Description:
There's no denying it--kids love dinosaurs. Scan Command: Jurassic Park brings kids closer than ever to their thunder lizard pals as they struggle to find just the right genes to get them through the game's six tough levels. The story, as usual, is secondary to the action: players must make their way through detailed swamps, ruined laboratories, and the inside of a volcano to defeat the evil Dr. Corts. Plenty of puzzles and dinosaur enemies stand in the way, and can only be defeated by using the right combinations of DNA collected by scanning bar codes from around the house or at friendly stores. Scanning becomes surprisingly addictive, even for adults, and players might find themselves spending more time with the peripheral than with the game itself. Putting the DNA together is a neat exercise in spatial thinking, but what it really comes down to is guiding the velociraptor, T. rex, or Spinosaurus through their missions. Installation takes a bit more work than usual because of the scanning hardware, but this effort is rewarded with great gameplay. Unlike the films it is based on, the violence in this game is minimal and nonlethal. The dinosaurs are beautifully created here, and the DNA scanning keeps things interesting longer than most games of this type. (Ages 8 and older) --Rob Lightner
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