Having come to
enjoy the Sim City games and Railroad Tycoon, simulator games have
come a long way and many have become complex enough that you’ll be stuck on
designing and running a single building or ride. Thankfully, LucasArts and
Frontier has brought us a sim game that’s fun enough for gamers of all ages.
Thrillville might appear to be just a kids version of the familiar simulator
genre but with plenty of fun mini-games that will have you enjoying every second
of this charming game.
It seems that
your wacky Uncle Mortimer (who bares an uncanny resemblance to Doc Brown of the
Back to the Future movies) is so impressed with your amateur attempt at designing
roller coasters that he picks you to be acting manager of Thrillville, his newly
designed amusement park. You start the game by picking your avatar, be it male
or female, and then you’re placed in the first park (Thrillville is composed of
four parks or areas much like Disneyland). You’ll be in charge of everything
from marketing, financing, staff management as well as coaster and game
designer.
The only complex
part of the game comes in deciding what goes where in the park’s many areas and
listening to your guests’ needs. Much of what you’ll decide to include in the
park are basic necessities. Your guests will need restrooms but they’ll also
need food, drinks as well as souvenirs. You’ll also need to spread the word that
your park is open for business so you’ll need to put out ads in different
magazines. While you can pay for somebody to do market research for you, it’s
input from your guests that will give you an idea of what you’re doing right and what
the park needs to improve. Simply standing in the middle of your park you’ll
hear your guests demand more restrooms or places to eat. You can also stop and
talk to them for a more precise opinion of the park and rides, but we’ll get into
that in a minute.
Really, the real
meat of the game comes in designing coasters and games yourself as well as
enjoying the game’s rides and games yourself. You can insert a coaster already
designed but the fun comes from laying the tracks yourself, making the ride as
wacky as you’d like so you can add various loops and twists. The same goes for
the Mini-Golf game. You can add some interesting putting challenges thanks to
the simplicity of the design tools available. Yet the best part comes in playing
the games yourself. Any ride or game in the park is open to you so you can
join your guests in a game of golf or any of the many mini-games.
You can even
challenge a guest to join you in a mini-game challenge designed around a ride.
For example, you can join a friend in Wild Frontier, a game that turns into a
first-person shooter set in the old west. It’s talking to a guests that you get
to know their likes and dislikes as well as what they think of the park. You can
also flirt with your guests as well as play matchmaker. Conversations in this
game are handled through topic icons but each guest is naturally interested in
different things so you have to pay attention to their interests if you want to
befriend them. Sadly, befriending and romancing a guest doesn’t lead to much in
this game except for the fact that your guest will be a lot more happier about
being in Thrillville.
Another neat
aspect of the game is that there are more than 20 mini-games you can play within
or outside the main game mode. There are a few first-person shooter mini-games
as well as some platform games and racers. Trojan Quest, for example, is a copy
of Gauntlet while Luftwaffe 109 is inspired by one of LucasArts’ early
flight combat games. Even training different staff members are a mini-game. Your
mechanic staff, for example, repairs rides by solving a puzzle while your
cleaning staff cleans the park by sucking in garbage and wiping out puke in a
timed mini-game.
The graphics
leave much to be desired but for a kid’s game the cartoon characters aren’t bad
at all. You’ll get a kick out of watching a large number of guests running
across the park with family in tow as they excitedly form lines or stop to
admire all the interesting sights. The park itself looks pretty good and each
area has a neat little theme whether it’s a futuristic setting or a prehistoric
setting. There aren’t any flashy effects but the game’s interesting look is
actually appealing.
The park also
sounds alive with people so you’ll hear kids going wild and parents admiring the
scenery. You’ll also get an indication of what the park lacks by a passerby’s
comments. The voice acting is actually pretty good in this game and it’s cool to
hear the PA system play a park radio station. Unfortunately the DJ always seems
to present the same tunes (two standard rock tunes and a Hillary Duff-like
tune). The sound effects are actually wonderfully detailed to the point that
you’ll hear the roller coasters and its screaming passengers.
Thrillville
is a marvelous way of introducing park management and design simulators to
younger gamers and, to top it all off, it’s one fun game to boot. While it does
lack the depth of other park creation and management simulators, there is a lot
to do and like in this game that allows you to design your park and enjoy it as
well. If you like the simulator genre, this is a game you will not want to miss.
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Gameplay: 7.5
The financial
and marketing aspects of the game take a backseat to the design and mini-games
that allow you to partake in the fun along with your guests. You can also flirt
with guests as well as play matchmaker so there’s a lot to do in this game aside
from deciding what goes where.
Graphics: 7.0
The visuals
might not look great but the park itself looks pretty neat considering the
number of guests you’ll see running around. Meanwhile, the characters look
appropriately cartoon-like.
Sound: 8.0
Even with the
cartoon-like sound effects the game doesn’t really fail to give the impression
that you’re in a crowded amusement park. You’ll hear everything from kids going
wild to some poor soul puking his brains out after a roller coaster ride. The
rock tunes sound straight out of a Southern rock collection but what really
works wonderfully is the park radio station complete with a DJ. The voice acting
is handled nicely as well.
Difficulty:
Medium
Maintaining
your park’s business isn’t easy since you’re also in charge of financing and
marketing. You’ll also have to complete a number of objectives so you’ll really
have your hands full in this game. On top of that you have to keep your guests
happy. Ah, just another day for an amusement park manager.
Concept: 7.5
You never feel
limited in the coaster design process or even when it comes to designing your
own mini-golf course. Being able to mingle with your park guests and challenge
them to many of the games sets Thrillville apart from other games in this
genre. Even the training of your staff is a mini-game.
Multiplayer:
7.0
There are more
than a dozen mini-games you can share with up to four friends (using a Multitap
for us PS2 folks) and the cool part is that you can set up a variety of
mini-games in a tournament mode of your own making. The only thing missing is an
online multiplayer.
Overall: 7.9
Managing an
amusement park has been done before on the PC but Thrillville for the PS2
just manages to make it one seriously enjoyable and light-hearted experience.
While a few management issues aren’t handled as well as it could have been, the
variety of mini-games and the ability to interact with park visitors makes this
a rare treat for sim fans of all ages.
