Turok: The Dinosaur Hunter--Ready, Fire, Aim

Any doubts about how much game power Nintendo 64 delivers should be put to rest with Turok: The Dinosaur Hunter, a first-person shooter unlike any that has come before. Turok is home video gaming at its primal best.

Based on the Turok comic book series, the game follows the primordial exploits of Joshua Fireseed as he blasts his way through the Lost Land--a beautiful three-dimensional world crawling with bionic Velociraptors, sludge beasts and menacing alien infantrymen who seem never to run out of ammo.

The environments spin and weave without a hitch and enemies move so smoothly it’s easy to forget that Turok is a video game. At times, it looks more like a well-animated cartoon than something off a ROM cartridge.

It ought to. The graphics engine runs at 30 frames per second with 256 levels of transparency. That kind of technical excellence carries over eight mammoth levels that twist and wind up and down so much that even the most proficient players will spend more than a little time scratching their heads in wonder.

But Turok is not just pretty to look at. It rocks. Enemies with way too much artificial intelligence double back on players and make easy escapes impossible. The best advice: If it moves, shoot it with whatever’s available--from a plain old pistol to a fusion cannon that sends a “rolling ball of nuclear mayhem” toward bad guys.

The first true first-person title on Nintendo’s little box of wonder, Turok sets the standard for others to beat. The only contender in sight: Doom 64, the latest incarnation of the PC classic.

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SPIDER: Sadly, Sony PlayStation gets no such workout with Spider, a rehashed side-scroller in which players assume the role of a super-intelligent, cybernetic arachnid.

Even though the spider hero is equipped with homing missiles, a flame thrower, a boomerang and an “electro-beam,” I still fail to understand why anyone would want to play as a creature so easily squished under foot. Despite some nice touches, Spider is a disappointment.

Control is fairly clunky and the graphics are underwhelming. Play follows the standard run-jump-attack line that tends to make side-scrollers so monotonous. Spider is no exception. Rather than allowing freedom of movement, the game restricts players to established courses so replay value is low.

Not that most will want to fire up Spider more than once.

Staff Writer Aaron Curtiss reviews video games every other Thursday. To comment on a column or to suggest games for review, send letters to The Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth, CA 91311. Or send e-mail to Aaron.Curtiss@latimes.com.