Jurassic Park: Classic Games Collection

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.

The Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection, much like Jurassic Park itself, is bringing history into the modern age. Not all of these games are outright relics; the Game Boy versions may benefit from being smaller games. While in Jurassic Park, it meant accidentally unleashing killer Dinosaurs, in the case of this collection, it is unleashing some frustrating retro games onto an unsuspecting public.

I’ve long since come around on the idea that the games in a collection must be great for it to be worthwhile, but in situations like Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection there just isn’t enough here to explain to players why these games are worth having out there again. I mean, yes. There is value in simply getting old licensed games out again in any form. But if you go to all the trouble of doing that, I’d love to see the extra mile gone to explain the context and history of these games. The changes and minor emulation hiccups are understandable and easily forgiven, but these games would benefit greatly from something better than the no-frills, brown paper bag approach we’ve got here.

Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection is a celebration of the 30 years of Jurassic Park, bundling together almost all direct adaptations of the first film into a single package. While the idea of preserving these games from obscurity is commendable, it must be noted that these titles were mostly forgettable even 30 years ago and have little to offer in 2023. Except for Jurassic Park: Rampage Edition, the other games are hardly enjoyable, even for the most dedicated fans. The absence of some titles, such as arcade adaptations, further diminishes the value of the collection. As it stands, Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection is primarily geared towards those who played these games in their heyday and want to relive their childhood or those genuinely interested in tracing the evolution of the franchise in the gaming realm.

Unfortunately, you can only work with what the era of Pogs and Blockbusters gave you and the Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection is a collection of titles mostly for novelty and nostalgia value. There is fun to be had if you are the type of person with a hankering for some raptor spankering, but likely, this will leave most newcomers feeling a little lost and underwhelmed by the difficulty and lack of features to make all on offer here more accessible.