Thrillville

7.8
Good

Gameplay	7.5	"Not quite Thrillville, but enjoyable all the same."
Graphics	6.0
Sound	8.5
Value	8.5

By Daniel Needham

On the surface, it’s probably easy to discard Thrillville as a management sim that doesn’t offer as much depth as its PC counterparts, and is portrayed more in a cartoonish and somewhat unrealistic setting. However, instead of targeting the niche business management market with more of the same, Frontier seems to be going after more casual players, by focusing on easy-to-pick-up yet often surprisingly complex mini-games, and by making the overall experience user-friendly and fun to play.

Thrillville is better categorised as a compilation of mini-games than a business management sim or amusement park builder, but it does have many elements of those two genres. You can choose to dive right into these mini-games by yourself, or join a few friends in party play mode.

One of the many excellent design choices that Frontier makes in Thrillville is that you'll find all of the 20-plus mini-games ready to play here, except for a very select few that can be unlocked by playing through portions of the single-player mode. The amusement park theme is kept within the mini-games very well; for instance, you'll be able to pop cork guns off in themed shooting galleries, race around custom-built go-kart tracks, and race through the corkscrews of rollercoaster’s.

There's a good variety of mini-games; several of them however are essentially the exact same game wrapped up in a different theme. However, Frontier tries to compensate for this by making all the mini-games very appealing multiplayer experiences, while keeping the learning curve at an absolute minimum.

If you're all by your lonesome and looking to apply those mini-games to a story, you can dive into Thrillville's single-player mode. After being treated to the eccentric ramblings of your easily excitable Uncle Mortimer, you're commissioned to take over the management and maintenance duties of the Thrillville chain of amusement parks. To be clear, the story is mostly nonexistent, but it's coherent enough to glue the premise behind your tasks together, and Uncle Mortimer's tips and ramblings are there to help the user and give quick, light humour. Since you're taking over his already-bustling enterprise, your job won't so much be building a theme park from the ground up as it will be maintaining the parks, updating them with new rides, and ensuring visitors are having a good time. Instead of getting bogged down in a more technical approach to running the park, you'll accomplish these goals by taking on a series of missions.

Missions are divided up into five different categories: build, games, guest, upkeep, and business. You're ranked on how well you complete each mission on a gold-silver-bronze scale. For example, build and business missions are what you'd typically expect from a business-management sim, as they revolve around placing rides, games, or other structures, and they often address one or more needs of your park, such as thirst, nausea, or thrill levels, as well as attracting new crowds.

Aside from some sharp-looking cutscenes featuring Uncle Mortimer, Thrillville has a dated, last-generation look to it. The game takes on a cartoonish look to mitigate its shortcomings in this respect, and for the most part it helps in de-emphasizing the issue. Throughout the game, characters do animate well, and there are absolutely zero frame rate or clipping issues.

Every aspect of the audio in Thrillville is great, ranging from Mortimer's loony ramblings to the ambient noise and radio DJ at the theme parks to the voice-over dialogue of guest conversations. The soundtrack in particular stands out as exceptional, both because it expands the repertoire of what's conventionally heard in video games and because the performances are really enjoyable.

Thrillville is an enjoyable experience, which offsets its possible negatives by strongly accentuating its positives and putting together an overall package, which as well as being fun and enjoyable is simple and easy to play for both younger and older gamers.

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