Jurassic Park: Builder is a mobile application based on the Jurassic Park franchise, released in July 2012 by Ludia. The player builds their own theme park to raise prehistoric animals, starting off with the classic non-avian dinosaurs and pterosaurs on Isla Nublar, then various extinct marine animalsnote in an Aquatic Park, and finally a Glacier Park located in Patagonia featuring Cenozoicnote animals. The game also puts emphasis on the combat feature, allowing the player to pit their animals against each other in an arena, as well as the option to battle other players in a tournament.
It was followed up by a sequel in 2015 Jurassic World: The Game, also made by Ludia. However on March 30th in 2020 the game’s servers (and thus the game itself) were permanently shut down; therefore, the game can no longer be played.
This game provides examples of:
- Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: The more you level up, the more expensive and harder everything gets. Also, every animal requires to be fed larger amounts of food in order to level up whenever you evolve it and unlock its next evolutionary form.
- Adaptational Badass: All the animals are capable of things in the battle arena possible only due to Ruleof Cool. Sauropods can use their necks to whip-attack enemies with, fish can swim in a spiral to summon a whirlpool, turtles and armadillos can roll up into a ball and attack Sonic the Hedgehog-style, proboscideans as well as the aforementioned sauropods can stomp cracks and earthquakes into the ground, the list goes on...
- Alternate Universe: The game's events are stated to take place between Jurassic Park III and Jurassic World. However, multiple factors make it clear this is not canon, in particular the inclusion of many non-Mesozoic animals.
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: When an animal is level 21 or above it will be vividly colored, while before it was a dull monochrome with occasional stripes or spots. Some of the color schemes are pretty bizarre; for example, the Iguanodon becomes purple with star-shaped spots.
- Animal Gender-Bender: While none of the animals' genders are ever officially revealed, presumably they are all female like in the rest of the franchise, but there's a few problems with that. For example, the Pteranodon and Pterodactylus have large crests, which in reality were possessed only by males of the species. Likewise, Megaloceros and Synthetoceras have antlers/horns, even though this trait was completely absent in females.
- Animals Not to Scale:
- Many of the creatures are inaccurately proportioned. Besides Velociraptor being oversized, the Albertosaurus is taller than the T. rex. Most humorously of all, the Procoptodon is tall enough to look an Indricotherium in the eyes.
- Also, all of the animals are noticeably oversized when compared to the in-game scenery (trees, buildings, the park vehicles and gate/fences, etc). Even small animals like Dryosaurus are as big as a Jurassic Park tour jeep, while large ones like the Indricotherium are practically Kaiju proportions-wise. Though this is excused by the fact that the game is designed for mobile devices in a 2.5D overhead isometric view (only the animals, vehicles and battle arenas are 3D). Granted of course like in all mobile apps, the player can zoom in and out as much as he/she wants in order to get a better view.
- Anachronism Stew: The Glacier Park is ostensibly centered around the Cenozoic, but also includes...Kaprosuchus and Deinosuchus, two Mesozoic crocodiles, and giant Paleozoic millipede Arthropleura? Huh!?
- The Colossal Squid stands out among the Aquatic creatures, and indeed every other creature in the game, in that it's the only one from the modern era.
- Arbitrary Headcount Limit: You can buy, place and level up every species of animal only once. If you wish to do it again, you have to sell it and start the whole hatching/feeding/evolving process from scratch. Also, the bigger creatures are single and alone in their exhibits, while the smaller ones come in groups of two or three, even if the bigger ones were confirmed otherwise in Real Life (e.g. Triceratops lived in herds).
- Artistic License – Animal Care / Artistic License – Biology: The caretaking or diet of some creatures is mind-boggling. The marine reptiles and mammals have no access to oxygen since the Aquatic Park is situated at the sea's bottom facing a trench, while the Glacier Park, situated in the frozen wastelands of Patagonia, has ectothermic reptiles alongside endothermic mammals and birds. Worst of all, the Aquatic Park has Koolasuchus (a freshwater amphibian) and the Glacier Park has Arthropleura (a giant millipede). Both animals couldn't survive in the conditions of these parks and would instantly die. Better to chalk it off with the
MST3K Mantra... - Artistic License – Economics:
- In game, you could buy and sell back all extinct animals like any other normal building or object, only losing half of their fixed costs.
