Theme Park

Overall	Graphics	Sound	Addictiveness	Story	Depth	Difficulty
8	6	8	9	--	8	9

Overall: 8

Assuming that you have played newer games before older games, have you had the opportunity to play any of the RollerCoaster Tycoon games? If you have (and enjoyed it), then Theme Park is a game you definitely want to try. Theme Park is all about creating, well, theme parks and beating out your competition. Yeah, Theme Park players have competition. All Theme Park players must contend with nineteen other parks in six different categories: Richest, Satisfying, Exciting, Biggest, Amenities, and Pleasant. The ranks are stated once a year at the end of the each year. This means that you have a full three-hundred and fifty-six days in which you can try to beat out the other parks. Note that the other parks also "upgrade" themselves throughout the year, which contributes to the difficulty of the competition. I was, personally, able to stay in the top five for the majority of my games. However, I kept going bankrupt.

Aside from the twenty-park competition, Theme Park has a crapton of rides, shops, and scenery to help decorate your park with. However, Theme Park only allows you to place each building and ride one time. Scenery and Staff, as well as Paths, can be used any number of times. (However, it's really unnecessary with Staff and there is a "Fire Hazard" limit with Scenery, Stores, and probably rides.) This makes planning a necessity if you want it to look nice and still allow you to fit what you would like where you would like it to be.

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Graphics: 6

It's a Sega Genesis game. For a Sega Genesis game, I'd have to say that the graphics were not all that great. Sonic, Pac-Man, and the various other titles that I played from the Sega console had graphics that panned out a good deal better than Theme Park's. However, I do give it credit for the fact that it is not a huge, popular title that's been known about since the gaming industry hit big.

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Sound: 8

Really great sound for an older game. The background music (splash, I guess?) was not nearly as annoying as some of the other games on the system. The sound is clear, understandable, and it changes regularly so that you're not stuck hearing the same repetitive tune for a half hour of gameplay.

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Addictiveness: 9

The challenge that Theme Park poses gives it an addictive factor that is hardly dampened by any of the game's failings. (Like the insanely difficult ability to stay out of bankruptcy.) Add in the fact that there are infinite (seemingly, anyhow) ways to make a park, this game offers so much replay value that it's just really difficult to put down once you pick it up.

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Story: --

Theme Park offers no story. You start with a $150,000, $100,000 of which is a loan, and you make the story yourself. There are tons of locations to purchase and work with. Beware, however, that once you sell a location, you cannot go back to it.

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Depth: 8

With well over one hundred items to work with (rides, shops, scenery, etc.) to build a park, the six categories of competitions, the various lands to buy and build on, and everything else that you have to deal with, Bullfrog Productions has given Theme Park an enormous amount of depth.

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Difficulty: 9

I awarded Theme Park a "9" in the Difficulty rating because of the fact that I have not been able to make it past year three without going bankrupt, unless I give up my positions on the leaderboard. So, achieving success in this game is a challenge that you must concur. Oh, and you have to achieve getting enough money to buy new land before you can move on.

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As a final note, I'd like to say that this is definitely a game that I would recommend to anybody who likes a nice strategy game with challenge to it.