Have You Played... Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis?

Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.

I just watched Jurassic World, and came away deflated that it was a dinosaur film in name only. Mad made-up monsters, no sense of an ecology, not even much time spent getting across that this was a super-safari park for nature's most startling creations. So, for me, the most Jurassic Parky Jurassic Park experience other than Jurassic Park is Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis, best described as 'theme park with dinosaurs.'

It follows the same arc as most things JP: the people in charge of the park are certain they're in control, until they're not. Initially it's all cooing at delightful dinos, but rest assured that nature will find a way to bust the deadlier thunder lizards out before too long.

In this instance, you are the park's manager, and so the inevitably-spilled tourist blood is on your hands. It leans towards this kid-friendly, naturally, but it does a great job of conveying that foolish collision of murderous giant lizards with a happy, clappy theme park, and the inevitable descent into disaster. It also gets across the idea that the people behind it all are heartless bastards only interested in the bottom line: even after everything goes to hell, you'll recover, the park will recover and you'll do it all again. Money, money, money.

Though clearly not everyone wants money - sadly JPOG isn't currently sold anywhere, so you'll need to scour the second-hand market. Or some other means, perhaps. I'm simply saying that life, uh, finds a way.