Lost Classics: Jurassic Park 2 – The Chaos Continues (SNES)

During the mid-90s, Michael Crichton’s novel about the perils of genetic manipulation and dinosaurs was rising in popularity. A movie had just been released, and the obligatory marketing blitz soon followed. There were action figures, comic books, lunch boxes, and of course video games. Games based on the original movie have been released on various Nintendo and Sega platforms, including Sega’s Genesis side-scroller (in which players can choose to play as either Dr. Alan Grant or a raptor) and Ocean’s SNES top-down/FPS hybrid. With the success of these video games and the popularity of the source material, there were bound to be sequels. However, with no movie sequel at the time, developers took liberties with the franchise when creating new projects.

Ocean’s Jurassic Park 2 was one such project. Set one year after the events of the film, the game follows Alan Grant (and commando Michael Wolfskin in 2-player co-op) in his mission to fight off the forces of Biosyn and regain control of Isla Nublar. The basic gameplay can best be described as ‘Contra with dinosaurs’. You used a variety of guns to fight off Biosyn mercenaries and rampaging dinos. You were free to select the order in which you play through the stages, and the levels ranged from large open planes to indoor mazes. The huge areas sometimes made level navigation confusing, and limited continues only add to the difficulty. However, the game made up for it with some pretty decent graphics and music. In what was rare at the time, especially in a 16-bit cartridge, the game opened with an animated cinema with digitized vocals. Jurassic Park 2 was one of those games that wasn’t spectacular, but it wasn’t bad either, especially for a licensed property. You may have to do some hunting to find this game, as there is a very slim chance of this game arriving on the virtual console.