Review: Thrillville: Off the Rails – Keeping the nausea level low

Mike Bantick
Sunday, 25 November 2007 16:07

Opinion and Analysis

Build rollercoasters, play games, flirt with guests, manage your theme park and more, Thrillville: Off the Rails keeps the work (!) coming.

There is a lot happening in this sequel theme park builder.  Yet at the same time the approach is somewhat laid back and undemanding.

Thrillville: Off the Rails
	Developer	Frontier Developments
	Publisher	LucasArts
	Rating	G
PS2, PSP, PC, Wii, DS, Reviewed on Xbox 360

Unlike games of a similar premise, Theme Park, and “Tycoon” games such as Rollercoaster Tycoon, the emphasis in Thrillville is on fun at an easy going pace.

After a set of brief demos and frenetic introduction to the Thrillville story by Uncle Mortimer (Doc Brown from Back to the Future), the player character (represented by a youngster of an Avatar) is thrust into the busy world of theme park management, the learning curve initially is high.

Not only will there be the normal mundane park running to be done, such as park maintenance, placement of amenities, checking the finances and so on, but then there is the building of your park attractions.

Each of the five parks has three distinct themed building locations, where you can place your attractions.  These consist of carnival rides, stalls, race tracks, games and of course the coasters.

There are 20 coaster styles to choose from which are built using a quick but powerful tool for track placement.  Like most of the other park features, the coasters can be painted to your liking.  They can also have WHOA elements added.  Think burning rings of fire, cannons that fire the coaster-cart over to a new section of track – you know, the type of things you wish were in real coasters.

Some consideration must be given to the “nausea level” of each new coaster, and placement of park elements is somewhat limited by the initial park design, but is flexible enough to let your imagination run free.  Once constructed, each park ride can be ridden, experience the ride from first person perspective.

More than 100 missions and games task the Thrillville player with gaining Thrill points to unlock further elements of the game.

34 of these missions are the mini-games, consisting mainly of tried and true video game constructs they are a highlight of Thrillville : Off the Rails.  From 1942 rip-offs to quick fighting games (the hilarious Bandito Chinchilla) all mini-games are presented with maximum polish.

I enjoyed Stunt Rider, and believe it or not, the simple Trampoline game.  Most of the mini-games also contain a multiplayer element.

Then there is the management side of the game, whilst in most “tycoon” style games this is where the game is won or lost as checks and balances must be made in a quick thinking micro-management way,  Thrillville : Off the Rails approaches the task with less pressure.

Improvements gain Thrill points, but along the way players can chat, and even flirt with park guests, and otherwise bum around playing the attractions within their own park.

Ultimately, the management of the park gets a bit samey.  But overall there is plenty to do in this low pressure mini-game rich, fun park.