- Placing and removing paths is the only other free thing in the game, and you cannot earn any entrance fee money from your parks' visitors. Needless to say this is not Truthin Television.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: Hoo boy, where to start with? Ignoring the mistakes carried over from the novels and movies, the Pterodactylus is basically a smaller, differently colored Pteranodon, Albertosaurus has three fingers instead of two, and Carnotaurus has far too large arms compared to the vestigial stumps it had in reality. The Giganotosaurus looks like a Tyrannosaurus rex with spikes down its back, the Amargasaurus has one sail down its neck rather than two rows of exposed spikes, and the Ouranosaurus looks more like a pelycosaur than an ornithopod(not helped by it using the Stegosaurus animations for some reason).
- The Glacier Park seems to be hit worst with this; Smilodon has a long tail, Gastornis is classified as a carnivorous terror bird, Andrewsarchus is portrayed resembling a dog and implied to be a mesonychid, while many other animals have incorrect proportions, bios, names, diet, or just cannot exist there in the first place. Did we mention this game was made in 2012? See the other tropes here for specific examples.
- Ascendedto Carnivorism / Vegetarian Carnivore: These issues are present both in the Aquatic and Glacier parks. Specific examples include the Mosasaurus being depicted as a crustaceavore and the Gigantopithecus as a carnivore. This was most likely to balance the animal ratio between carnivores/piscivores (more attack, less health) and herbivores/crustaceavores (more health, less attack).
- Bears Are Bad News: Despite not being a bear, this is how Sarkastodon is portrayed. Curiously, the Diprotodon (giant wombat) and Castoroides (giant beaver) have the same bear animations and sound effects, despite being a marsupial and a rodent respectively. The game lacks actual prehistoric bear species, like the cave bear or the short-faced bear.
- Boring, but Practical: Collecting coins from animals and food from the harbor to level up your creatures and purchase buildings/scenery, in order to complete missions and gain experience points. When done enough you gain a level and unlock new things, including more animals for purchase.
- Boss Rush: The Versus arena mode (located on Site B) is more or less this trope. You have to beat 50 stages, each harder than the previous. Fortunately you can rest as much as you want between stages, and the enemies' ferocity will always remain the same. Depending on how much health you have left, you will win one, two or three medals/prizes(3X50=150). The first stage will be against a single Triceratops (considered the weakest animal in the game), while the last stage will consist of a Dryosaurus, Stegosaurus and T. rex with 3000 combined ferocity.
- Boxing Kangaroo: The Procoptodon in the Glacier Park moves, behaves, and attacks a lot like a profesional boxer.
- Calla Rabbit A Smeerp: Most of the animals are called by their correct scientific name. However there are a few exceptions; Megalograptus is listed as "Sea Scorpion", Paraceratherium is named Indricotheriumnote , Thylacoleo is called "Marsupial Lion"note , and several others.
- Cap: The highest level possible for all animals is 40, while for the game/player it's 120.
- Competitive Balance: A simple, but effective one: Carnivores(Piscivores in the Aquatic Park) are more offensive, dealing more damage but having less health. Herbivores(Crustaceavores for Aquatic) are more defensive, sacrificing damage for larger amounts of health. Of course, high-level and top-tier animals are always better, regardless of type. A good strategy for battles is to first use two herbivores as "meat shields", and then place a carnivore as a "sweeper".
- Coolvs Awesome: Basically this game allows you to make various prehistoric beasts duke it out in mortal combat against each other. Subverted in that animals can only fight other animals from the same park(Jurassic, Aquatic and Glacier). It's still pretty awesome, though.
- Creepy Centipedes: Arthropleura is a purchasable, playable animal... in the Glacier Park and is a carnivore due to sharing animations with the Titanoboa.
- Demoted to Extra: John Hammond, Alan Grant, Ian Malcolm, Henry Wu and Kelly Curtis appear only as quest givers. Justified in that, like Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis this is what you decide to do with the park and how you run it (or them).
- Doofy Dodo: Inverted. As a limited-time creature in the Glacier Park, it's not dumb and is actually one of the best fighters in the game. However, it can somehow fly and make funny noises. It's probably meant to be a Lethal Joke Character.
- Evolutionary Levels: Whenever an animal is fed five times, it gains a level. Once every ten levels it gains one star and you get the option to 'evolve' it by playing a DNA-splicing minigame. Doing so increases the animal's stats making it stronger, with the maximum level being 40.
