The Lost World (Genesis) - Part 1

Lost World is a novel story written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It's about an expedition find the never-discovered-before mysterious natural region that is inhabited by (most interestingly) Dinosaurs and (most boringly) apemen. They manage to explore it and stay alive to tell their achievement. But that's not the Lost World that i review this time. It's the sequel of Jurassic Park ^tm.

As far as i know, there is 3 'The Lost World - Jurassic Park' games. One is for PS1/PSX console that features various role that player can play as ranging from itty bitsy compy compsognathus, human, T-rex, etc. There is also Lightgun shooter game made by Sega for Arcade. And another one is top-down shooter made by Appaloosa in 1997 for Sega Genesis console. I review the later because it's bring my fantastic elementary-schooler's memory of gaming. So it must be really good, right?! It's your decision.

There is helicopter lands about to land at helipad in Nubar Island. According to the movie, it transport Malcolm and Co, right? I think with that helicopter that size, it can only carry 2 passenger (cramply).

So it transports Malcolm and Dr. Grant?! There is no way that hat guy isn't Dr. Grant. I mean who else looks bad blood enough to wear that kind of hat. It could be Indiana Jones?! Nah! He is definitely in wrong movie way too much. Suitable? Perhaps. I just assume that he is Dr. Grant that get lured by Malcolm's childish trick. With lines like "Hey, Grant! We survive from that dinosaurs accident because of me, you know?!","That's rubbish", "Well, if you want to prove that you're the hero at that time. Why don't you come with me to that island again?", "Fine, Malcolm. Count me in!". No way that happen, right?. Anyway, here Dr. Grant is the player one and Ian Malcolm is the player two. "I need to take leak for awhile. Wait for me here, Malcolm!" said Dr. Grant. Malcolm replied "Sure thing!". 

Short moment later, Dr Grant is alone by himself. "Goddamn you, Malcolm! I will kick your butt and feed you with my shoes once we meet again". So sole Dr Grant has to go to mobile lab where Malcolm and Co reside there peacefully for now.

A button to change weapon, B button to shoot current weapon, and C button :

·         1) to get in vehicle, if you press it near vehicle

·         2) to sprint for a moment, while moving and tap it repeatedly (twice i think). You can sprint again   after you stop moving and use it once only

·         3) to lock your aim/facing thus allow to strafe by holding down the button. 

You should know how top-down shooter works: shoot enemies by facing them then press the shoot button and complete each of stage objective. But there is more to it than that here. For example, there is enemy's 2 health bars that you currently engage with also with its symbol/icon in top-right screen. Here, i'm currently engage with Dilophosaurus (he/she has frilled dino icon, you see?!) as many of you know that he/she is not either strong or durable dino but has ability to spit you. Also you see he/she has 2 health bars, red and grey. Red bar indicates how much his/her life. While Grey bar indicate how much his/her stamina/vitality/etc. Depleting your enemy's red bar and he/she will dies. While depleting his/her grey bar and he/she will faints/KO then drops 'Jurassic Park' Icon.   

Here is spinning 'Jurassic Park' Icon in case you don't believe me. Also i have collected 5 of them (indicated by top-right HUD when you aren't fighting with dino/human). What's the benefit of collecting them? Well...

 ...you will get provision that is dropped from the sky presumably from Mr. Hammond himself to smooth things up for you. It contains 1up, armor, rare-weapon-in-current-stage ammo, and less-rare-weapon-in-current-stage ammo. That if you collect 6 JP icons. You can call the supply earlier with less lucrative content that depends on quantity of collected JP icons. Enemies may respawn but it can be useful for you as long as you remember to subdue those dinos instead of make them extinct again. Initially, you have shotgun, tranquilizer dart gun, taser, and assault rifle with 5 mags. Using shotgun/assault/explosive weapons will deplete dino's life thus (obviously) killing him/her. Using the dart will damage some dino's life and also damage him/her stamina's at roughly twice amount. While taser will only whittle dino's stamina really small amount. Also at very close range so you will often get bitten/licked/trampled/headbutted if you use it. So basically use the dart gun to grind those JP icons from dinos! Also in this screenshoot is card like item (above direction sign). That is card map that if you collect them you will get whole area map of current stage. Handy!     

Before i go to the direction that sign (in previous screenshoot) directs me to. I like to show you this menu. You can access it by pressing start button. Review messages is mission briefing, area scanner is map also enemy & important-object detector, dinosaur fact is data about dino-type enemy, mission status is objective progress status, and air support is manually provision call. I seldom bother with the last one because i can automatically call for supply everytime i have collected 6 JP icons also with maximum content. So what's Dr Grant mission?

