THE EXPLOSIVE REVIEW

Story:
You have crashed on Isla Nublar aka Jurassic Park and must collect the eggs of seven species of dinosaurs scattered around the park. You have a real-time twelve hour limit in order to accomplish this.

Graphics:
The graphics are top of the notch for 1993. Movie-like quality, tons of detailed frame speed, solid pixels, the ability to pan in 360 degree motion, and smooth moving images. The graphics suit it well, from your movement to the reactions and attacks of the animals themselves. Visually, this game is much more well put together than its Sega Genesis counterpart which was a totally different animal in of itself.

Controls:
It’s a point-and-click adventure game, it’s rather easy to get the hang of here, even if you have never played a point-and-click game before, you’ll pick up on this long before you tune into the mechanics like use of items and battle options. Overall, no complaints whatsoever. Point-and-click games are really that hard anyway.

Gameplay:
Although it’s a point-and-click game, it has a lot of focus on action sequences with split-second timing. You must work your way around the park, collecting dinosaur eggs under a real twelve hour time limit (ala “Prince of Persia”). You play from a first person perspective with a panoramic view of your environment and surroundings, you have plenty of tools to interact with it as well as weapons (a stun gun, gas grenades, and tranquilizer darts), none that are exactly dangerous but most of the combat here is often disguised as a puzzle of sorts, so you’ll have to do a little more than just shoot in order to survive.

The game has mixed difficulty, you may find yourself taking up to an hour in one area of the park. You don’t have all the time in the world here, you only have twelve hours to accomplish all of your objectives which range from collecting dinosaur eggs, fixing areas of the park, restoring power, and avoiding bad guys who eventually show up.

Overall:

 This is a very enjoyable game as long as you complete your objectives and do what you need to do. The game also makes several references to characters and events from the original book by Michael Crichton; I think it’s somewhat like a precursor to “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” in some ways.

“Jurassic Park” also has a eerily creepy vibe to it as well - You’re all alone in a park with all these dinosaurs, there’s no dialogue, you’re on your own, and there’s bad guys on their way to the island who will show up in the later hours of the game (trust me, when you see that helicopter coming in and landing somewhere beyond your horizon, you will feel a lump in your throat). It’s too bad Sega CD didn’t come out with more games of quality like this one.

Rating: ***1/2

Story:
In an apocalyptic 2029, the Earth has been ravaged by a nuclear war brought on upon by self-aware AI, resulting in a Humans vs. Machines war. The AI in question, Skynet, sends back a cyborg (they’re called Terminators) to the year 1984 terminate Sarah Connor, the mother of John Connor, who will grow up to become the leader of the future resistance. At the same time, a rebel named Kyle Reese has been sent back to 1984 as well to protect Sarah from Skynet’s Terminator.

Graphics:
It’s a 2D side-scroller and much of the graphics may appear to be cartoonish, but hey, what else can you expect from this era of video games? The graphics do get the job done for the most part, I’ll give it that. It’s not “Super Mario Bros.” graphics, but it does work.

Controls:
The controls are very tight, you are able to jump and control basic maneuvers very easily. There’s nothing here that interferes with this aspect of the game.

Gameplay:
Well, the first couple of levels have absolutely nothing to do with the film itself, it takes place in future Los Angeles 2029, you play as Kyle Reese and you have to jump buildings and even take out a fighter jet in order to reach Sarah Connor in 1984. The rest of the levels stay true however. This game does a have a fairly high amount of difficulty associated with it, you must survive every level without losing any of your lives or else you’ll start over from the very top. For the most part, the gameplay is half action-packed and half-snorefest.

Overall:
Just to clarify, the Sega CD version of “The Terminator” is not just a straight Genesis conversion with enhancements here and there (which most Sega CD side-scrollers are widely known and criticized for). There are ten brand new levels, new backgrounds, animations, cinematic intermissions, and they even gave it a new musical score.

This isn’t the best ‘Terminator’ game out there, but once you start playing it, you may just feel like following through to the very end just to see what comes out of it for you. On a personal note, however, I kind of felt like each time I played it, it seemed more worse than the last as things just became uninteresting. If you’re a hardcore ‘Terminator’ fan though, you just might play it through for a second time.

Rating: ***