Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection Review (XBX)

30 years ago, adults and children alike were treated to one of the most amazing cinematic experiences in history with the release of Jurassic Park in cinemas worldwide. Alongside this epic movie release came a LOT of toys, apparel, and of course, video games. 30 years on Limited Run Games was able to gain the license to put all the classic Jurassic Park games into one single package, much like Konami did with Metal Gear Solid and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Though TMNT was through someone that was not Konami) over the past year. Will Limited Run Games have the same success in repacking classic games for a modern audience? Or is this the extinction of the classic game re-release saga?

Name: Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection
Platform(s): PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X|S (review)
Developer: BlueSky Software, Ocean Software
Publisher: Limited Run Games, Universal Games, and Digital Platforms
Game Type: Platform game, Adventure game, Shooter Video Game
Mode(s): Single-Player
Release Date: 22 November 2023

Dr Grant’s Escape from Jurassic Park! (Story)

Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection features seven games from the early years of Jurassic Park video games, which consists of:

• Jurassic Park (NES)
• Jurassic Park (GAMEBOY)
• Jurassic Park (SNES)
• Jurassic Park (GENESIS)
• Jurassic Park Part 2: The Chaos Continues (SNES)
• Jurassic Park Part 2: The Chaos Continues (GAMEBOY)
• Jurassic Park: Rampage Edition (GENESIS)

All the games’ plots are pretty much the same. Dr Grant is stranded on Isla Nublar, the site of Jurassic Park, and must find a way off safely in order to be rescued. Some of the games, like the GENESIS version, feature a playable Raptor who is trying to survive being captured, but overall nothing major plot lines-wise happens in any of the games. We do get other characters showing up, like Hammond’s Grandkids, but again, nothing different from the events of the movie or something similar.

Remember, the early Jurassic Park video games weren’t big on the story as they were vehicles to push more merchandise with the Jurassic Park brand. We wouldn’t get a good plot-based Jurassic Park game till 2011 with the TellTale video game of the same name.

Ancient Era Graphics (Graphics)

To say that the Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection is a product of a very specific era of gaming is an understatement. Limited Run Games has done a Konami in terms of what you get with this package. Each game in this collection comes with a couple of screen filters to mostly emulate the CRT TV or pixel monitor style from each era of the game, alongside a native or full-screen resolution and a background image to choose from. While the scan line of the 8-bit and 16-bit versions of the Jurassic Park games looks cool, the Portable version just looks blocky, with dark outlines making the overall product look horrible. Even the resolution changes don’t create any real decent attempt at upscaling, but more stretching the picture to fit the height of your TV frame. Seeing other collections handle this a lot better, given the excess power you’ll be using to play these emulated roms, seeing Jurassic Park in this limited style is a really sad feeling.

Moves Like A Flock of Aging Sloths (Gameplay)

Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection is nothing more than a bunch of Nintendo and SEGA roms played through custom emulation software to be run on modern hardware, and as we all know, with emulation software comes some of the usual issues. Issues such as input lag, which is prominent more on the GENESIS games and the PORTABLE games than anything else. At some times, the emulation will hang for a second, pushing the next 2-3 seconds of gameplay into a “fast forward” state, something that can cost a shot or a hit when playing.

Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection does come with good quality-of-life improvements, such as the ability to rewind the game to correct that fatal mistake, save states, maps of each stage, and selectable music tracks from each game. However, this is the minimum anyone would expect from emulation software, something we’ve had on our PCs for decades (except for the maps). I think all the extras from the TMNT Cowabunga Collection really spoilt us when it comes to retro game emulation on consoles.

65 Million Years of Ok-ish Fun (Replayability)

Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection isn’t one of those collections that gives you a bunch of extra content, or even other games to unlock. Once you have played and finished all seven games, there is nothing else left to do but to play them again. This brings up an issue with a lot of these collections, being that once the games are done, there is nothing else worth playing or doing until the next time you have the urge to play the games once again. To be honest, Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection isn’t one of those collections where I feel that you will be playing it over and over again, but more of a one-and-done till next year type of title. At least with something like the Metal Gear Solid Collection, you have extras that unlock to alter the game, or the TMNT Cowabunga Collection adds cheats to change things up. Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection needs something extra to make them worth playing more than once.

It’s Jurassic Park, not Jurassic World! (Closing)

For the 30th anniversary of the games that came out alongside the movie, the Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection is an okay collection for the era it is representing. It could have done with a few extra games like The Lost World or Jurassic Park 3 eras, which would have given this collection a more “complete” feel to things. But given that we only have the early games to play, things just feel like a quick and cheap cash-in on the part of the Jurassic Park branding that the main company forgot about.

Review Disclosure Statement: Jurassic Park Classic Game Collection was provided to us by Limited Run Games for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please go review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy for more info.