- Feathered Fiend:
- On the non-avian side, we have Yutyrannus and Utahraptor. Both are portrayed with feathers just like in real life, in contrast to most other theropods.
- There are two terror birds in the Glacier Park: Kelenken and Phorusrhacos. The Gastornis also acts as one, even though it wasn't related nor carnivorous.
- Fossil Revival: Well, this is a Jurassic Park game, so it's a given. Specifically, the Jurassic animals are cloned via insects trapped in amber like in the rest of the franchise, the Aquatic animals via fossilized leech-like parasites containing their blood, and the Glacier ones via their frozen remains (a spinal cord/set of ribs is shown in the game).
- Full-Boar Action: Though not truly pigs, the game has 3 entelodonts: Entelodon, Daeodon, and Archaeotherium.
- Gentle Giant: Many of the largest animals to ever live are available for purchase, like Dreadnoughtus, Leedsichtys and Paraceratherium. Not completely gentle however, since they can kick ass in the battle arenas.
- Giant Equals Invincible: Zig-zagged. While many of the top-tier fighters are indeed giant megafauna, there are also some smaller critters classified as powerful Golds. Likewise, some giant animals like Spinosaurus, Leedsichthys, and Woolly Mammoth are unlocked early and thus considered weak Bronzes and Silvers.
- Giant Squid: Not the trope namer itself, but its relative, the Colossal Squid, shows up instead. As mentioned, this is the only modern era creature in the game.
- Gotta Catch Them All: You have a total of 130 various prehistoric animals to obtain, care for, evolve and use in combat, some harder to unlock than others. Good luck.
- Guest Fighter: The Indominus rex from Jurassic World appears as a purchasable animal from InGen. It is one of the five animals which must be bought with Real Life money (the other being Euplocephalus, Edestus, Castoroides, and Arthropleura). However the other four can also be unlocked from winning a DNA Tournament, whereas the Indominus is available for purchase only twice in a year (on Easter Day and on Christmas). Many of the creatures for the games' roster were decided via fan polls and were obviously inspired by other prehistoric animal media, for example Walking with Dinosaurs, Zoo Tycoon, Primeval, and Ice Age.
- Herbivores Are Friendly / Predators Are Mean :
- Invoked. Herbivores and crustaceavores's exhibits are not surrounded by any fencing and the creatures themselves can take a lot of damage in a fight, but can't dish it out. Meanwhile the carnivores are the opposite- more attack power and less health. Not only are their cages surrounded by metal fences, but are also visibly build deeper in the ground. Though it's anyone's guess how the aquatic animals and pterosaurs don't swim/fly out seeing as there's no roof on their enclosures, or the herbivores don't simply walk off out and start rampaging.
- In the "Code Red" minigame, as a thunderstorm hits the carnivorous dinosaurs will be upset and try to escape; however, the pterosaurs and herbivorous dinosaurs will...simply sit patiently and wait for the storm to pass. If the player manages to prevent them from wreaking havoc for the storm's duration, they will be rewarded with coins. Even if a dinosaur escapes it's not a big problem, since they will just be unavailable for a few minutes and they will be returned to their repaired cage if one is patient enough.
- Holiday Mode: On a holiday something special happens- be it an unique animal for purchase or a promotion (for example a 50% shop discount).
- Honorable Elephant:
- The Woolly Mammoth, Mastodon, Amebelodon and Platybelodon for the Glacier Park expansion.
- Moeritherium too, since it's an ancestor to all elephants. Though it uses the 'rhino' moveset instead.
- Infinity +1 Sword: All the top-tier animals qualify, but the cake goes to the Indominus rex. As already mentioned in Guest Fighter it's only available for purchase twice a year.
- Jungle Japes: Jurassic Park, the default park available from the game's beginning, is built on the tropical island of Isla Nublar.
- Killer Gorilla: The Glacier Park has a Gigantopithecus in its' roster, presented as a powerful carnivore.
- Level Grinding: Gaining XP and leveling up in this game takes a lot of time, with the reward you get being less than the time, effort and resources you have spend, though they increase with each level. You can speed up things like construction and hatching using the game's Dino Dollars, but they are rare and you only have a small limited amount. It's possible to get large amounts of them by paying with real money.
- Limit Break: The Special attack and Block option can only be used three times per match in Tournament mode. The player must have a sufficient amount of tokens and spend them on one of the above, with the price rising up with each use(5->10->20X2=70).
