The Lost World: Jurassic Park

Well I tried guys but I'm afraid I'll have to phone this one in. It's hard to believe we used to put up with games like this in the 90s. Okay so today we are somewhat wrapped in cotton wool with quicksaves, infinite continues and restarts but boy this game is tough. The first chapter sees you playing as a Compsognathus. Each level has a double helix hidden in it if you get them all you unlock gallery artwork. The DNA in the first level is a real pain to get requiring you to do a bunch of fiddly jumps over a bottomless pit and then get the DNA, drop back down and do the fiddly jumps again. The characters also have a really weird momentum making tight, accurate jumps nigh impossible. You only get three lives and then thats it. Game Over. Start again from the beginning. So it was only the first level, what kind of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures in games fanatic would I be if I missed out on some artwork? 30 lives and 10 restarts later I finally get the DNA and make it out of the stupid jumping and bottomless pit area to discover that's area 1 of level 1. There's a load more levels to play through before you get given an end of chapter password (no saves here). Two lives later and it is back to the menu screen. Do it all over again. I quit after two hours of losing a life or two to get the DNA, getting it and then getting mauled/falling from a height/glitching through platforms on the third area. Sorry guys. I tried.

Also to note, now that publishers are pretty much forcing boxed products into extinction, I'm going to miss BACK OF THE BOX LIES. Here's what it says on the back of the box of The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

• 40 levels of gripping gameplay
• Interact with 20 dinosaurs accurately modelled from the movie
• 25 unique 3-D environments with secret locations to explore

Being as charitable as I can, the first three levels I played were brutal and full of stupid jumps and poor collision detection. Not my definition of 'gripping'. As nice as it is to see them in the game, I don't recall Leptoceratops, Baryonyx or Orodromeus from the movies so I'm doubtful of the "modelled from the movie" claim. Lastly, I only got to the third level and already I saw some environments "uniquely" recycled. Anyway, on to business. A nice range and some dinosaurs unique to this game!(? needs checking).

Dinosauriness: Like I said, phoning it in. I only saw six of these in game and a further two from the rolling demo when you stay on the menu screen. Here's what the book says: Allosaurus, Baryonyx, Brachiosaurus, Carnotaurus, Compsognathus, Deinonychus, Dimorphodon, Euplocephalus, Leptoceratops, Orodromeus, Pachycephalosaurus, Parasuchus, Staurikosaurus, Stegosaurus, Tricerarops, Tyrannosaurus rex, and of course Velociraptor.

Scientific Accuracy: Of the handful of species I saw, seems alright. Didn't get to the Velociraptor levels to complain about them being somewhat oversized as they are want in the JP universe. Didn't even see any coelurosaurs to wheel out the old feathers issue (although from the book they're all naked) sad to say. Leptoceratops was a very unlikely neon teal colour. I'd advise that if you want to go into dinosaur palaeontology there are probably better references to draw on than this game when it comes to interpreting these wonderful creatures (fossils, books and journal papers perhaps?).

Buzz Bonus: This was a Dreamworks game and as such has the little boy on the moon logo at the beginning. Various Dreamworks games would vary what the boy would do (in Medal of Hono(u)r he parachuted off) and this is one of a couple of JP games to see the boy come to an unfortunate fate. See for yourself.