The Lost World: Jurassic Park (MD, 1997)
Graphics-8 Sound-6.5 Control-7/6* Challenge-8/? Story-4
Level Design-6.5 Frustration-8/8.5** Fun-6.5/? Originality-5
Overall Score-6.5
*Car/boat
**Triceratops protection
+
Pretty detailed map feature (can select between different dinosaurs and objects to show similar to the Strike series, pretty zoomed in but can scroll and re-center the view)
In-game bestiary (only shows weight and diet info though - not HP or attack power)
2-player co-op (asymmetric vehicle control - one player aims and shoots)
Can send for supplies via air support - costs 4 JP icons for 3 items and it's random (lives, armor, ammo; if you collect 6 then the game auto-sends the box to your current location)
Fast movement with the car and hover vehicle (boat)
One great boss (T-Rex escape segment)
Can make enemies of different types fight each other
Shows enemy life bars as well as their level of awakeness when attacking them (can tranquilize some enemies)
Exploding barrels
Decent weapon arsenal (stun gun, dart gun, shotgun, machine gun; some cool weapons: homing missile launcher, smoke/gas grenades (can be used to put out fires and put enemies to sleep) and regular grenades, mines, missile launcher)
Get sub objective messages during gameplay via a portable PC (pause menu, pop-up message when it happens) - Battletech
Can review the current objective
Can ram enemies with the car - pretty effective but not that satisfying
Can break signs and run/jump over minor obstacles with the car, minor aim assist while in the car, detailed environments with very good use of color (some of the highest color counts on the console by using shadow/hilight mode to go beyond 61/64 colors) - on par with Ecco 2, decent mission variety (herd/lure and capture, tranquilize triceratops then fend off predators, find and activate, rescue/escort NPC, escort moving truck, three different auto-scrolling rail shooter-like segments and one boss fight where you're in a jeep, very basic stealth element in the camp sabotage mission, search and destroy - several, collect, jungle fire escape and bomb blast escape), some impressive graphical effects, enemies also trigger mines and can break signs, some breakable walls (cave), button config, unlockable gameplay recording and playback feature (RECPLAY0 password) and 2-player battle (CIVILWAR),
+/-
Partially non-linear structure after the first area (can access 3 missions in any order via a hub area, then a rail segment, then 3 missions, etc.)
Password save (pretty short, get one after each finished mission) and fairly frequent checkpoints
Respawning enemies (move 2-3 screens away) - respawned enemies don't drop JP icons
Can't carry extra health and ammo with you for later use - can push these items around on the ground but that's kinda tedious
Air support can be used even indoors
Several collectathon and killathon levels
Unlimited continues?
No jumping or platforming
Respawn on the spot until game over
Your own missile and grenade explosions don't damage you
Unlimited ammo for your stun gun/dart gun/shotgun weapons
No dodge or block moves
Temporary armor upgrades, pretty good sampled sfx but so-so FM sfx, grenade items respawn while others don't, human enemies can also pick up ammo, can't clear out mines with anything other than regular grenades/other mines (fairly easy to come by)/exploding barrels, some resource management (need the better weapons after the first couple of areas, low ammo capacity and you can't upgrade it), pretty small sprites/zoomed out view, the raptor chase segment is cool but kinda basic and repetitive, the truck escort segment is pretty cool but would've been more fun if you could tell it to go slower for a limited time once in a while, raptors aren't knocked back even by missiles, pre-rendered sprites are used for all dinosaurs and most vehicles+cutscene graphics (mostly decent looking), the raft segment is quite fun though there could've been slopes and ramps and/or obstacles moving from the background to the foreground since you can jump - the chopper segment is kinda the same in that enemies are either up front or in the far background but don't move in-between, can collect watches to increase the timer in the bomb escape segment - kinda weird but works gameplay-wise
-
Destructible health and ammo items
Some control/interface issues (no strafing (this combined with no dodge/block move makes combat pretty basic and various previous games have either like Pocky & Rocky or Smash TV), if you drive slowly the camera doesn't keep up very well with the car making it harder to react to danger, can't lob grenades over small trees, unnecessary mouse pointer style menu controls - slower, no mini-map feature, can't pick up ammo/health/map items while in the car (only repair and JP icon items) - the former two are destroyed instead, floaty car and even floatier boat movement, can't aim without also firing and can't shoot while driving with the car in 1-player mode - game could've used the 6-button controller for this and for cycling both ways in the weapon inventory, the pause menu takes ~2-3 seconds to open and ~2 to close, if you've used the map item the game doesn't show where you haven't been yet - it just reveals the whole map, sloppy hit detection around the allied hunter but he can't die so it's ok)
Backtracking and dead space+some dead ends
Some unavoidable damage (when herding some stegosauruses into cages, pillboxes/bunkers, troodons),
Some slowdown (quite a bit in the caves)
Trial & error (can't drive to the left in the t-rex chase overhead segment and not being able to stun the t-rex properly you'll just drive into everything until memorizing the whole level - thankfully it's short, hub area maps don't show you the exits to other areas, protect the triceratops segment (big difficulty spike here considering how hard it is to hit efficiently with gas grenades and not being able to dodge or strafe), truck escort segment, in the second area onwards the air support boxes can contain explosives (seems to happen less often if you manually call for them instead of collecting 6 icons) - wtf!, )
The third cave is too long
Items are sometimes placed right next to breakable walls in your way (forcing you destroy them by blowing up the wall) - why?
