Jurassic ParkIII: The DNA Factor, Game Boy Advance

Perhaps the King of film to movie spin-offs Jurassic Park spawned yet another game conversion. Jurassic Park on the Mega Drive was classic (and impossible), Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis was nice and Warpath: Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park: Tresspaser have a cult following. Jurassic Park III: The DNA Factor is not so great. In fact this one is pretty much the worst one I've played so far. It's as if they weren't even trying. Gameplay is poor, storyline is non existent, characters are generic.

It's basically a side scrolling dodge em up (you can get a gun or some fruit to use as a lure but running past everything is by far the quickest route to success) and the player has to negotiate dangerous jungle and avoid dinosaurs to collect bits of DNA that fell out of a plane before it crashed on the island. You play as pilot Lori Torres or photographer Mark Hanson and you negotiate 12 levels to collect DNA which you then use in a mini "game" to get DNA sequences for dinosaurs. Except it's all a bit rubbish. The side scrolling parts are repetetive, annoying and bland. The recombining DNA game is easy. Which is a good thing because if you waste all of your DNA before you complete the sequence you have to start the level all over again.

Dinosauriness: I've yet to beat it but I imagine it's all the Jurassic Park lovlies. I'll get back to you on that one later.

Scientific Accuracy: There are no scientific mistakes in this game. It's all feesible and plausible. Just look at the DNA base on the log on the screenshot. That's what DNA bases look like when they fall out of planes on islands.

Buzz Bonus: The copy I purchased from Amazon was listed as "new". So I was surprised when it came through the door. True to the promise it was new and still sealed (with Comet security stickers intact) however it looked like a 10 year old child had been carrying the unopened box in his school bag since the game's release in 2001. Tat-o-rama. Although it doesn't affect the game play experience it did irk me. I was irked.