THEME PARK WORLD
                  Bullfrog/Electronic Arts

                 Reviewed by Carolyn Brown
Win95
P200MMX
32Mb Ram

Last year a friend very kindly lent me her copy of 'Roller Coaster
Tycoon', which I really enjoyed. I was debating whether to buy it,
but as I had already played it I felt I wanted something a bit
different, but on the same lines, so when I saw Theme Park World
in PC World for a bargain price, I thought 'just the thing'.
Sadly, it didn't quite live up to my hopes.

You start out with a choice of two parks to develop - Halloween
World or Lost Kingdom, a 'jungly' kind of theme. I chose the
latter to start, and was looking forward to placing attractive
walkways and realistic plants, water etc., just like you could in
RCT. Well, I was quickly disillusioned. The graphics are bright
and rather childish, and bear no resemblance whatsoever to
reality. The parks are all on one level (which I didn't mind too
much), but there is no choice of paving for the paths, and the
scenery you can add is rather unimpressive, and doesn't really
help beautify the park much. In RCT, if you wanted, you could plan
a whole garden area, complete with water feature, trees and
seating, but TPW has nothing like that. There are no lamps, no
seats or railings, no realistic plants or trees.

The punters do seem to be of different sexes, though, whereas in
RCT they were all little blokes, but apart from that, there isn't
a great deal going for them. I used to love it in RCT when they
would sit down to read their maps, eat ice-cream and pizza, or
drink from their cans. With TPW, they don't do anything like that
- they just wander around. Their balloons come in different
colours, though, and each park has a costume shop, from which
patrons emerge wearing a new outfit depending on the theme of the
park. Unfortunately, you can't pick one person and name him, and
follow him around as you could in RCT. Nor can you listen to
individual comments.

There is online help from a strange-looking character who talks
with a Scottish accent. His remarks are amusing at first, but
quickly pall after you have heard them a few dozen times.
Fortunately you can switch him off.

The rides are much as you would expect, all designed to mesh with
the theme of the park you are in. You research them as you go
along, the more cash you invest in research the quicker you
develop new attractions. These are quite fun, and one bonus is
that you can actually try out your rides, if you feel so inclined.
I do get the impression that there are maybe more rides available
than with RCT, but I can't really be sure of that.

By the way, there are no pre-made 'coasters - you have to
construct your own, but that is easy as the parks are all on the
one level. You can also use a camera mode which allows you to
'walk' around the park, which is a novelty for a short time. Oh
yes, you can also hire and fire staff of course.

What incentives are there? The aim is to win 'golden tickets'.
When you have enough, you are allowed to place a ride which you
haven't had to pay to research, and when you have even more
tickets, you get golden keys to the other two parks 'Wonderland'
and 'Space'. The trouble is, it is all too easy to win the
tickets, and you have your keys in no time at all. There is not
much depth to the game, and no real challenge, or if there is, I
couldn't find it. It merely felt like a somewhat 'dumbed-down'
version of the original 'Theme Park', which was far more
challenging.

Final verdict - It's OK, if you can put up with the rather silly
graphics, and the fact that the gameplay isn't at all challenging.
It will certainly give you a bit of fun for a limited period.





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