The Jurassic Park
license is a good one. Dinosaurs are a natural for video games, and the quality of both
the books and films should be enough to engross a gamer as they navigate the island.
That's not the case with the Game.com edition, an original title unavailable anywhere
else, and that's the best thing to happen to this game.The Lost World takes place from two completely different perspectives. The first is the behind-the-car chase which puts players in control of a jeep, hummer, or other vehicle from the series. The other is a basic platform style game which lets players hunt down the dino's. Two characters are selectable from the start, though the differences are marginal. The two modes give the game some variety. Unfortunately, just like all of those unlicensed multi-cart games, more is not better.
The graphics are a mixed bag with the chase stages showing off some decent scaling effects; it's the side-scrolling stages that are atrocious. Dinosaurs get lost in the backgrounds resulting in frustrating deaths and unplayable stages. The controls also add to the frustration, especially when trying to control the vehicles. Avoiding oncoming obstacles is nearly impossible due to the quick, over-responsive steering of the car. These flaws not only make the game unplayable, but a complete waste of electronics.
A few of the sounds may
be recognizable from the movies, but that's the highlight of the sound package.
Recognizable theme music can be found, just in this form, it's hardly worth turning up the
volume control. If you have a set of headphones, hook them up to hear the sound effects,
just ignore the music at all costs.
It's amazing to see such a great movie get trashed when it hits our favorite electronic media. Is it really that hard to create a decent playing game with this movies premise? It has dinosaurs and shooting. How hard can it be? Skip this portable abomination.
