A 2001 Flip-Screen Scrolling Licensed Game designed to cash in on the then-recent release of Jurassic Park III, by Knowledge Adventure for the PC.
Aimed primarily at younger players (in terms of atmosphere, if not difficulty), the player is a silent, armored figure only referred to as "Dino Defender", an employee for Jurassic Park. A massive typhoon has hit the famed dinosaur park, knocking out the power and setting the dinosaurs free. Now, Dino Defender has to travel across the island, turning on circuit breakers across the park to bring the power back, and capture any and all dinosaurs he can find.
The game certainly isn't the worst, and is slightly better than most cheap licensed games of the time, but its unusual protagonist, brutal difficulty later on, and somewhat clunky handling left it largely forgotten, though it does have its fans.
The following year, Jurassic Park III: Danger Zone was released, a digital board game you can play with friends. A massive earthquake hit the park, destroying the entire stock of dinosaur DNA. The player(s) needs to dart their selected dinosaurs and collect their DNA to win the game.
This game provides examples of:
- Armor Is Useless: Despite wearing what looks like an advanced Powered Armor suit, the title character is killed by just about every hazard in the game. Even brushing up against some kinds of seaweed will cause your air to deplete while underwater.
- Checkpoint: The circuit breakers count as one; you'll respawn at them after getting killed.
- Climbing the Cliffs of Insanity: Dino Defender has to climb quite a few high cliffs, both in the mountains of Isla Nublar, and underground.
- Cosmetic Award: Your reward for capturing all of a certain species of dinosaur is... a printable dinosaur fact card of that species.
- Featureless Protagonist: The player is told absolutely nothing about Dino Defender besides their title, and their armor stays on throughout the whole game.
- Gentle Giant Sauropod: The Brachiosaurus will completely ignore you even as you use their heads as platforms in one section. That said, they drop some big tree branches down below that serve as stage hazards.
- Guerrilla Boulders: A common hazard in mountainous and cavern levels.
- Instant Sedation: Pteranodons and raptors are tranquilized using gas bombs that knock out the animal they hit on the spot. However, you can only carry up to two bombs at a time, and they don't work on the animal they're not meant for. The Compies get a similar "bomb", but it captures them in a net, instead.
- Justified Tutorial: The game has a tutorial level that's explained in-universe as a training arena for the protagonist.
- Large Ham: The announcer tells the player everything in a gloriously hammy, over-the-top voice.
- The Many Deaths of You: Touching a dinosaur triggers a short POV cinematic showing the dinosaur killing the viewer. Similar death screens show Dino Defender falling down a chasm and getting dragged away by a giant jellyfish, and there are many, many other ways to die that don't get these cinematics.
- Offscreen Start Bonus: Brutally inverted. The game starts you off on a sandy beach, facing right, with a Compy behind you on the left side of the screen trying to get your attention. Follow the Compy to the left, and... it leads you to an ambush of several more Compies, who will kill you on the spot.
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: Dino Defender will be instantly killed by almost every hazard on the island. The only exception is the Compies, but they drain your health so quickly that it barely matters. Underwater, however, he gains an air meter that gets drained faster by touching jellyfish and some seaweed.
- Puzzle Boss: A Spinosaurus is the Final Boss, and they'll confront you in the visitor's center. The only way to beat them is to flick four switches that hold the nearby dinosaur skeletons up, sending them crashing down onto the predator.
- Raptor Attack: Velociraptors –- based on the males from Jurassic Park III -– can be found all across the game, and are the most common foes the game will throw at you.
- Roar Before Beating: The raptors, the rex, and the Spinosaurus will all let out deep growls or roars before attacking you, giving you just enough time to avoid them.
- Run or Die: The T. rex and Spinosaurus encounters play out this way, until you can find a way to get rid of them (tricking the rex into a pit and dropping some dinosaur skeletons on the Spinosaurus)
- Steam Vent Obstacle: One underground area has steam vents blocking your path, along with some raptors. Fortunately, the steam vents stop the raptors, too, making it into a puzzle sequence.
- Terrifying Tyrannosaur: At least one T. rex can be found in the later levels, and she's best avoided at all costs.
- Terror-dactyl: The Pteranodons are extremely aggressive, and will attack you on the spot.
- Throwing the Distraction: Throwing a "Call Box" will lure the dinosaur the box was meant for to a certain location, letting the player set up a trap.
- Tough Armored Dinosaur: There are a couple areas where you have to dodge Stegosaurus tails swinging at you.
- Trial-and-Error Gameplay: The game loves letting the player walk into traps without warning. Mercifully, there's no life counter, so the player's free to learn from their mistakes.
- Vocal Dissonance: Some of the dinosaurs sound nothing like they do in the Jurassic Park movies. The rex's roar, in particular, is clearly an elephant call.
