The Lost World: Jurassic Park (PSX)

Adventures in Jurassic Park, part 14.

Any resemblance to characters or events from the movie is purely coincidental.

And the poor Dreamworks kid gets eaten by dinosaurs. I love it when companies make variations of their logo animation to match the game. Lucasarts especially were great at this.

I love these computer screen animations between levels. Hey, I found the secret message! Aww, it was a lame one.

These screens creep me out. I don't really want to see a picture of my character's corpse before I even start. It's... unsettling.

First thing that hits me right away, is how awesome this music is. Pixar/Lost/Star Trek/Maui Mallard composer Michael Giacchino's orchestral soundtrack for this game is incredible.

Hey, it gave me a 1 up at the very start of the game! Despite the 3d polygon graphics and open looking areas, this is actually a 2d platformer. I can only move side to side and I can't turn the camera.

Here I'm using my 'run into them and hammer the attack key' strategy. It actually seems to be working out great so far.

Oh, I ended up taking a bit of damage there. Eating the corpse of my fallen foes lessens the pain a little by restoring some health. Plus it's hilarious! Stupid enemies, not so tough now you're lunch are you?

Hey, if I don't eat them, they'll just vanish the second they go off screen, so I might as well give their existence some purpose.

Oh, I'm getting the feeling this game is going to have some tricky jumping bits. Also, there's no way I'm not ending up in that hole in like... 3 jumps. I guarantee it.


MANY DEATHS LATER:

Man, I'm so glad they put that 1 up at the start, so I can grab a new one each time I fall in the hole and lose all my progress. Actually, fuck those platforms, I'm going over to the right side path instead. The easy path for crap players.

The good news is that I missed the evil plant. The bad news is that I hit the ground so hard, I bounced. It's okay, I know what I did wrong. I ran towards the edge, and the momentum carried me over before I could stop. I just need to be more careful.

Okay the good news is... well, there's not really a good side to being eaten alive by carnivorous plants is there?

HAH! That's what you get for murdering my nameless hero in the last game, you asshole raptor. The worst death for a dinosaur, getting nibbled to death by a single compy.

Running in and racking up kills quickly increases my 'instinct', measured by the eye in the right corner. And I'm going to want to do this because it makes me tougher and deadlier. So back to diving straight into danger and hammering attack then.

Why does that tree have a harlequin style bark texture? Actually, wait I have a better question... why is it obscuring my fucking view? There IS a raptor behind there by the way, eating my poor compy.

Okay, I found my way inside a cave. Weirdly you don't pull up to enter caves, you just keep moving in the same direction and the character automatically runs inside. This seems to be a blind jump, so I take a leap of faith...


LATER.


Turns out I was supposed to slide down the wall.

The funny thing is, I didn't actually make this jump. I fell short and hit the ground below instead. And then I climbed back up and failed the jump again.

Oh, also I took falling damage each time I hit the ground and eventually died. And then I ran out of lives. I didn't get far enough to reach a new chapter, so continuing starts me off at the very beginning of the game.


MUCH LATER.

Okay, I played through everything again, and I'm out of the cave, but now I'm being harassed by a flying thing. And shockingly it's turning out to be the most annoying enemy yet. Always flying around out of reach and... being annoying.

I have no idea how to reach that 1 up in the background. You can switch to different paths by jumping up ledges or dropping down, but it's never really obvious when and how to do this.

Hey, this game has reflections! I am honestly impressed. I can't think of many PlayStation games with reflective surfaces.

When I see small gaps in a road travelled by giant dinosaurs with many giant feet, I take the hint.

Oh, I was expecting a 'dodge from gap to gap' thing, not to be stuck entirely out in the open with a foot coming down and no obvious hiding place.

Well screw that game then. There's no way I'm replaying all of that again.


Though I did notice a couple of handwritten notes in the back of my copy of the manual, passwords for different levels... I don't usually cheat but it doesn't seem right somehow to play this and not show off one of the human stages.

Man, that's even creepier than the dead compy picture. Looks like there's some serious damage to the ribcage there.

Hey, this almost actually resembles something that took place in the movie! I'm playing as Sarah Harding, and I'm being chased by a t-rex. Unfortunately I'm trapped in two dimensions and cannot just walk around these incredibly dangerous barriers.

Dangerous to me that is. The t-rex doesn't give a damn about them.

Another thing the t-rex is not concerned much about, is lasers. I, on the other hand, really do not want to be touching them, so I have to swing over with my grappling hook, Bionic Commando style. And if I make any screw up, then it's okay. I just have to replay the whole level from the start, with one less life.

Sarah has superhuman jumping skills, but even she can't can't two rows of wooden spikes. This is where having a flare gun and a large dinosaur comes in handy. The tyrannosaurus won't even notice me when there's a pretty pink flare to chase after. And it won't notice the wooden spikes either, as it crashes through them.

It's not a bad idea actually, I just wish there was more margin for error. The game doesn't even give me a starting supply of flare ammo. I have to pluck it from the sky as I swing over obstacles, one shot at a time.

Oops. I didn't quite give myself enough time to slow down. Then a second later the t-rex rushes on screen, and smashes through to grab a bite to eat.


You know, I really want to like this game, but it's too cruel with the punishment for failure in my opinion. If they had taken out the lives and put in a level select, something like in Super Meat Boy, this would have definitely have been more bearable for me. I could have probably finished that t-rex run with a couple more tries, but what would be the point? I'd only get killed on the next level and then I'm right back to the t-rex stage again.


Next game.

Part 1: Jurassic Park (NES)
Part 2: Jurassic Park (GB)
Part 3: Jurassic Park (SNES)
Part 4: Jurassic Park (Amiga)
Part 5: Jurassic Park (Master System)
Part 6: Jurassic Park (Genesis/Mega Drive)
Part 7: Jurassic Park (Sega Mega CD)
Part 8: Jurassic Park Interactive (3DO)
Part 9: Jurassic Park: Rampage Edition (Genesis/Mega Drive)
Part 10: Jurassic Park II - The Chaos Continues
Part 11: Jurassic Park 2 (GB)
Part 12: The Lost World: Jurassic Park (Genesis/Mega Drive)
Part 13: The Lost World: Jurassic Park (GB)

Part 15: Warpath: Jurassic Park (PSX)
Part 16: Jurassic Park: Trespasser (PC)