Pros: I haven't played this game in nearly 30 years, so bear with me... But I recall THIS being the Jurassic Park game I wanted, simply because the dinosaurs looked just like how they did in the film. They used stop motion animation with maquettes of the dinosaurs, making this game very visually impressive, and even lifelike. The Triceratops, T. Rex, Dilophosaurus, and the Velociraptors all looked spot on film-accurate, with large sprites with great detail and movement. The game, it's okay, it's a 2D sidescrolling action platformer, as you navigate a zig-zaggy designed level, shootin dinos, jumpin from platform to platform, nothing out of the ordinary there. But the big sell for this game, was in addition to playing as Dr. Alan Grant, you could play as a VELOCIRAPTOR!! Which, oh my god, that made this version THE version to get of JP.

Cons: The hit detection is a bit wonky, and the level design ain't too great, especially playing as a Velociraptor, the thing is so bulky it can feel a bit cumbersome to maneuver around. Also, the ending for Alan Grant is a bit anti-climactic (I recall it being based on the earlier scripts of the film, where the skeletons fall on the raptors instead of the T. Rex bustin through to save the day).

What it means to me: This was the game I was jealous of, would play it every time I got to visit my step family, as I didn't own a Sega Genesis, and I was just in awe of the atmosphere of the game, it was completely Jurassic Park. And as a kid, I also preferred side scrolling platformer games, so I really wish the SNES got something more like this... Then again, JP2 on SNES was a sidescrolling action game, though it didn't have the realistic film-accurate dinosaurs that this game did.

Jurassic Park for the Genesis plays like a sped up Flashback, or you can play as a raptor if you want. It's unreal how large and how fast Grant's leaps across the screen are, but each level is finished in minutes. There's the huge issue of just not being able to see what's below you or in front of you sometimes, and it is much harder to learn what feels like a layout of a Sonic level at points, but it is certainly doable.

Your reward will be a cool T-Rex head popping out of the background and a boss battle against two raptors where you are not actually able to hurt the raptors, and are supposed to hit the two pedestals holding up the dino skeletons. Bizarre choice for a game where half the time I would rocket some dilophosaurus in the face.

Raptor is just Sonic. He jumps across the length of what feels like two screens. The screen literally cannot keep up with you half the time. Then they put you in the shitty tight canals. Like why? The final boss isn't against Grant either, it's against ONE of the stones from a specific angle.

Bizarre game, but pretty inoffensive and forgettable. I'm sure there will be people who will get a lot less and some who will get a tiny bit more out of it though.

The Sega screen features a T-Rex that actually recognizably growls the word "Sega"! The character select screen showcases some pretty slick animation for both Dr Grant and the Raptor, and Grant's opening scene (the T-rex attack) is honestly pretty terrifying, adeptly using flickering to simulate lightning in the darkness. Then it all goes downhill from there.

Early in Dr Grant's campaign, there's a sequence where you need to operate a control panel to open a door, stun and run past the T-Rex, and escape through the door you opened. Except, the control panel is so drably colored that it blends right into the background so it's easy to miss, and so is the door that it opens, so the player is likely to evade the T-Rex and run straight into a wall with no clue how to progress. Even if you think to backtrack and manage to find and operate the control panel, there's no 'click' or 'door opening' sound or any indication that you did anything... and the door it opens is just offscreen.

This sequence is a microcosm of the game as a whole - your worst enemy is not going to be dinosaurs or armed guards but the hilariously bad conveyance of what you're supposed to do. Platforms that you can step on are the same color as platforms you will fall through, ladders and ropes critical to progress are colored so darkly as to sometimes be nearly invisible, and there's a rapids level littered with streams that lead to instant death that don't look any different at all from other streams.

The odd control scheme doesn't help either; it's terribly unintuitive (down+attack to do a flying kick? up+direction to run?!), awfully slippery, and uses momentum so inscrutably as to render some platforming segments a test of pure luck. It's buggy too - twice in Dr Grant's campaign he softlocked me when he inexplicably started tapdancing in place with no way to break out of the animation (luckily I had a password!)

I remember playing this as a kid and not being very impressed, and it's definitely worse than I remember. Ah well, the hunt for a good Jurassic Park game continues...

People rate this game way way too low. It's a great tie in game. Firstly the T-Rex yelling SEGA! at the start is awesome. The game has great graphics and the atmosphere really comes through. The dino's look great for a 16 bit title. The game has two playable characters with their own campaign and gameplay. Grant and a raptor respectfully. The levels are designed really well and even when characters share some levels the play really different and characters can lead into different places. Grant has a wide varity of weapons with different uses. The raptor has much better mobility and attacks but needs to eat to restore life. The game feels like a game of cat and mouse chase between the two characters. The visitor center at the end with grant trying to outrun the raptor is fantastic. I can't say enough good things about it really. My only real complaint is that the final section with Grant is really hard to figure out what to do. I know you have to make the bones fall on the raptor but how you do it eluded me for years until youtube was a thing. Awesome game.

Plus how cool did that T-Rex look.