Game Review: Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection

By JT

​Players: 1
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, XBox, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC

Huge thanks to Limited Run Games (LRG) for yet another classic release on modern hardware. With seven classic games, albeit three games being ports of a single one, there is a lot to unpack here. Whether you plan to attack the original Jurassic Park with Grant or the Raptor, or what could be considered a sequel with The Chaos Continues, the love within the retro game community is seen with collections such as these. While it is a standard port, Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection adds some potentially time-saving features. These include the ability to rewind a small portion of your gameplay, enabling a fresh death reset, and the ability to save and continue from any point within the game. Is it enough? Well, we're going to investigate each individual game and see whether this collection is worth owning, or if you’re better off with the originals. Let’s rip open some old wounds from the 8 and 16-bit eras and dive into Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection.

For context all games in Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection were published by either Ocean or Sega, so that’s where these licenses come from. Beginning with the original Jurassic Park for the NES, the vision isn’t readily clear. Being the first game in a series, and possibly the longest game within this collection, the game isn’t that bad but it can get boring quickly. Essentially you play the role of Dr. Grant, and you’re simply trying to get out of the park. You’re given some arbitrary tasks of saving people, escaping yourself, or finding auxiliary power. Most of the game works the same way throughout, collecting enough blue dinosaur eggs to advance to the next stage with a helping of different level types thrown in. These alternate levels include things like a triceratops stampede and the final battle. There is also the task of saving Lex and Tim, John Hammond’s grandchildren, but instead of them being locked up or trapped somewhere (As is the case in most 8-bit era games), they’re hugging the player. There are some cool moments and levels, but nothing sticks out as being all that fun. The Game Boy version is worse, both by having no color and sporting even worse sound, but the controls feel about the same. This is coming off the horrible original Game Boy controls. One reason to pick up this collection is the new control schemes. The controls are far better than the originals in my opinion, and this can be said about every game in this collection. Another is that everything runs at a much higher resolution, giving an almost full HD experience.

Now, let’s go with something I think is a gem just for the intro alone. Jurassic Park for the Sega Genesis has the best intro out of any of the games in the collection. If you choose Grant, you’re starting your journey just like in the film. You're inside the jeep just as the electrified fences go offline. Before you can get your bearings, a large, menacing T-Rex breaks out of its pen and looks straight at you through your front windshield. He grabs hold of the jeep in his mouth and violently thrashes you about. As soon as you awaken, your jeep is turned over and you can see the cliff that it was thrown from. After that brief encounter you’re tasked with making your way to the power center. Along with the best intro of the collection, we also get some the worst controls too. This is the only game here where the controls are bad. Button presses are not very responsive, and your character feels like he’s constantly walking on ice. There are instances where your character may get stuck when trying to grab onto ledges, with the collision detection either being too sensitive or near nonresponsive. Jumping up to reach grabbable wires often results in rewinding multiple times until you manage to actually get it right. There is no easy way to play this game, and a lot of things seemed to just work incorrectly. Meanwhile, playing as the Velociraptor always feels like a bad time because the already wonky controls are considerably worse. The only good part of that experience is instead of needing to fire anything directly at something or someone, you can simply jump on them, killing them instantly. The ending sequences were also extremely good for what they were, no matter which character you chose to play as.

Jurassic Park SNES drops you straight into the fight without any semblance of story, or any task or goal. It just throws you into the park, and you it's up to you to figure out your escape. While the graphics have obviously improved from the original NES and Game Boy versions, so has the gameplay. There are more weapons, more areas to explore, and an underground Wolfenstein-like perspective to experience. Once again, just as in the original NES game, you’re tasked with collecting blue dinosaur eggs, with random information cards popping up on screen between sections. While I was engaged in reading them, they often became distracting and there was no way to turn them off either. While being just as lengthy to play, the overall experience went down the moment I had to resurface to the mainland. If this game was just the underground areas, it would have been a much stronger game. Every time you get inside an elevator, you’re hit with generic elevator music. That was a cool touch. Things are never as easy as you’d like them to be though, and every so often you must resurface to collect more eggs. This time there are no markers to indicate where to go, other than signs designating where each of the dinosaur's pens are. There’s not even a final boss fight or a satisfying ending. Your invisible chopper comes, picks you up, and then presumably leaves you somewhere else. That’s it. Game finished!

Let’s get to the sequels, first up is Jurassic Park 2: The Chaos Continues. Think Contra, then toss in the Jurassic Park franchise, and you have yourself one hell of a sequel. The intro does leave something to be desired and doesn’t look all that great, but it does set up the game for a lot of action sequences. The Contra comparison really works as the running and gunning feels as good as anything found there. Just like the original Genesis and Rampage Edition, each section can be cleared just by running through it. In this game you’re sometimes running through literal fire and explosions. Boss fights are very few, but the final one is perhaps the most memorable. Everything about the game feels like it's fueled by testosterone. The enemies are the basic dinosaurs from the original film, so you know what to expect for the most part. Things are changed up a bit with the addition of some oversized bugs, and even some human enemies. The ending is also something of an additional boss fight, which is awesome. You think you’re going to just leave in your chopper the same way you flew into the island? The game interrupts with a "Not on my watch!" Then you’re given a true Jurassic Park action-oriented ending.

