Review: LEGO Jurassic World Delivers on Nostalgia and Dino SMASH!

Would you like to experience Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Jurassic Park III, Jurassic World. as LEGO characters? There’s a video game for that!

While Jurassic World wasn’t all I hoped it would be, LEGO Jurassic World the video game was all that and more! We got a review copy for XBox One and while it’s similar in style to most of the other LEGO video games, it has playable DINOSAURS.

Let’s go through the game features mentioned on the website first:

–Relive key moments from all four Jurassic films: An adventure 65 million years in the making – now in classic LEGO brick fun!

Besssssssst. OK, yes, reliving the films is one of the best parts of the game. Why? Well, these are films I enjoy. Getting to play them with adorable minifigs and added comedy are so much fun!

–Wreak havoc as LEGO dinosaurs: Choose from 20 dinosaurs, including the friendly Triceratops, deadly Raptor, vicious Compy and even the mighty T. rex.

Ok, yes, playing as the dinosaurs is SUPER cool but like many other awesome characters/features, it takes a while to unlock all the good stuff, especially if you don’t manage to snag the amber items on each level (which are the dinos). Some of them are difficult to work with while others, like the raptors, can actually build LEGO items and interact with other things in levels similar to the minifigs. But you also get to smash stuff with your tail, head, etc. which is tons of fun.

–Customize your own dinosaur collection: Collect LEGO amber and experiment with DNA to create completely original dinosaurs, like the Dilophosaurus Rex.

So I made a few “original” dinos but if I’m being honest… I’m not sure what I was doing. That portion of the game could have used a bit more explanation. But a raptor with a tric head is BOSS.

–Populate and explore Isla Nublar and Isla Sorna: Put your unique dinosaur creations in to paddocks as you complete special Free Play missions.

Holy crap, this game is HUGE. It seems best if you follow along with the story through its completion. If you stray off the path or try to go back and smash some stuff in non-level areas, you’ll find yourself wasting time traveling back and forth. And things go a little wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey once you get to Jurassic World considering it takes place in the same “space” as Jurassic Park but not the same “time.” That doesn’t affect gameplay, however.

–Play with family and friends with easy access drop-in, drop-out gameplay option. (Available on console only.)

I hate split screen.

• A few of my dislikes before getting to what I loved about the game.
• The chase scenes are frequent and annoying. I get that dinosaurs are on the loose and after the humans but after the fourth scene where I was playing from the perspective of viewing my own characters getting chased while adjusting my directionals, I was over it.
• Once you complete the story, finding the levels to play over again (or free play) is difficult. The world is expansive overall, which is great for feeling like you’ve gotten a lot of product for what you paid for, but not so great when you need to accomplish certain tasks.
• Remember in Jurassic Park III when Ellie gets the desperate phone call from Grant and sends out literally the entire military to save him? Yeah, they decided to skip over that part. A part they didn’t skip over but wish they had? The babysitting assistant from Jurassic World (if you saw it, you know what I’m talking about).
• The glitches. Ohhh, the glitches.

“HALP”

They weren’t so bad that I was throwing my controller across the room but they need to be mentioned. Especially when once caused my tric to “walk” on her head and then “walk” on the sky, so far up I eventually was in freaking SPACE and then endless nothing until I stopped “walking” and fell horrifically back to Earth.

That aside, you not only get a playable Mr. DNA character, he also joins you on the loading screen to give you dino facts! Though they were interspersed with fake info about Jurassic Park itself, which may be a tad confusing to some younger players.

Some other stuff I liked.

• Chris Pratt’s voice acting. For the first three films, voice work is simply clips from the film, which are clunky at times but wasn’t distracting to me since I have seen them so many times and was expecting them. But for Jurassic World the actors actually produced original lines and Pratt’s were the best.
• Baby dinos! You can play as BABY DINOSAURS! And dinosaur skeletons too!!!
• I’ve only just started in on the free play levels and the open portions of the island. There is so much left to explore and I feel like this might be the one LEGO game I wind up playing through more than once because of its nostalgia factor.
• Easter eggs! No spoilers but there were a few fun characters/items snuck into the game.
• Goldblum.
• Goldblum.
• Goldblum.

If you like the LEGO games and love Jurassic Park, I highly recommend picking this title up.

LEGO Jurassic World is available in North America on Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Wii U, Nintendo 3DS and PC.

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