“On the Cheap” Game Review- Thrillville: Off The Rails

I remember when I was a kid playing games like Bullfrog’s Theme Park, or Sim ThemePark. Shoot, even Roller Coaster Tycoon (and its expansions) were quality theme park manager simulators.

We do know what these games do, right? It’s fairly simple. You build rides, hire staff, entertainment, and food vendors. You do your best to listen to the complaints and compliments of the ticket-buyers and try to build the best theme park in the entire world. It’s a fun little jaunt in which you can waste hour after hour trying to get rich, and have a massive park.

If that is your idea of the perfect theme park simulator? Thrillville will likely disappoint. That does not mean the game is all that bad though…

Instead of just becoming the park manager, the game starts by having you create an avatar that will represent you throughout the entirety of the game. This character creation isn’t bad, with many options to make a toon that is to your liking. You can name him/her or stick with the generic name like I did.

“Greg” has been commissioned by this mad scientist type named Mortimer to become the manager of the Thrillville theme parks. There are 5 parks in all that you will manage throughout the game.

Whenever you are litterally dropped into your park, you explore it as if you were one of the patrons in a third-person view. You walk past the outrageous rides, you see the puke and the trash on the floor, you see the food/drink/clothing vendors and you see the arcade booths as if you were right there in the park. This makes for an interesting perspective, and also an interesting gameplay mechanic. You can do just about anything. You can ride every ride, and you can play ever game.

Riding the rides is lackluster, but it does net you a few experience points every time you do it.

(Above is a picture of the perspective in which you will see the game.)

The arcade, or skill games are fully realized mini-games within this world. There are multiple games to choose from like short FPS jaunts through a sci-fi world shooting robots, or piloting a bi-plane through a WWI battle. You can even play a massive mechanized version of “Sock’em Bop’em Robots” or you can throw your quarters into the “machine” for Super Mario or Double Dragon style games to play through.

(Very fun Motocross game that has similar control mechanics to Excite Bike)

(Robot battling is fun.)

These mini-games are a major part of the game and that is okay because they are quality mini-games that are actually fun to play.

The other part of the game is putting in a certain ammount of coasters, race tracks, vendors, and hiring staff. There is a complete coaster and race track building tool, along with training “minigames” for newly hired staff.

Guess what? This game even has a story.

The Thrillville brand is fighting off the evil Global-Joy theme park brand in a battle to see who can build the best parks.

That’s the story.

There are also missions, and collection quests for you to complete that reward you with ride designs, money, and experience that allows you to unlock new parks.

Graphically I am at a serious impass in how to grade. The graphics of the rides, building, and inside the minigames are excellent however the individual character models are horrible.

For Xbox 360 owners this game offers some fairly easy achievements. I got my first 250 within 3 hours of gameplay. I figure I can get about half of the achievements by just going through the story and the main missions of the game.

It’s a cute title, and its really kind of fun to waste your time being a theme park manager. I purchased this game for 14.99 used from Gamestop using my Edge card that stacked with a 10% off any used 360 game deal.

I will likely finish the main story of Thrillville before putting it back on the shelf where it will stay forever. The game is worth $19.99, there is no doubt about it.

Overall Rating: At $19.99 or less makes this game a cheap, entertaining jaunt that allows for some nice filler, and easy achievements between the AAA titles coming out this Holiday season. Do not pay over $19.99 for this game.