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SUMMARY:

The Lost World: Jurassic Park movie and The Lost World Sony PlayStation video game are both well known for their amazing aesthetic values. The movie featured some of the best special effects ever scene on the big screen, and the PlayStation video game, developed by DreamWorks Interactive, featured some very impressive background 3-D backgrounds and some very impressive character animation. But, the movie lacked a good plot and the PlayStation game was plagued with horrid gameplay.

The Sega Saturn version of The Lost World has managed to improve the gameplay a little bit, but at the same time, it falls short of the graphic splendor of the PlayStation version. The game is your basic side-scrolling platform game with three-dimensional polygonal backgrounds. There are a total of 31 levels in the game which have you use three different species of dinosaur characters and two human characters.

When the game begins, you start out as a Compsognathus, which is called a "Compy" for short. The Compy is a very small dinosaur that as an adult grows no bigger than a turkey. While it is a fast little dinosaur and it is a meat eater, the Compy is a pretty boring dinosaur and it is a shame that you get stuck playing nine levels with this creature.

After the Compy levels, you then get the chance to play as the human hunter. The hunter's levels are some of the better levels of the game as he controls much better than any of the dinosaurs, but at the same time, the levels are still difficult to the point of frustration, just like the levels with the dinosaurs. As the human hunter you get to use several different weapons; like tranquilizer darts, nerve gas, rocket grenades, flares and flame throwers. The weapons are pretty cool to use, but it always seems that you never have enough ammunition to make it through the level. The hunter also has a grappling hook that he must use quite often to get through his levels. In total, you must play through six levels as the hunter.

Once you have completed the levels with the hunter you then get to play through about five levels with the ferocious Velociraptor, which is also known simply as the Raptor. The Raptor is undoubtedly one of the coolest dinosaurs in the Jurassic Park movies as it is extremely intelligent, cunning and deadly. The Raptor is a cool creature to play with, but the control is horrid and the levels are frustratingly difficult, mainly because it seems impossible to avoid being hit by attacks from the humans.

After the completion of the levels with the Raptor, you get to control what is without a doubt the most popular of all the dinosaurs, the T-Rex, which has been dubbed "the king of the dinosaurs." The T-Rex is a huge and cumbersome creature that is a royal pain to control. There is really no way to avoid attacks and the damage that you take while playing as the T-Rex seems too much for such a powerful beast. Nevertheless, controlling this mighty creature does have a certain coolness factor, as it is extremely powerful.

And finally, you get to finish off the game as human characters (male and female) in levels which involve you running away from various dinosaurs. The control of the regular human characters are pretty solid, but the levels with them are still frustratingly hard as they contain many areas were it takes perfect jumps or perfectly timed actions to get through them.

PLAYABILITY: 4/10

The Saturn version of The Lost World actually turns out to be a lot gameplay wise when compared to the PlayStation version because the difficulty isn't quite nearly as hard and the control is a tad bit easier. With the PlayStation version, it was just too insanely difficult to kill other dinosaurs with any of your characters and a lot of the time, your best strategy was to run like a fox. But, in the Saturn version, the difficulty isn't quite nearly as annoying and is bearable in most stages. But, it still features the chase levels where you make one mistake and you end up dead. This is made worse because the control just isn't as tight and responsive as it could have been, although it is a bit better than the PlayStation version.

The game's control on the whole is still pretty horrid. One of the reasons for this is the bad collision detection with other characters and dinosaurs. And other problem is that jumping sequences can be a royal pain in the ass because many times you will need to jump in the middle of a movement, but because it is in between animations, you can't. By the way, the game works with Sega's Analog control pad and the control is actually pretty smooth when using the analog pad. Still not good, but better.

REPLAY VALUE: 5/10

With over 30 levels, some secrets, five different characters and a very interesting premise, The Lost World has the potential of being a very re-playable game. But, the game's awful control and difficulty really destroy its replay value.

GRAPHICS: 7/10

The graphics in the Saturn version are almost as nice as the PlayStation version, but the characters are not quite as detailed, the backgrounds seem to have less color and the game's frame rate seems to drop in some areas of the game. Otherwise, the graphics are still fairly good and the dinosaurs and human characters are animated very well.

SOUND: 8/10

The sound and music in The Lost World are the most impressive feature of this game. The roars of the dinosaurs and especially the T-Rex are really great and will surely impress you. The music is also quite good as it is orchestrated extremely well and helps adds to the game.

OVERALL: 6.5/10

Despite minor improvements in the gameplay over the PlayStation version, The Lost World for the Sega Saturn is still an bad game that should be avoided unless you happen to be a collector of Jurassic Park merchandise.