Also beat the hell of Malcolm ASAP. I'm quite fine with poisonous plant's existence in this island. But land mines?? I don't recall about the hunters establish a minefield in the movie. So the hunters in this game version are really evil and jerk toward island's inhabitant. Yeah that's make sense.

I found this combat car that can shoot high-speed bullet to blast anyone or anything that's get in my way. Thanks to that sign. The car's steering isn't common like any car in other games. You don't accelerate it by pressing up, reverse it by pressing down, and turning it by pressing left/right. Instead it move relatively to the direction button you press. For instance, pressing up will make the car move & face up, then down button will make it reverse so simply press direction button other than up or down to make it turn according to the direction you press (e.g: left, up-right). This control may sounds weird to you. But elementary-schooler me isn't troubled with/understands this kind of vehicle's control and can make the vehicle drift around until now. I have weird talent, perhaps?! Another thing that worth to write is about the existing barrels or crates. Most of the time they contain med-kit/bigger med-kit/armor/ammo/1Up/etc. But some other time it explode and harm you if you're close with it. There is simple way to detect whether the barrel/crate is exploding or not: shoot it with the dart gun. If it's not break immediately and exposes its content then it will blow up. I don't recommend using shotgun, assault rifle, or any explosive weapon for crate/barrel-check. If you do that, most of the time you will destroy item inside it which is no good, don't you think?!

Here i found my first checkpoint. I thought it was Jolly Roger flag. But upon careful examination, i can see that it is actually flag with tiny/blurry JP symbol. But i won't stop you to think that Dr. Grant has part-time job as pirate. Archaeologists have to be delicate and careful toward their finding. So to satiate Dr Grant' need for violence manner, he become pirate. Quite make sense, huh?! 

Here you're about to witness  a daring yet stupid mine-clearing method. I push the small medkit toward a mine to detonate it harmlessly. It's better than i use myself or this car to detonate a mine which is what the bastards hope for. Let's talk about the player's health system. Once you get armour or still have it, it will overrides your health. Also you will be considered in full health state so you can't take the medkits and you can push it like i do here. There is also several max limit like: 20 for assault rifle ammo and 9 lives.  About the mine clearing? The medkit only serve as 1 time service so i search the assault rifle ammo (which is not far from here) to clear 2 more mines. Then i can go forward with my car. Cheers!

Usually i dislike killing dinos except for some Juvenile T-Rex (because they can inflict lot damage but can drop 2 JP icons instead of 1). But regarding human-type enemy, my morality turns 180^o degree. I shoot them, ram them over, or i shoot then ram them over. No need to give those sumbeets luxury to live longer mercy! Am i potential sociopath? Perhaps. Back to the game, initially these hunters shoot small and slow orb/bullet. But they can take assault rifle ammo and then shoot some hit-scan bullet barrage like you do. Actually, they can take any ammo and use it just like you do! Later on they can toss grenade or have armor. The more reason you have to make them perish ASAP. They will drop ammo when they die. It can be useful for you or their fellow. So be careful!

After some-distance driving, Dr. Grant manage to arrive to the mobile lab. It looks quite similar with the ones in the movie. Almost forgot that while inside the car you are save from poisonous plant's harm.

Dr. Grant are currently beating Ian Malcolm while wildly swearing. Please wait for a moment and enjoy this image of 2 peaceful T-Rex give you a password for next stage instead!

After the violent scuffle, Dr. Grant lands in Isla Sorna Site 1 by parachute. Where he parachute from? Must not be from airplane or chopper because that is not in the movie. My best guess: from very high cliffside. Here Dr. Grant is armorless despite his armor is intact last time (unless it get shredded while brawling with Ian Malcolm). Everytime you finish a stage or get new password, you will be armorless and keep all the arsenal & JP icons from previous time. Also the enemies will inflict more damage and take less damage. This state is stacking everytime you finish a stage or get new password again. I suggest you reset then enter the password to continue this game. You will have initial arsenal, sure. But you will have armor. Also the enemies aren't grow stronger. Unless you want to challenge yourself.

Brown pickup from previous screenshoot is grenades. On the upper screen is electro-field fence or whatever that is. To disable it (so i can move further), i have to destroy the generator like the one in screenshoot by lobbing a grenade. Simple enough. Isla Sorna site 1 is mission-hub stage so you will have to find and clear all missions here before you go to next stage. Some mission's entrances are initially blocked, some are not. Almost missions in every mission-hub stage are top-down shooter game with certain objective. But there is always 1 last mission in it that are in alternative gameplay instead of a bout with damage-soaker boss in top-down shooter genre like most other game with same genre do. So that's quite a curve ball from Appaloosa. Well done! Did you know that the mission-hub section isn't 100% safe place? There is still dinos lurking around. At least you can stock-up JP icon here, right?! First i will choose...