Another difficulty spike in the camp sabotage mission - constantly respawning enemies+some have homing missile launchers and the car is too vulnerable+ it's needed to get through a poisonous plant field (these can't be destroyed by anything for some reason - only the small plants which isn't enough)
The story takes a backseat and barely references the movie plus what's there feels pretty generic ("a hunter has been stranded" instead of who and why)
The shotgun is a bit too weak
The music doesn't make full use of the hardware (no drum samples, no PSG)
Not enough puzzles or opportunities for fun stunts with the vehicles (sometimes a generator is placed right next to an electric fence trap or a laser alarm trap), 2nd player can't join in during gameplay, the allied hunter doesn't shoot enemies when escorting him despite him having a gun, no difficulty options, not enough enemy variation early on, somewhat ugly effect used for the fried T-Rex (escape segment) and the waves in the raft segment (emulation issue maybe?), no water enemies outside ot the raft segment
Bugs:
-Sometimes the weapon cycling button switches up the order a bit
Level Design-6.5 Frustration-8/8.5** Fun-6.5/? Originality-5
Overall Score-6.5
*Car/boat
**Triceratops protection
+
Pretty detailed map feature (can select between different dinosaurs and objects to show similar to the Strike series, pretty zoomed in but can scroll and re-center the view)
In-game bestiary (only shows weight and diet info though - not HP or attack power)
2-player co-op (asymmetric vehicle control - one player aims and shoots)
Can send for supplies via air support - costs 4 JP icons for 3 items and it's random (lives, armor, ammo; if you collect 6 then the game auto-sends the box to your current location)
Fast movement with the car and hover vehicle (boat)
One great boss (T-Rex escape segment)
Can make enemies of different types fight each other
Shows enemy life bars as well as their level of awakeness when attacking them (can tranquilize some enemies)
Exploding barrels
Decent weapon arsenal (stun gun, dart gun, shotgun, machine gun; some cool weapons: homing missile launcher, smoke/gas grenades (can be used to put out fires and put enemies to sleep) and regular grenades, mines, missile launcher)
Get sub objective messages during gameplay via a portable PC (pause menu, pop-up message when it happens) - Battletech
Can review the current objective
Can ram enemies with the car - pretty effective but not that satisfying
Can break signs and run/jump over minor obstacles with the car, minor aim assist while in the car, detailed environments with very good use of color (some of the highest color counts on the console by using shadow/hilight mode to go beyond 61/64 colors) - on par with Ecco 2, decent mission variety (herd/lure and capture, tranquilize triceratops then fend off predators, find and activate, rescue/escort NPC, escort moving truck, three different auto-scrolling rail shooter-like segments and one boss fight where you're in a jeep, very basic stealth element in the camp sabotage mission, search and destroy - several, collect, jungle fire escape and bomb blast escape), some impressive graphical effects, enemies also trigger mines and can break signs, some breakable walls (cave), button config, unlockable gameplay recording and playback feature (RECPLAY0 password) and 2-player battle (CIVILWAR),
+/-
Partially non-linear structure after the first area (can access 3 missions in any order via a hub area, then a rail segment, then 3 missions, etc.)
