Jurassic Park lends itself to various game genres - Tomb Raider-style adventure, platformer (in the old days), first person shooter and sim (build your own Park). However, few people would have thought a Tekken-style one-on-one fighting game was appropriate.
Imagine....Tekken.....with DINOSAURS.
Thankfully, although the layout and rules of the game are the same as Tekken - and every fighting game since Street Fighter II - the dino battles are kept realistic. The giant thunder lizards themselves stomp around the screen, and attack each other with claws and jaws rather than fireballs and hurricane kicks. It's simple, and there are far less moves to learn than your average fighting game, but it's a lot of fun.
The graphics are some of the best ever produced on the PS1. The dinos look great as they furiously collide, roaring and snarling the whole time. The sound is equally impressive, with every snarl and slash perfectly and defeaningly backed up by crashes of thunder, cries for help and police sirens. There's an awesome orchestral soundtrack as well which creates a very exciting, epic and above all, Jurassic Park atmosphere.
JP fans will delight in both the amount of dinosaurs (14)and locations from the movies (why, 14 as well, my stars). Of course the fan-favourites Tyrannosaurus Rex and Velociraptor are first on the list, although the Raptor in this case is a Mega Raptor, almost as big as the T-Rex itself. There's also a Spinosaurus which appeared in Jurassic Park III, but sadly no pteradons. The locations include the Vistor's Centre where the climax of the original movie took place, the rain-drenched paddock where the T-Rex memorably escaped from, outside the Raptor pen, and the deck of the crashed cargo ship from The Lost World. It's not just there to look good though - use the interactive locations to cause explosions, eat helpless humans, and even ram your opponent into an electric fence (that's gotta hurt, Gene!).
Overall, this is a game without much longevity but a huge amount of fun until it's completed. The excellent production values create an atmosphere few games can match and Jurassic Park fans will certainly enjoy it. Plus the chance to fight as a T-Rex is simply too cool to miss...