Active Sensor

  My mission is to activate 9 sensors simply by touching every one of them. Sensors of what? I don't know. It looks like a beacon, i think.

Another important thing about the air supply (*sic*) is make sure you call it in wide-enough area. The example of minimum area for it is like in this screenshoot. If the supply drops in "wall" section, either you can't reach it or its contain will go Kapoot. It sucks, you know?!

Another weapon you can use is this Gas grenade. When you throw it, it will blows and emits 3 white smoke (as you can see from this screenshoot). It damages the vitality bar (only) depend on how close the dino to the smoke and can be used to deal with multiple dino so it's simply the best weapon to subdue dinos. But it's quite rare to have. Unless you hoard those JP icons diligently. 

Most of stones/rocks are scenery object. But some are destroyable obstacle that hinder you from hidden fortunes. To know whether a stone/rock is just decoration or not, aside from its different tone-color/contrast is simply shoot it. When it has "health" bar, that means it's destroyable. Small stone like in this screenshoot can be "persuaded" to go forever by "giving" it a grenade.

In this stage you will meet hunter that hides within a cylindrical bunker. He shoot circular-pattern bullets or throw a grenade when he spots you. So i give him 2 grenades for his bravado from distance. At least he won't respawns.

Then there is this hunter who hide behind sandbags until you are close enough and he starts to take a pot-shoot on your head or give you a grenade. You know what to do to deal with him? Yes! Feed him grenade! But seriously, you can't defeat him by firing assault rifle or shotgun. Also grenades are quite abundant here.

From land to water. From car to boat. Whoooo-hoo! There are some sensors across the water so it's sensible they give me water vehicle.

Another use of grenade beside to destroy generator, destroyable obstacle, bunker, sandbag bastard, or any enemy that you really hate: to clear the mine like what i do here. Can you really detonate a mine with a grenade in real life? I'm very curious about that.

Here is large stone that can't be destroyed by tossing grenade at it. These kind of stone can't be only destroyed by heavy-explosive type weapon like missile or homing missile that can be found on later stages. So how can you destroy this stone that can only be destroyed by weapon that is not exist here? Is this big unfairness from game?? Relax! There is another heavy-explosive type weapon that can be found in this stage: mines. they are really rare but you will get them from maximum provision or alternatively you have to kill hunter nearby that happily lay mines and eventually will drop some of them. How to use the mine to blow the big stone? Just place it very close to the stone and very-shortly it will go boom! Remind me the day when i play Worms and placing mine very close to the victim instead using dynamite which is more reasonable.  

Here is Stego's corpse that blocks a way to the main southern island. You can blow him to pieces in order to give access for the car. Me? I just push him gently so i can walk through him. By 'push him gently' i mean knock him back by throwing a grenade from this side. It's still considerably gentle, allright?!

After i activated all 9 sensors, i accomplish the mission. The site's entrance is blocked and there is the flag near it as proof, you see?! You will be given another password each time you finish a mission in mission-hub stage. Of course when you input it, you will return to the mission-hub stage with mission progression is the same as the last time you play . So you can play this game quite leisurely. Next mission i will take is...

Cave Rescue

It said that i have to venture through this cave and rescue an ally. This cave is inhabited by Dilophosaurs and Velociraptors like the one i engage here. So far, they are more fierce than any dino-type. But that won't stop you from neutralize them without removing their live, will you?! Hint: Mr. Hammond's support supply.

Not only Velociraptors, this cave also has lava pools, and fiery gusts to serves as natural hazards. Also there will be falling rocks, hot steams, and flames. What a wonderful cave, huh?!

Here is rare moment that shows how useful the taser weapon is. The raptor really eager to chew my face but he is hampered by these destroyable rocks. Of course i won't destroy them before i electrocute him to tranquil state. Here's another topic about the shooting aspect: dart gun, shotgun, and assault rifle have aim correction approximately from -5^o to 5^o so it can be helpful for aiming your gun. I also like to give you other tip about the arsenal: taser is very-short-range but passes wall or obstacle (like in this screenshoot), dart gun's range is not so far and its projectile is bit slow, shot gun has faster projectile and knockback enemy a bit, and assault rifle is hit-scan weapon (it means no projectile or immediately hit the target) also can inflict very devastating damage.   

