Jurassic Park

The Good
Action games on the Game Boy seemed to come in two formats; platform or top-down exploration games. Jurassic Park is the latter, playing like a simplified version of the original Zelda. You take the role of Dr. Alan Grant, the closest person the film has to a hero, and you spend the game accessing different parts of the titular park in order to rescue characters and in turn be rescued. Unlike the film, here you can and will fight back, as you quickly get access to a bazooka and several types of ammunition for it, though that ammunition is limited.

The movie's premise adapts fairly well to a game with a group of runaway animals rather than people to defeat. As with most games of this type you have to explore an area to find a key, and rather oddly also have to collect eggs. This allows you to progress by opening doors. there are end of level bosses and challenges, such as rescuing Tim from a stampeding herd of Triceratops, or rescuing Lex from a T-Rex. The film's locations are fairly liberally adapted and make nice touches, even Mr. D.N.A. pops up in places.

The action is pretty well balanced and never becomes too hard. The controls make sense leading to a feeling of a well-designed and made game.

The Bad
The game is pretty long and can become tedious, as you hunt through every bush to find the last egg. The whole egg thing is a bit preposterous, why would dinosaurs leave their eggs scattered all over the place and not guard them? The pace plods along without much change, dully re-using locations and a few film scenario's without much drama or adding anything new.

The Bottom Line
As a film adaptation, this game could be far worse, it's a pretty fair adaptation given the platform, though without the license buzz its aura has faded.