- Mammoths Mean Ice Age: The Woolly Mammoth is usually the second animal (first being the Entelodon) you can get in the Glacier Park, which is snow/ice-themed and made for animals from the entire Cenozoic era (as well as 2 Mesozoic reptiles and 1 Paleozoic arthropod), not just the Pleistocene period.
- The Marvelous Deer: Not supernatural in any way, but Megaloceros is one of the cloned animals in the Glacier Park. Alas it's a very weak fighter, though the Synthetoceras, Macrauchenia and Aepycamelus who share its moveset and act similar, are much better stats-wise.
- Mirror Match: While it happens random at chance, there is a possibility during Tournament mode that the game will pit you against the same 3 animals you have chosen to use in your team. This makes sense in a way, seeing as the game tries to find opponents which are close or equal in power to your current level.
- Moveset Clone: As already mentioned on some of the tropes here, many animals share movement and attack animations. Justified in several cases like the pterosaurs, plesiosaurs, and proboscideans for being relatives, but some unrelated animals do it too (Titanoboa and Arthropleura, Gallimimus and Dryosaurus, Meiolania and Doedicurus, etc.). Some related animals however have different movesets(e.g. Albertosaurus and Yutyrannus use the allosaurid and spinosaurid animations respectively, instead of the animations of Tyrannosaurus rex itself). Also, some animals have unique movesets (for example Indominus rex, Colossal Squid, Gigantopithecus and Procoptodon).
- Natural Weapon: Even in their Special attacks, all animals will only use their body parts for offense(head, tail, claws, fangs, etc).
- Never Smile at a Crocodile:
- Deinosuchus and Kaprosuchus appear in the Glacier Park. Strangely enough, the former resembles more a Sarcosuchus, while the latter has the game's 'feline' animations and behave like a lizard and a cat respectivelly.
- As marine crocodylomorphs, the Dakosaurus, Geosaurus, and Metriorhynchus from the Aquatic Park also count.
- Non-Standard Character Design:
- The human quest givers are photo-realistic drawings of the actors from the films, which stick out like a sore thumb amongst the cartoony landscape, objects and animals.
- The Indominus rex and Arthropleura also look realistically drawn and stand out from all the other animals in the game.
- One-Hit Kill / Curb-Stomp Battle: Completely possible in battle if your creature happens to use an attack stronger than your opponent's health, especially if you happen to be using a strong Gold creature against a weak Bronze. Though in all fairness, during the Tournament mode the computer does try to put in enemies equal in power to you and make the battles more balanced.
- Panthera Awesome: Smilodon for Glacier Park, natch. While not felines per se, Megistotherium, Thylacoleo and Thylacosmilus as well, seeing as they share the 'cat' behaviour and animations set of Smilodon. The Kaprosuchus crocodile also uses them. However, other extinct felines like Machairodus, Homotherium, the European and American lion are missing from the game.
- Prehistoric Monster: Played with. While the player has access to some of the largest and most dangerous beasts to ever walk, crawl, swim and fly our planet, they are represented as simply bigger animals and zoo attractions. The arena battles can qualify, since they force the animals to kill each other. However the game is still G-Rated, because they are drawn in a simplified cartoony way and there is no blood or gore. Even the Titanoboa and Megalania (a giant snake and a giant monitor lizard) look adorable, yet badass.
- Power Creep: New released creatures as well as all Limited Edition animals are better than the ones the player starts with, which means that the Bronze and Silvers you have will become worthless in the Battle Arenas once you level up enough. The best option to win is to unlock/buy/level up/max out ALL the Gold animals, since eventually those will be the only ones you will use in battle. And since they happen to be harder as well as more expensive to get and evolve, well...
- Power Levels:
- Every animal has a 'ferocity' level, which determines its' damage, health and coins earned- the higher, the better. Evolving the animals allows you to quadruple their ferocity. According to their overall power they are either Bronze, Silver or Gold, with the third being the best (and most expensive) fighters. Also, the Tournament mode goes in this order of increasing difficulty- Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and then finally All-Star. The Bronze and Silver animals are useful only for the first two and maybe partially for the third.
- Of note is that the Power Levels do not follow scientific accuracy. For example Brachiosaurus, Leedsichtys and Woolly Mammoth are large, powerful animals in the real world, whereas in the game are weak Bronzes. Meanwhile, much smaller animals like Dryosaurus, Hyneria and Dodo bird are considered strong Golds.