Password save (pretty short, get one after each finished mission) and fairly frequent checkpoints
Respawning enemies (move 2-3 screens away) - respawned enemies don't drop JP icons
Can't carry extra health and ammo with you for later use - can push these items around on the ground but that's kinda tedious
Air support can be used even indoors
Several collectathon and killathon levels
Unlimited continues?
No jumping or platforming
Respawn on the spot until game over
Your own missile and grenade explosions don't damage you
Unlimited ammo for your stun gun/dart gun/shotgun weapons
No dodge or block moves
Temporary armor upgrades, pretty good sampled sfx but so-so FM sfx, grenade items respawn while others don't, human enemies can also pick up ammo, can't clear out mines with anything other than regular grenades/other mines (fairly easy to come by)/exploding barrels, some resource management (need the better weapons after the first couple of areas, low ammo capacity and you can't upgrade it), pretty small sprites/zoomed out view, the raptor chase segment is cool but kinda basic and repetitive, the truck escort segment is pretty cool but would've been more fun if you could tell it to go slower for a limited time once in a while, raptors aren't knocked back even by missiles, pre-rendered sprites are used for all dinosaurs and most vehicles+cutscene graphics (mostly decent looking), the raft segment is quite fun though there could've been slopes and ramps and/or obstacles moving from the background to the foreground since you can jump - the chopper segment is kinda the same in that enemies are either up front or in the far background but don't move in-between, can collect watches to increase the timer in the bomb escape segment - kinda weird but works gameplay-wise
-
Destructible health and ammo items
Some control/interface issues (no strafing (this combined with no dodge/block move makes combat pretty basic and various previous games have either like Pocky & Rocky or Smash TV), if you drive slowly the camera doesn't keep up very well with the car making it harder to react to danger, can't lob grenades over small trees, unnecessary mouse pointer style menu controls - slower, no mini-map feature, can't pick up ammo/health/map items while in the car (only repair and JP icon items) - the former two are destroyed instead, floaty car and even floatier boat movement, can't aim without also firing and can't shoot while driving with the car in 1-player mode - game could've used the 6-button controller for this and for cycling both ways in the weapon inventory, the pause menu takes ~2-3 seconds to open and ~2 to close, if you've used the map item the game doesn't show where you haven't been yet - it just reveals the whole map, sloppy hit detection around the allied hunter but he can't die so it's ok)
Backtracking and dead space+some dead ends
Some unavoidable damage (when herding some stegosauruses into cages, pillboxes/bunkers, troodons),
Some slowdown (quite a bit in the caves)
Trial & error (can't drive to the left in the t-rex chase overhead segment and not being able to stun the t-rex properly you'll just drive into everything until memorizing the whole level - thankfully it's short, hub area maps don't show you the exits to other areas, protect the triceratops segment (big difficulty spike here considering how hard it is to hit efficiently with gas grenades and not being able to dodge or strafe), truck escort segment, in the second area onwards the air support boxes can contain explosives (seems to happen less often if you manually call for them instead of collecting 6 icons) - wtf!, )
The third cave is too long
Items are sometimes placed right next to breakable walls in your way (forcing you destroy them by blowing up the wall) - why?
Another difficulty spike in the camp sabotage mission - constantly respawning enemies+some have homing missile launchers and the car is too vulnerable+ it's needed to get through a poisonous plant field (these can't be destroyed by anything for some reason - only the small plants which isn't enough)
The story takes a backseat and barely references the movie plus what's there feels pretty generic ("a hunter has been stranded" instead of who and why)
The shotgun is a bit too weak
The music doesn't make full use of the hardware (no drum samples, no PSG)
Not enough puzzles or opportunities for fun stunts with the vehicles (sometimes a generator is placed right next to an electric fence trap or a laser alarm trap), 2nd player can't join in during gameplay, the allied hunter doesn't shoot enemies when escorting him despite him having a gun, no difficulty options, not enough enemy variation early on, somewhat ugly effect used for the fried T-Rex (escape segment) and the waves in the raft segment (emulation issue maybe?), no water enemies outside ot the raft segment
Bugs:
-Sometimes the weapon cycling button switches up the order a bit