266. LifeScape: Seimei 40 Okunen Haruka na Tabi (Scitron & Art, Playstation, 1996)

LifeScape: Seimei 40 Okunen Haruka na Tabi ("40 billion year journey of life") is a kind of virtual interactive biology museum themed around the history of life on earth. The titular LifeScape is the name of the museum, and while there you are able to travel around the grounds on a small rocket shaped tram stopping at whichever exhibits you fancy. Interestingly, there are 2 discs to LifeScape, and each has its own themed world: Aquasphere for life in water and Landshpere for life on land. Somewhat bizarrely, there is no menu or credits, you are always in the game.

Each of the 4 exhibits around each world is broken up into 3 things you can do: The first is a selection of educational videos you can watch, though they still have little info cards you can read and a timeline to see where you are in earth's history. The second part is a dinky little section that just has a small (about 10 second) animation demonstrating a concept related to the topic covered. The third is where LifeScape really shines, as each exhibit has some type of interactive component that you can control. 

One exhibit on bacteria has you changing the UV levels in a tank and seeing hte effect this has on the bacteria. I actually managed to learn something about bacteria, even though I can't read most of the text. Another exhibit on the Cambrian has you controlling a little invertebrate sea creature trying to survive in a sea full of larger predators (though there isn't really a lose state, even though you can get eaten). An exhibit on fish evolution somewhat puzzlingly just has a fish tank simulation full of different stages of evolved fish. You can interact with the tank by changing the lighting, or by throwing a bait fish, piece of candy (!), or coke can (!!) into the aquarium. 

An entire world takes less than an hour to fully experience, and I can't say I had a particularly fun time with anything here, though I did manage to learn a few things. Still, the LifeScape experience feels a bit hollow with only 2 worlds, so this is one museum I'm not raring to go back to.

3/5, a chill virtual museum where you learn about the history of life