Theme Park Roller Coaster

"This game simply reeks of awesomeness"

This is not your average sim game. Oh sure, your own awesome park filled with rides, shops, attractions and entertainers. Open it up to the public and watch them have the time of their lives. But after that, what else is there to do? Just one more little feature that makes this the coolest sim game ever. Read on and I’ll tell you all about it.

Graphics – 10
Oh my god, can a game have better graphics? I think not! Not only is the environment you build your theme park in beautifully designed but also the colors are so vibrant, you may want to turn down the brightness on your TV set. Oh, that little feature I was talking about earlier, well, not only do you get to design the park of your dreams, but you also get to explore it. Say your sick of just building your ultimate park, just hit R2 and go exploring. Use the left analog stick to walk around (or the d-pad) and the right one to look around your park in full 3D splendor. Just wait, if that isn’t cool enough for you, walk up to one of you rides, hit the square button when the word ride pops up and you actually get to ride the ride. For example, you built a kick-booty roller coaster ride, walk up to it, hit square and you be riding. Unlike Theme Park for the PlayStation, the footage ain’t some pre-filmed crappy little 3-second ride, you get what you build.

Sound – 10
The cheers, the screams, all make this game worth it. I swear, they went to a real theme park and audio taped all the sound effects. Every little sound fits exactly into place, from the “Wee” and the screams on the rides to the “Ahh” when a ride breaks down, you can even hear “Ah mom” when kids leave. You can even hear some sounds like farting and toilets flushing (if you’re into that sort of thing). In the sound category, this game gets a perfect score. Only one annoying thing though, that damn tutor guy who comes on your screen and says things like “You need to raise ticket prices” or “people are hungry” but, I guess he is useful sometimes.

Control – 9
This may be a problem at first. The controls are clearly laid out for you at the top right-hand part of the screen. You got your four facing buttons and captions that tell what they can do. Not much to explain here. Press R2 to look at your park, L2 to look at your mailbag which is full of “helpful” advise from your annoying little tutor friend. R1 and L1 rotate your view, the right analog stick zooms you in and out.

Replay – 10+
Oh man, build your park, ride the rides year round, who wouldn’t want that? You can even earn your way into a larger park.

Overall – 10
This game simply reeks of awesomeness. EA and Bullfrog sure set a high standard for all sim games to follow here.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 12/31/00, Updated 12/31/00