA Genesis and is a game that I simply loved as a kid. Being able to play it again on a modern device like the Nintendo Switch is great!
Jurassic Park: Rampage Edition GENESIS was a sequel to Jurassic Park GENESIS and also featured Dr Alan Grant and a Raptor as playable characters. This title followed a different story path to the first game and introduced a lot of new mechanics as well as featured a brighter colour scheme and aesthetic overall.
All of these titles in the Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection feature a rewind feature that’s been built into them. However, this feature is inconsistent with the length of the rewind being different in each game. This is especially infuriating in Jurassic Park Part 2: The Chaos Continues 16-BIT where you end up dying so often and the rewind feature barely helps with keeping you alive.
In addition to the rewind, players can also save their game state. However this is limited to only one save file per game and this is another missed opportunity. Players can also enable a “CRT” or “Blend” filter in the games but the effects are rather lacklustre to say the least. You can also enable borders to eliminate the black borders on the side of the game screen as well as change the size of the game screen between two presets.
Unfortunately, the Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection is an extremely barebones package. The games are essentially running in an emulated state using Limited Run’s Carbon Engine. Jurassic Park GENESIS has some noticeable slowdown and frame drops which are definitely not present in the original Sega Mega Drive/Genesis version and the first person shooter segments in Jurassic Park 16-BIT are extremely difficult to play since your vision is heavily obscured and limited. The Lost World Sega Mega Drive/Genesis title is also inexplicably missing from this package despite also being a classic Jurassic Park game.
Graphically, the games look like how they should look based on their original sauce material with some minor tweaks. There is an option to listen to the in-game soundtracks but there’s no option to rewind or fast-forward through the tracks on offer which is a baffling design choice. The in-game maps are only available in the top-down shooter titles here and it would have been nice to see the maps for the other games too but alas this isn’t the case here.
Ultimately Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection is a collection that will appeal to fans. Newcomers who want to try out some of these classic games should rather wait for a sale because paying full price for this collection of games will leave a sour taste in their mouths. Especially since this is a very barebones package with barely any additional features. Some concept artwork or developer commentary would have been nice to have or even some more options to change the screen size and level of CRT filter applied would have been appreciated. Grab the Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection only if you’re a diehard fan or you want to experience the two Sega titles.
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