Thrillville (2006 Video Game)
6/10
Worth a shot
30 April 2007
This is a theme park management simulation game in which you control up to five different theme parks, each with their own unique themes, games, rides, and guest demographics. You'll be managing finances, building and customizing rides, placing food and souvenir kiosks, fraternizing with guests, and hiring and training your park staff. In addition, when you're not busy managing the park, you can ride any ride you've placed in your park, including roller coasters of your own design, and play any game. Riding rides and playing games will earn you money and other bonuses to help you better manage your parks.

Visually, Thrillville isn't all that stunning, even by last-gen standards, but the cartoony graphics hold up well overall. Gameplay itself is varied, so there will rarely be a time when you're stuck doing something tedious or difficult just trying to move ahead. The game challenges range from too easy to downright angering with difficulty, but they aren't essential to gaining new parks, usually just to earn a few extra bucks or unlock some small bonus, such as a new coaster blueprint, or decreases in loan rates.

All in all, unlocking new parks isn't that difficult. In fact, you typically won't even have to complete a significant amount of missions in your current park before the next one will become available. This makes it easy to manage and fine-tune up to five different parks at once, but this won't keep you as busy as you might think. Once a park is completed you'll find there isn't a whole lot to offer aside from building relationships with guests, a task that quickly becomes monotonous and repetitive due to limited choices for interaction. While the customization process will seem fun and engaging at first, eventually you will notice there are only a handful of themes for every section of every park, and you'll end up using the same themes over and over, simply because there really are no other choices.

Overall, Thrillville is a fun, interactive game for any age with a very short learning curve and plenty to keep you entertained the first time through. But it's limitations keep the replay value low, and completing every mini-game for every park seems pointless once you've run out of space to place anything new. I highly recommend checking it out, just don't expect a game that's going to entertain you through the long-haul.
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