Here is the ally that need to be rescued. I call him 'redhuntr' because when you write that word in password you can play as him. He doesn't have unique feature though, he only has special sprite. Anyway, he tell me that there is a generator in south direction that powers this electro field that block the exit. Also he will be chilling near the checkpoint like before, unless i blow the generator first. Thanks, lazy bloke! Did i mention before that the cave also have electro fields that need to be unpowered by destroying corresponded generator? My bad.

Look! There is flames that i mention before. There is no button to take of hat and use it to sweep them away hoping to extinguish them or blow them with your mouth intensively. Instead you use the (very valuable for capturing dinos) gas grenade. I know this since i am elementary-schooler. Why? I kind of forget how elementary-schooler me discovered this vital secret. My best guess is trial & error with any arsenal that he has. But the game gives you a faint hint by putting some gas grenades in a corner not far from here. So there is that.  

After i blow the generator up and return to that checkpoint. Redhuntr roughly follows me in the back. Whenever there is enemy, he won't assist you although he carry gun like me and has bandolier strapped on his body. This could be bad or good depends of how your perspective. I think it's good because i always keen on subduing dinos not killing them. And subduing dinos is delicate procedure, you know?! So his interference assistance is needless to me.

By the way, redhuntr is immortal. So feel free to treat him as your human shield especially from velociraptor's claw or bite. He shouts "Ouch", "Quit it!", or "Don't shoot me" whenever you shoot him accidently or purposely. If he is invulnerable, why he needs rescue? I think because he feel lonely. Pathetic! It's quite long way to escort him to cave's exit, but eventually this mission is over. Next mission is...

Stegos Abduction

If you know that Ian Malcolm and Co. are the good guys from the movie, you probably think that this mission is to prevent stegosaurus being abducted. Sadly, that's not the case. As the mission's title suggests, i'm here for stego-napping. My mission is to capture 3 stegos. Any more than 3, Reese (from dinosaur for hire) will starts to hate me. That's really disheartening me. By the way here's the cage for capturing stego. The mission briefing tells me that i must lure them into the cage and there's 2 way: gently push stego by tasering his/her behind or shoot him/her with dart gun and run like hell. Alternatively, you can make eye contact from distance and run like hell. Whatever method you pick, the stegos must enter the cage from its bottom-left end (the opened one, duh!). Can you guess which method that i choose?  

Stego: Heavy battlecry02.wav

Dr. Grant/me : Sniper helpme03.wav

I use the dart gun because taser method will make stego walks to direction that i don't want to and in small distance. Also i'm quite impatience person. If there is case where the stego is kind of dying, i use the eye-contact method. So, yeah! Don't kill the stego or you fail this mission! Definitely, don't use lethal weapon!

After i captured the 1st Stego, Mr. Hammond send me car so i can travel safely through field of poisonous plants and later catch 2 more Stegos. I'm so sorry, Reese! TvT

Bike Race

Here's the last mission in the 1st hub-missions stage (Isla Sorna Site 1), the Bike Race. As i told you before that the last mission won't be in top-down shooter. In this case, the game become 'First Person Motorbike" genre or sort of that. My mission is quite simple: shoot the hunters that harassing the velociraptor there and then shoot him/her yourself until his/her health bar is depleted. Also don't ram the trees that grow here or your bike will get damage. The control is simple too: left & right button to nudge your bike then A, B, or C button to shoot mini-rocket/harpoon/rocket-shaped dart. This mission rises question: 1) Why the raptor is act so cowardly here? 2) If i have to defeat the raptor, why can't i just let the hunters wound him/her big time and then deal the finishing strike? Maybe the answer: 1) When raptor sees human on foot, "Yummy, fresh food". but when he/she sees human riding motorcycle, "EEEK! Oh my God!" and start running between tail and leg. 2) It's race. So Dr Grant have to kill the raptor by himself only to achieve victory.

After you make those 2 hunter exploding, you will be near enough with the raptor then you can whittle his/her health for a moment. Then there's other 2 hunter chase him/her. Rinse and repeat. Your shoot has cooldown indicated by the crosshair. Mind that too!

After intense biking'n'shooting action (the most intense part is the trees-avoiding aspect), the raptor goes down. Finally, Malcolm and Co can have Raptor Steak for diner. Most of the time, they get chased relentlessly by these 950 lbs carnivore lizards. And now, time for payback!

So, what Dr. Grant will do next? Protecting Brachiosaurs? Destroying egg nests? Showdown with T. Rex? Assassinate hunter's leader? Saving Sarah? Fishing Ichtyosaurs? Transporting a dino with helicopter? You will have to play the game yourself to answer that question. Or you can read the part two.    

Here's bonus:

 This password will unlock deathmatch mode. So you and your friend/relative/family can blast each other face with grenade or even missile!