Jurassic Park 2 is an original Game Boy game that is actually really good. In fact it’s a lot better than I was expecting. It is an original Game Boy game, so the sound quality is very low, there's no color to the graphics, and the controls are better than the first game. What the game loses with its simple aesthetic and monochrome look, it makes it up in artistic value. The emblem for each stage gives you a hint as to what the final boss of that stage will be, and each has a specific amount of magnetic keycards to collect for the security gates to open. Towards the end of the game the amount of keycards needed to collect goes to ridiculous levels. Still, the controls are the best out of all the games in this collection. Bosses are also of varying difficulties, though they all come complete with typical boss attack patterns. This is also perhaps the easiest of all the games on this list, and maybe even the shortest.

Jurassic Park: Rampage Edition is an updated version of the original Sega Genesis Jurassic Park game. Thankfully the controls feel much better and are very responsive this time around. Grabbing ledges and vines never felt so good. The ending has also changed, and instead of fighting a certain enemy or a couple of enemies, you’re fighting who you expected to fight. Well, you escape from the thing you’re expecting to escape from as Dr. Grant, while the raptor’s endgame fight is more underwhelming this time around. Levels are switched up between the two characters, allowing you to go through different versions of the same level. Such as in The Aviary, instead of climbing down from the top as Dr. Grant, as the raptor you’re climbing up from the bottom over a nest and then climb back down to end the section. No intro either, you’re just suddenly thrust into choosing one of three sections. The first had a great intro, so it was very disappointing to see absolutely nothing as a starting sequence. Even Jurassic Park 2 for the original Game Boy had some sort of starting sequence. However brief, this game should have had one. Both endings in the original Genesis game were also much better by comparison.

My top three games from the Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection would be Jurassic Park: The Chaos Continues, Jurassic Park 2, and Jurassic Park: Rampage Edition, all for the enjoyment I got when I finally finished these games for the first time. The others are all good in their own way, but these three really stuck out as being the most fun to play. If it was just these three, I would say that purchasing the collection might be okay. With the rest of the games piled in, on top of fresh controls and higher resolution, the Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection is a solid purchase. At $30, where any AAA studio is more than likely to charge twice the amount with half the work, there is no reason not to pick up this collection as a retro gamer. During the game selection menu, previews can also be seen on a monitor just like 90s Television, so you won't be that surprised when you jump into a game. Would I keep the originals? Sure. I would rather play this collection with updated controls though, and that’s the primary focus with the game where it stands. As for which game of the series should make a return next, Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis should be next up, but most retro gamers know that might never happen. Still, it needs a fresh and updated release!

Being a collection of older games from the 90s, they were developed for now aging hardware. The graphics were not the best, but they did have great art style. Intro and ending sequences were mixed across the board, with some being almost too good for the time, and others being almost nonexistent. Sound design wasn't the best, but when it did hit, it hit good. Putting everything on the table, I enjoyed many of the games more than I often do when I play retro games today. There was one hard lock on Rampage Edition on the rafting level where I was unable to float down the waterfalls anymore, while leaving an enemy stuck inside the wall as well. Luckily none of the games take more than an hour to finish, so I decided to go back the next morning to finish what I started. Haven’t had a hard lock since. The games are all serviceable, but the care taken to bring these back is nothing short of a good thing. Updating the controls to be as smooth as modern games, with one exception I guess, was the best thing for an aged collection of games. On average, my final score reflects on the totality of all collected games. While what was done with the games was good, and so was the selection, overall the time spent across all games was going to be on the much shorter side. There are no extras outside of the games themselves, so it's all a one and done experience. I love reviving old classics though, good and bad. Even if something was in an almost unplayable state during its initial run, it still deserves an updated treatment.

Check Out Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection on Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2673080/Jurassic_Park_Classic_Games_Collection/

---

Story: C-
Gameplay: A
Graphics/Artwork: A+
Sound: A
Value: A-

Overall: A- 

Pros:
+ Jurassic Park 2 (The original Game Boy version.)
+ Good collection of original Jurassic Park titles, going all the way back to the very first games of the series.
+ Updated resolution.
+ Updated controls.
+ Rewind button.
+ Save States.
+ Clean and mostly bug-free.

Cons:
- As much as the games have been updated, there is not a huge jump in presentation.
- Some bugs and graphical issues often occur at random.
- Aside from basic emulation features, nothing else really marks this as a modern collection.
- The total playtime could be less than 5 hours, even on the most difficult setting.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

---

#JurassicParkClassicGamesCollection