Jurassic Park was truly one of the most groundbreaking movies of the 20th century. It, alongside Terminator 2, helped revolutionize computer-generated special effects in movies, leading to the golden age of CGI that we’re still living in to this day (and, honestly, probably will not be leaving for as long as cinema exists). Similarly, Microgaming’s Jurassic Park slot helped bring about a similar trend, even if it wasn’t one that lasted quite as long. That was one of the biggest licensing deals at the time, and it paved the way for quite a lot more license holders lending their properties to various slot developers for a collaboration or two. Needless to say, Jurassic Park proved to be a gigantic success, in terms of both the movie and the slot. So when a sequel based on the new franchise, Jurassic World, was announced, people were thrilled! Now that the slot has been out for a while and I’ve had the chance to evaluate it, we need to ask the obvious question – was it actually any good, as far as an adaptation goes?

Well… The answer is honestly complicated. Because there are certain things that the slot did extremely well, but at the same time, there’s a really glaring problem with it. Let me get the good out of the way first – one of the best things about the slot is that it was able to keep A LOT of the movie’s visuals intact. It was really refreshing to see the real faces of Chris Pratt (likely for the first and only time in a slot ever) and Bryce Dallas Howard, as well as accurate depictions of the various dinosaurs found in the movie, such as the Indominus Rex. It was truly a sight to behold, but then again, the slot itself looks great. The perspective appears to be from the point of view of someone following the rampage of the dinosaurs on a computer (which makes sense, because in the movie the character most likely to play slots was the guy stuck in the computer room providing support). The screen flickers and refreshes, and sometimes dinosaurs pop up outside of it to freak you out. It’s so cool!

But ironically enough, the slot’s biggest strength is also its biggest weakness – perspective. At first glance, the game appears to place you firmly in the role of someone doing support and keeping the park in check from the dinosaurs, which is fair enough and a perfectly valid way of presenting the game to us. But then again, if that was the case, why do we keep getting bonuses and free spins related to the dinosaurs? “Well,” I hear you saying, “isn’t that what Jurassic World is all about?” I mean, it is, but again, there’s the problem of perspective. The perspective that Microgaming gave us while playing the slot is that of a human, a person trying to contain the dinosaurs in the park. As such, the dinosaurs should carry negative connotations within the context of the slot, otherwise the immersion is broken. To the slot’s main protagonist, the sudden appearance of the Indominus Rex – the deadly, invisible dinosaur that’s the main antagonist of the film – should be absolutely terrifying and spell certain doom, as it does for so many characters. But within the slot, the Indominus Rex gives you up to 1000 times your bet, so you’re actually pretty ecstatic to see it.

This isn’t something that a lot of people realize, but with slots that follow a particular storyline, it’s really important to keep that storyline consistent. For example, in “The Avengers”, the good guys bring you rewards and the bad guy ends your bonus prematurely. In “Path of the Penguin” and “Kung-Fu Monkey”, two more slots by Microgaming, the objective of the bonus game is to defeat the bad guy and thus earn the bonus cash. But here, half of the bonus features make you play as a human avoiding the dinosaurs, and the other half – as dinosaurs. There’s a bit of an inconsistency there, and it keeps the slot from being an otherwise perfectly stellar adaptation. Does that matter at all when playing the slot? No, obviously not. It doesn’t harm the overall slot experience whatsoever. But as far as the quality of the adaptation itself, I personally think that a little more effort could’ve been placed on reaffirming the slot’s perspective. Because, don’t get me wrong, this slot is really good, it was most of the way there, and it just needed a little bit more attention.