Not long ago, Limited Run Games shocked the gaming industry with a livestream showcasing a truly baffling amount of releases under their own publishing label, with the vast majority of these announcements being remasters or compilations of older titles from the 90s. There were oddball choices like remastering Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties, as well as bringing back Gex, but there was also the announcement of Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection, a compilation of 8-bit and 16-bit games based specifically on the first Jurassic Park movie. Not particularly a batch of games anyone was asking for, but hey, let’s see what this collection has to offer.

First of all, bear in mind that Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection is not a collection handled by M2 or Digital Eclipse. Limited Run Games did all of the dirty work on their own with a proprietary Carbon Engine. And I think this is where the problems begin. No, there is nothing particularly egregious with the emulation of these older ROMs. In this regard, kudos to you, Limited Run Games. Those games, varied as they might be in terms of looks, gameplay and feel, all run relatively well, sound just like they should, are upscaled, feature an optional filter, and you can create a save state.

The problem lies in the extras: the presentation, the preservation, the quality of life improvements (or lack thereof). Those games are cryptic and complicated to follow, especially the NES original, which is also, ironically enough, the best game in the collection. Those titles assume you have access to their manuals, where all the instructions and controls used to be printed on (‘member that, old folks?). Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection has none of that. All they have in terms of QoL improvements are a small area map which almost feels like it was taken straight from The Spriters Resource, and the aforementioned save state. The overall presentation is lackluster, the main menu UI feels like it was cobbled up in two hours.

The other big issue is a hard one to swallow… those games just aren’t very good. Granted, the NES one, which is an odd top-down shooter, is actually quite fun, with decent visuals for the console, and an excellent soundtrack. The SNES and Game Boy ports of the same game are vastly inferior. The Genesis / Mega Drive games are a bit different, being tough platformers with really unfair difficulty spikes, reminiscent of the game design laws of the time. They are as janky and unfair as, say, Gargoyles was. Some of them barely felt like a Jurassic Park game at all. The lack of John Williams’ iconic score in basically all of the games in the compilation was a glaring issue.

The games included in Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection are, at best, novelties, with the exception of maybe one or two titles, namely the NES original. I also feel the collection should have included more titles, such as the 3DO’s Jurassic Park Interactive and the Game Gear and Master System Jurassic Park games. If the intention of this collection was to preserve the (mixed-at-best) legacy of the original Jurassic Park‘s tie-in releases, then I feel more worked should had been put into it. As it stands, this is not a terrible first attempt from Limited Run Games in terms of remastering and emulating games, but they do need to improve upon the amount of extras and title variety included in their compilations.

Graphics: 6.0 Basic emulation and remastering efforts, for the most part, with the NES and SNES games looking particularly better than the rest. The main menu and overall interface are lazy as all hell, though.	Gameplay: 6.5 It depends on the game you’re playing, but the rule of thumb is simple: NES controls great, Genesis and SNES are janky, Game Boy is a mess.
Sound: 6.0 Some tunes are surprisingly catchy, but the lack of actual John Williams music in a Jurassic Park collection feels like a sin.	Fun Factor: 5.5 Just one or two games in this collection can be actually considered “fun”. The rest of them are, at best, novelties. I also feel the collection could have had a few more titles added to it, such as the Game Gear / Master System ports or the 3DO exclusive.
Final Verdict: 6.0

Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series S/X, PC and Switch.

Reviewed on Intel i7-12700H, 16GB RAM, RTX 3060 6GB.

A copy of Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection was provided by the publisher.