Jurassic Park: Classic Games Collection Review - Screenshot 1 of 5
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)

Whilst there's absolutely no doubt as to the continued popularity of the Jurassic Park/World franchise in 2023, the Jurassic Park: Classic Games Collection from Limited Run Games, which features a total of seven titles from the 8- and 16-bit eras exclusively, is a bit of a lacklustre offering for eager dino fans, one that focuses on a selection of titles that don't particularly stand up very well to any sort of scrutiny 30 years down the line.

Yes, that's right. 30 years. 2023 marks the 30th anniversary of the release of Steven Spielberg's blockbusting dino-spectacular, a film that had the 15-year-old version of this particular writer busy cutting out hundreds of pictures of half-naked Jeff Goldblum from movie magazines, collecting any and all related dino tat, and developing an unhealthy obsession with how plausible it would be to fight and defeat a raptor barehanded (we were also very good at mimicking the mating call of a Gallimimus, but perhaps that's a story for another time).

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Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)

We're big fans of JP, in short, and right off the bat, as thrilled as we are to dig into the sweet nostalgia on offer in this one, the lineup of games here feels as though it could have done with a bit more bite. The standouts are undoubtedly the Genesis versions of Jurassic Park and its revamped Jurassic Park: Rampage Edition, closely followed by the gloriously colourful SNES game. Beyond these, you've got Jurassic Park for the Game Boy/NES and Jurassic Park Part 2: The Chaos Continues in its portable and 16-bit forms.

Hmmm. Yes, there are a few decent-ish experiences in the mix, but this is a collection that sticks resolutely with older games that haven't aged particularly well, failing to show off any of the variety or inherent goofiness in some of the many different titles that these movies have produced over the decades. We could have done with less repetition, perhaps incorporating some of the franchise's strategy efforts and curios, or even just taking us a little further down the timeline. Basically, nothing here is ever gonna feature particularly highly on most lists of the best Jurassic Park games (although the SNES one does manage it from time to time), so we're running on nostalgia for the most part.

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Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)

With the initial disappointment regarding the overall selection out of the way and digging into the games themselves, it's the 8-bit offerings, as much as we loved them back in the day, that drag things down and are most guilty of not offering much to engage with three decades down the line. The original NES Jurassic Park was fairly well received in the early '90s, but even then complaints were rife that, beyond some nice graphics and a novel (for the time) top-down open-world style, it didn't include enough key events from the movie. Instead, you spend your time as a rather aimless Alan Grant plodding around and engaging dullard dinos as you collect keycards and eggs and grow increasingly frustrated with a life bar that can take precious few hits. There aren't a lot of levels to this one, around six in total, they all involve wandering around in confusion and shooting dinos, and you'll genuinely be doing quite well to make it through it without becoming frustrated.

It's been the SNES version of Jurassic Park that we were most excited to return to and, as much as it still looks surprisingly good, it suffers from much the same issues as the NES and Game Boy efforts; it's just very bland, dated, monotonous and a little too hard for its own good by today's standards. Its unique mix of top-down action and indoor sequences that switch to a first-person POV blew us away when we first played it back in 1993. This really was a graphical tour-de-force at the time, but nowadays, well, these bells and whistles can't distract us from another adventure that's tough as old boots (you will 100% need a guide) and not a lot of fun with it.

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Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)

Then we have the SNES version of Jurassic Park Part 2: The Chaos Continues, a game we were, once again, very excited about back in the day, and while it does boast a co-op mode and some very pretty visuals, it unfortunately failed to improve on its predecessor. In fact, this second bite at the cherry is notably worse, ditching the unique camera angles and gameplay styles for bland run-and-gun side-scrolling, an ill-considered level of difficulty, underpowered weapons, awful enemy AI, and some bullet-sponge dinos making for an experience we'd rather forget, and one that really takes some patience to stick.

And so it mostly comes to rest on the Genesis version of Jurassic Park and its Rampage revamp. Here are two side-scrolling adventure games that still look great and, more importantly, give us some action that stands up reasonably well. Of all the experiences available in this collection, unbelievably, it's these two last-minute additions that give us the biggest reasons to play. Jurassic Park on the Genesis (not to be confused with Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis, a PS2/Xbox-era park-building effort that we'd love to have seen in the mix here) is the star of the show, and its gauntlet of dino-slaying and traditional 2D platforming gets the job done with some nice animations and gameplay that's a little easier to get a handle on than the top-down confusion of the SNES version.

Jurassic Park: Classic Games Collection Review - Screenshot 5 of 5
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)

It's almost a shame to pick out these Genesis versions as our favourites now, as they really are much more traditional movie tie-ins that didn't offer up the unique viewpoints and style of the SNES game, but in the year of our Lord 2023, they are very easily the best of the bunch from a pure gameplay perspective. We're guessing most folk who pick up this Limited Run package are in it for the nostalgia or collection purposes, and it's great to have these things preserved, of course, but we'd love to have seen a more exciting game selection that takes in a few of the later Lost World efforts and curios like Scan Command: Jurassic Park, the point-and-click Sega CD game, Operation Genesis, or Trespasser. Given the apparent difficulty in securing deals for the Genesis duo, it's easy to appreciate the tough realities of wrangling licences. Still, this collection doesn't feel sufficiently 'Classic' in content or scope.

In terms of additional material and extra bells and whistles, you've got the handy ability to rewind back through each game as you play, you can now save anywhere and also switch between a handful of old-school filters. There's also been some effort made with new in-game maps adding to the overall quality of life. The more expensive physical versions (now sold out) also come with soundtracks, Isla Nublar badges, a classic Steelbook edition VHS, a dino lamp, and all sorts of other fun.

And that's chiefly where it's at with this particular collection. Yes, it's nice to get our hands on this bunch of old movie tie-ins, we've certainly had plenty of heavy nostalgia hits along the way but, bells and whistles aside, there's no getting away from the fact that the games on offer here, from a gameplay perspective, are long past their best and don't offer up much of interest to anyone who isn't very, very keen on all things large and prehistoric. We fall into that category, fortunately, but even we struggled to maintain enthusiasm.

Conclusion

The Jurassic Park: Classic Games Collection serves up seven slices of old-school dino action in a package that suffers from its focus on the 8- and 16-bit eras. Yes, it's great to have these old games all gathered up and available to play with some quality-of-life additions, you can't knock them too hard for being clunky by today's standards, and nostalgia may add a few points to the overall score below if you're an Isla Nublar mega-fan, but there's no avoiding the fact that the experiences here haven't aged particularly well.

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