- Power Trio: You can choose up to three animals and use them in the battle modes ala The King of Fighters, though you have the option to switch fighters during the fight at the cost of a turn. Of course, the same applies to the enemy as well. It's worth mentioning however, that sometimes the computer will use two or even only a single (but powerful) animal instead of three.
- Power-Up: The 'fang'/'claw' tokens, which are needed for the arena battles. They can either be used for the 'Block' move (which blocks all damage), or the 'Special' attack (which deals MASSIVE damage), but are limited in quantity.
- Raptor Attack: You get two more dromeosaurids besides the standard Jurassic Park/Jurassic World Velociraptors; Utahraptor is bigger and has extensive feathers, as well as Troodon which is smaller and lacks feathers. The Compsognathus also acts like a raptor, even though it remains a Pintsized Powerhouse Killer Rabbit.
- Rhino Rampage:
- Elasmotherium and, to some extent, Paraceratherium for the Glacier Park.
- The Arsinoitherium, Uintatherium, Coryphodon, and Moeritherium also have the same behaviour, despite not being members of the rhino family.
- Though obviously not rhinos themselves, the ceratopsians Triceratops, Torosaurus, Pachyrhinosaurus and Nasutoceratops from the basic park act and sound a lot like rhinos.
- Rodents of Unusual Size: The Castoroides, or the giant beaver, lives up to its namesake.
- Savage Wolves: The creodonts Amphicyon, Hyaenodon and Andrewsarchusnote have canine animations and behave like dogs. Their Special attack is pretty vicious(biting and gnawing the enemy relentlessly). They even howl during their idle and victory animations. Unusual is the absence of the popular dire wolves.
- Sea Monster: The Aquatic Park is full of these, though how "monstrous" they really are is left for interpretation.
- Shown Their Work: While there is some artistic license used, the amount of research and detail Ludia put in making the whole game and animals is impressive. If one visits their Facebook page or reads the messages which appear in-game whenever an animal hatches or evolves, they could learn quite a lot about the creatures and prehistory in general. Even the Indominus rex bio is faithful to its source material.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Glacier Park, unlocked at level 20, is mostly centered around the creatures of the Cenozoic and is located in the frozen wastelands of Patagonia.
- The Smurfette Principle: Unless all the animals count, Kelly Curtis is the only female character appearing in the whole game.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: The battles are turn-based, with the combatants having 15 seconds to choose their move: Charge, Bite, Swipe, a Special Attack, or swapping to another animal. Every animal has a weakness to one of the three attack types and choosing the right one will deal 100% damage, but making the wrong choice will deal either 50% or 25%. A Special Attack deals a whopping 150% damage. However, playing the Block option when it's the opponent's turn will nullify all damage, even from a Special Attack.
- Tentacled Terror: The Aquatic Park has Ammonite, Colossal Squid(the only non-prehistoric creature in the Aquatic Park), Baculites, and Orthoceras.
- Threatening Shark: You get Helicoprion, Edestus, Hybodus and of course Megalodon. Some fish in the game also act similar to sharks, while not being related (e.g. the Dunkleousteus and Xiphactinus).
- Turn-Based Combat: How the battles are played. Each opponent has 15 seconds in which to make their move. When it's the enemy's turn, the player has a 3 second chance to choose the Block option. Whoever goes first is completely random.
- Underthe Sea: Aquatic Park, unlocked at level 10, is placed on the ocean's floor facing a trench near Nublar's coast.
- Victorious Roar: The victory animations for most of the animals include them either roaring or screeching.
- Video Game Caring Potential: Played with. Feeding animals will make them grow into adults, but that's the only kind of interactive caretaking you can do. Also, when an animal reaches level 40 (MAX), it will no longer need to be fed. You can sell and buy them again if you wish.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: You can force animals to beat up and kill each other in the battle arenas. However as noted in Prehistoric Monster, everything is cartoony and there's no blood or gore, so it's still a family-friendly game. Also animals cannot die, they simply become unusable and have a 'rest' period before they can be pitted in combat again. Unless you're willing to spend some Dino Dollars on awakening them.
- You Have Researched Breathing: Sometimes the player is required to unlock, purchase and/or do some pretty trivial and mundane things. For example, some missions in all three parks have the objective of buying and placing specific animals, buildings, scenery and/or paths near each other.
