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Jurassic World Evolution 3 just released, and that means that there is no better time to celebrate by taking a trip down memory lane and playing all the best Jurassic Park games (and Jurassic World games too). That's right, a new dinosaur game is finally here; however, if you are on the fence about spending all that cash on Jurassic World Evolution 3 right now, there are still plenty of options for you to pick up today.
Given the popularity of Frontier's Jurassic World Evolution series and past management sim games that allowed players to fulfill John Hammond's dream, you'd think the titles in this franchise worth revisiting are about building a functional Jurassic Park. If that's what you believe, prepare to be surprised, as we've gone over the best dinosaur games and the worst of the Jurassic franchise in order to recover only the freshest dino DNA. The worst part is that you'll have to dig deeper than Alan Grant to find some of these fossils nowadays.
But before we start, please note that our list hasn't included the new game yet, as we are still playing through Jurassic World Evolution 3 ourselves. Once we've put some more hours into the title, we'll see if it makes our ranking. So, stay tuned for updates!
The best Jurassic Park & Jurassic World games, ranked
6. The Lost World: Jurassic Park (Arcade)
Release: 1997
Developer: Sega AM3
Platforms: Arcade
Like it or hate it, The Lost World: Jurassic Park spawned an impressive multimedia campaign that included a bunch of exciting video games. Most gamers will instantly think of the ones made for home consoles, yet we'd like to celebrate the enduring arcade rail shooter first of all. It was the sequel to 1994's Jurassic Park arcade game (also made by Sega) and offered more excitement than both the original and the Konami-developed Jurassic Park III. Across only five levels, it's the sort of rare arcade experience that feels perfectly paced and not overly difficult; Sega's dynamically adjusting difficulty system (also used in Virtua Cop and The House of the Dead) kept things tense but reasonable.
Unsurprisingly, this was yet another Lost World tie-in game which didn't follow the plot of the movie (or Michael Crichton’s second novel) at all. Instead, it worked with the what-if scenario of both Ian Malcolm and Sarah Harding, the protagonists of the sequel directed by Steven Spielberg, going missing, and a group of rangers going to Sorna to find them. What follows is a brief but intense blast of light gun fun. Don't worry about the dinos; the guns are loaded with tranquilizer darts instead of bullets!
5. Warpath: Jurassic Park
Release: 1999
Developer: Black Ops Entertainment
Platforms: PS1
Another Lost World tie-in that's often overlooked is Warpath: Jurassic Park. It took a while longer to arrive, but it successfully celebrated the two entries released so far with what was essentially an evolution of Primal Rage with 3D movement and levels that represented the movies' most recognizable locales. You may think it's the exact sort of perfect pitch you wish you'd played as a kid, but it’s not too late to check it out... if you can find a copy or, ahem, another way to play it.
With a small but well-differentiated roster of dinos – from the iconic T-Rex to the agile but jumbo-sized Megaraptor – Warpath instantly stood out among the far more refined fighters of the PS1 era. Sure, it barely had any real combos, but a genuinely remarkable presentation (special shoutout to the sound FX and Michael Giacchino's soundtrack) and the rawness of the dino-on-dino violence gave it an edge that's hard to forget.
4. The Lost World: Jurassic Park
Release date: 1997
Developer(s): DreamWorks Interactive, Appaloosa Interactive
Platforms: PS1, Sega Saturn
Of course, consoles received a main The Lost World tie-in video game in 1997, so that way more gamers played. The main problem with it? The utterly crushing difficulty and the fact that players had to beat most of the game before getting to control the T-Rex as heavily advertised in the marketing materials. Mind you, those missions were arguably the least inspired, but as a kid, nothing was cooler than a playable Tyrannosaurus Rex, especially if you got to snack on puny humans.
Though different studios handled the PS1 and Sega Saturn versions of this game, the gameplay was pretty much identical: It's a side-scrolling action-adventure game with heavy (and quite punishing) platforming elements. The progression is linear, going from Compsognathus-starring levels, to human hunter missions that introduce guns, to Raptor gameplay that's brutal and relentless, to kaiju-like T-Rex action, to Sarah Harding (who controls like the hunter and must run away and fight two Rexes). The story ignores the movie but draws inspiration from a number of set pieces. If you're looking for a good challenge, this one's quite memorable and full of different dinosaur designs.
3. Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis
Release: 2003
Developer: Blue Tongue Entertainment
Platforms: PC, PS2, Xbox
Before the first Jurassic World Evolution, the best Jurassic Park management sim (and perhaps the franchise's best game for a while) was Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis, a 3D park sim that felt pretty consistent across PC and consoles despite the build limits of the latter. With an extensive sandbox mode, fun scenarios with specific objectives, and an assortment of varied, bite-sized missions that made good use of the subsystems, this game was a must-own for dino fanatics.
Even in a post-Evolution world, returning to Operation Genesis feels right. Grid-based building is rewarding in its own way, and there are actual interactions with guest NPCs we're still waiting for in Frontier's otherwise deeper and more advanced park sims. As for the dinosaurs, they remain majestic and quite scary despite their simpler geometry, scripts, and animations. If you're looking for an overlooked classic that exists between the original Zoo Tycoon's isometric charm and modern zoo simulation games, give it a try and aim for five stars.
2. LEGO Jurassic World
Release: 2015
Developer: TT Fusion
Platforms: PC, macOS, iOS, Android, PS3, PS4, PS Vita, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, Switch
If you're a big enough multimedia franchise, chances are that you'll get a LEGO game adaptation (or several). For Jurassic Park, that moment came when Jurassic World was released in summer 2015. Needless to say, LEGO Jurassic World was a big enough hit to warrant ports to every platform you could think of at the time. We never got a second game, including the fifth and sixth movies, though.
In our experience, opinions about LEGO video games are quite simple: Folks either love or hate them and their accessible but ambitious approach to 'brickifying' entire properties. As you can infer, we're big fans (just read our list of the best LEGO games for proof of that fact), and after playing through LEGO Jurassic World back in the day, it was hard to imagine a better way to experience all the movies released up to that point. While incomplete nowadays (Universal won’t stop knocking new entries out), we're still waiting for a celebration of the movie series that tops it. Don't jump into it looking for grisly human deaths, though.
1. Jurassic World Evolution 2
Release: 2021
Developer: Frontier Developments
Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
This first position might change soon enough, but right now, Jurassic World Evolution 2 represents Jurassic Park video games at their best. Beyond riding the immediate appeal of the property, Frontier Developments found several ways to turn the canon (as well as what-if scenarios and new ideas) into a deep and expansive management sim experience that's immensely replayable. We still believe the first game did some things better (for example, it had an actual campaign), but Evolution 2 was bigger and more engaging in almost every way.
Since it launched in 2021, both official DLCs and a pretty active modding scene have turned the game into the definitive Jurassic Park experience; that is, until Evolution 3 launches with even more customization tools and deeper animal systems. When even the mighty Megalodon is part of the roster of prehistoric creatures, you know Frontier has already surpassed the paleo-fans' wildest dreams. Let's just hope the management of scientists and tasks in the threequel isn't as time-consuming and dull as in this one. For more information on our top pick, be sure to check out our Jurassic World Evolution 2 review.
For more recommendations, you can check out our list of the best simulator games and the best survival horror games to play right now.
