Theme Park

"Step right up and create your own amusement park"

I came across this game at a video store a few years back. After playing SIM CITY 2000 a while, I wanted to check this game out. I rented it a few times, then I bought it online years later. It is a fun and interesting at times but it is frustrating and difficult when playing this game.

THEME PARK is a simulation game, made by Bullfrog, a sister company of Electronic Arts, where you create and maintain an amusement park. The challenge is not just design an interesting and amusing theme park, but profitable as well. You can sell it to interested buyers and make a new one. It gets close to running a real park as it gets you to control every detail, from dealing with workers you hired, fixing prices and amount of food and drinks, to adjusting ride speeds and duration.

The graphics are like what you see in a 16-bit game system or the PC version of this game made in early 95. Hand drawn in 2D, viewed in a forward slant. You can't rotate the view like you do in SIM CITY 2000. The scene is drawn nice, clear and colorful and the animation is okay, but a bit slow when there is a lot on the screen. The problems I have that it has too much detail at times. Customers walking by close together that your workers can get lost in the crowd. The thought balloons the customers make to tell what they think of your park are small that it is hard to make out at times. Speaking of small, like the other Bullfrog game, HI-OCTANE, the reading text are small, especially on the balloon on the bottom when the Advisor speaks. Good thing there is a pause button so it would give time to read it fully, but you might need a big screen TV for this game.

The sound effects are average and match the situation, from sounds of the cash register to a child puking near the ride. When the cursor gets close to a ride, it plays a certain theme music. Each ride and sideshow have different tunes. They are short, around a minute long and repetitive. There is a bit of delay on the theme when it starts to play because of the audio loading, but it's interesting to hear and fits the mood of the game. There are 20 tracks on the CD outside the game that you can listen to when you want to just relax and listen to the themes of the game.

THEME PARK's a convert from CD-ROM and it shows in the controls. You move the cursor around the way you do if you use a PC mouse than a Saturn controller. It's very responsive to the command, although the cursor moves a bit slow at times. There is a command to jump from area to another to counter that.

The main 'theme' in THEME PARK is to make the greatest park in the world. There are 3 difficulties in the game option that aims for both beginner and expert. In Sandbox Mode, you just concentrate on buying and design rides, and setting prices on food and drinks. In Sim Level, you get involve in research and negotiate with your worker and avoid them going on strike. Once you get a feel on those levels, you can go to Full Level, where all THEME PARK's options are utilize and you become responsible for every financial transaction. This game is not easy on any level, for you are faced with many obstacles, like competing with other rivals and dealing with rowdy crowds that come in and spoil the park.

This is a great game to have if you ever wanted to know about running an amusement park. You can even go on the ride you have chosen. This game is just as fun and engrossing as SIM CITY, even more so. This is the only game for the Saturn (Playstation and PC has this and SIM THEME PARK) and it might not be for everyone. Rent it if you can to see if you have what it takes to run a theme park.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/29/03