Hopefully you all had a nice weekend? Mine was equal parts fun and not-so-fun. The not-so-fun is I've been fighting a flu-like something-or-other since Saturday afternoon and it's still kicking my butt as of this morning. The fun came in the form of going to a nearby amusement park with my kiddos one day this weekend, which seemed like the perfect lead-in for this review.
My family loves theme parks. Roller coasters in particular are a hit with us. My oldest, maybe not quite as much, but my wife, two youngest and myself think a weekend at Cedar Point is one of the best experiences ever. In terms of older theme park games, I played some title on my PlayStation 1 called Theme Park a zillion years ago, and don't recall a lot about it except my wife was fascinated with it and it served as her entrance into the world of Roller Coaster Tycoon titles.
Thrillville: Off the Rails is one of those titles I have been getting to reviewing lately that is older - a few years old. As such you can probably find it quite inexpensively now either used, or in bargain bins. I still think there is value in going over titles like this though, because people may decide to give it a try if they see it on sale somewhere - or maybe the premise interests them and they did not know it was out there in the first place.
This is a simulation/building title. You manage your park, setting up rides, prices and layouts while trying to meet goals along the way. Perhaps the biggest twist for me over those older titles I mentioned was the way in which the mini-games are incorporated into the parks and can actually be played by you.
