Jurassic Park Games: Island Survival Board Game Review
If you have little dinosaur fans stomping and roaring around your household, try one of the Jurassic park games to keep them occupied. Jurassic Park 3: Island Survival is a fun game that the whole family can play together.
Obviously, Island Survival is based on the third movie in the Jurassic park series. One player is always the dinosaurs (yes, all of them!). The rest of the players are humans, and they have to try and make it across the island and get to their rescue spot on the far beach while the dinosaur player tries everything they can to keep them from escaping. The game is won when the dinosaur defeats all the humans, or when the first human escapes the island.
Humans can choose to be one of seven characters from the movie: Billy, Alan, Eric, Amanda, Paul, Udesky or Nash. The tokens are cardboard and a little flimsy. The dinosaur player gets to control 6 pteradons, 3 raptors, 2 spinosaurus and, of course, the T-Rex himself. The dinosaur pieces are really nice, and made of sturdy plastic. Each character also has life chips that determine how much life they have left.
The board is a good size, very large and easy for little hands to move around. There are four special dice, and you have to put stickers on each side which tend to come loose if you play often.
Movement is based on rolling the dice, for humans and for dinosaurs. There is a die face that allows three humans to move in one turn, but generally each human moves individually. Same with the dinosaurs, except for one die face that gives every dinosaur on the board the chance to move one space each.
Dinosaurs and humans start in different areas on the board. The dinosaurs are limited to certain zones (4 zones in total) that the humans have to get through in order to escape. Once humans are in their territory, dinosaurs can attack! Attacks are also controlled by rolls of the dice. Humans have a 50% chance of escaping an attack but if they don’t, they lose life chips according to how the dice fall.
Cards bring an element of chance to the game. When humans land on certain squares they can draw a card that, if they’re lucky, lets them get out of a battle or transport other humans to a safer location. Of course, the humans aren’t always lucky!
You can play the game with two to four players, but four is better. An average game lasts about a half hour, maybe a little less, but be warned…kids want to play again, and again! Young kids especially love it, and it is a really good, simple introduction to strategy-based adventure games. It’s a fun game for adults too, as it isn’t as tedious or young as some other family games.
All in all, this is one of the Jurassic Park games that really is a fun way to spend an afternoon with your kids.