The Lost World: Jurassic Park Game (Classic)

The Lost World Jurassic Park Game

• designer: uncredited
• publisher: Milton Bradley
• date: 1996
• BoardGameGeek rank/rating: 7266/5.84
• age: 8+
• # of players: 2-4
• print status: OOP

You may or may not be a fan of the films - for the record, I really liked the first one, tolerated the second one, and ignored the third one - but if you like dinosaurs, you'll love the whole "run or be eaten" vibe that the game gives off. 

You'll also love the cool bits vibe as well - as you can see from the picture, the game has a number of cardboard buildings that you assemble & use for play. (Unusual for an American game - there's actually a diagram to show you how to get them all back in the box!) 

The game is pretty simple - the human player (or players) start with 12 people and are trying to get them across the ruined compound to the helicopter pad. (Three people escaped counts as a win.) The dinosaur player has a T-Rex & four 'raptors to chase down & eat the humans. Each team has a different set of dice for movement. One of the dice for each side is a "go/stop" dice - on a "go" roll, you do your move & then roll again. On a "stop" roll, your turn ends with this move. (There's a lot of complaining about this particular mechanic on the Geek - there are a couple of fixes posted in the forums there & both of them look like they'd work pretty well. It hasn't bothered us that much - it's just the way a dice-heavy game goes sometimes.) 

Players can hide in buildings - but there are ways for the raptors to jump in and eat everyone. Thankfully, raptors who get into buildings sometimes have a hard time getting out, which is good for the humans. There's no hiding in the start building, however - that's what the T-Rex is there to prevent. He rumbles forward during the early turns & when he arrives eats whoever is left in the building.

For the human player(s), it's a game of lunging forward to safe zones and hoping for streaky runs... while the dinosaur player usually ends up playing a combination of offense (sending raptors forward to snack on humans caught outside) and defense (keeping a raptor or two close to the helipad to pick up anyone who's trying to make an end run.)

It's not a particularly balanced game - again, something that bothers some folks over on the Geek. I think it's actually part of the charm of the game - the dinosaur player has a built-in advantage that makes this a great parent/kid game. In our case, Dad takes the humans & my son takes the dinos - I'm lucky to get 3 players out! (I have got as many as 5 and as few as, well, zero.)

Along the same lines, there's:

Jurassic Park III: Island Survival Game

• designer: uncredited
• publisher: Milton Bradley
• date: 2001
• BoardGameGeek rank/rating: 7179/5.88
• age: 8+
• # of players: 2-4
• print status: OOP

Also unbalanced, but it works much better for 3 or 4 players. This time around, the dinosaur player is at a disadvantage. Still, a ton of fun in the box.

Avoid at all costs the Jurassic Park III: Spinosauras Chase game... blech. (There are actually 4 more licensed games for JP franchise - these are the only three I've played.)

This is an updated version of post that appeared a VERY long time ago on this blog... and which I've trotted back out in honor of Jurassic World. (No, I haven't seen any of the licensed games from the newest member of the franchise.)