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Jurassic Park III: Dino Defender is a 2001 side-scrolling video game as franchise to the movie Jurassic Park III. The player is depicted as a person in a robot-like suit hired by Jurassic Park to bring power back to the electrified fences and capture all the free-roaming dinosaurs. The game has six levels, but seems only like five due to the easy training level.

Story[]

After the training mission, the player is shown a cutscene. It shows a typhoon raging across Jurassic Park and destroying the fences. The dinosaurs were let loose, and the player is briefed that one must trap all the dinosaurs "before they destroy each other". The helicopters drop gear in supply boxes onto Isla Sorna. "Call boxes" can be used to lure dinosaurs and various other weapons to either trap, distract or tranquilize them. "Circuit breakers" scattered around the island can be switched on to activate the island's electricity.

Gameplay[]

The player must move around obstacles and find supply boxes, switch on circuit breakers(to bring power to the island) and avoid dinosaurs. To collect gear to capture/tranquilize a certain dinosaur, the player must find a 'supply box' which contains a certain number of both 'call boxes', which are small microphones that play a dinosaur call, causing dinosaurs of that species to investigate. The other supply is gear, which can be a net, a tranquilizer or a distraction flare, which can be used to capture or distract dinosaurs.

At some points in the game, a player will have to swim underwater. When a player is underwater, an "air" gauge appears, which slowly decreases. If the gauge runs out before the player breaks the surface of the water, he dies.

Once the player has completed the game, one is rewarded with trading cards showing the dinosaurs the player has captured, which can be printed out. You must capture all of the dinosaurs of that species to actually get the trading card.

Dinosaurs[]

There are 6 dinosaur species featured in Dino Defender.

Carnivores[]

The carnivores in the game, when come in contact with, will 'kill' the player. When a player dies, a cutscene is shown of the attacking dinosaur running towards the player and the angle disappears into the dinosaur's mouth. The player is then placed back at the beginning of the level unless where the last circuit breaker was activated or where the player last saved his or her game.

Herbivores[]

Both herbivores can kill the player; the Stegosaurus can kill one with its tail, and the Brachiosaurus drops branches down onto the player. In Level 4 the player must jump onto the Brachiosaurus's head, however the dinosaur is moving and can knock the player off.

Others[]

  • Jellyfish - found in most large bodies of water. They take no notice of the player, and cannot be incapacitated or killed. If the player makes contact with them while underwater, his or her air gauge will decrease much faster.
  • Seaweed - while this is not an animal at all, the players air reserve will decrease faster when coming in contact with seaweed moving in the underwater currents. Like the jellyfish, the seaweed, and the danger it poses, cannot be removed.

Trivia[]

  • The game features a (mostly unseen) fight between a Tyrannosaurus rex and a Spinosaurus, which the Tyrannosarus appears to win. This could be a homage/response to the fight between the two species in the film which featured the alternative outcome and caused much controversy amongst fans as a result.

Sequel[]

Later the same year, a second game called Jurassic Park 3: Danger Zone, was produced by the same company and played like a board game. The player would roll a die. If they landed on different spaces, they had to play different minigames, such as one where the player must cross a ravine. It also used Trading Cards and involved shooting dinosaurs to get DNA. If enough DNA was acquired of the target dinosaur, the player won and could visit Jurassic Park research labs.

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