Thrillville: Off The Rails for Wii Review By Dan/Devil
Specs/Intro
Consoles: Wii, XBOX 360, PSP, PS2, Nintendo DS, PC
Release Date: October 16, 2007
--This review is only for the Wii version, and the controls are much different in the others-- (Not all pictures are from the Wii version, due to lack of many people having it)
In Thrillville: Off The Rails (TOTR) you run your own theme park, Thrillville. You must build coasters, install carnival rides, mini-games, and more! However, it has its fair share of cons, and could have been made into something truly amazing. I own this game on Wii and 360, and I must say TOTR looks much better on the 360. Though, it doesn't ruin the game at all. TOTR requires the nunchuck.
This isn't the type of game where you can predict it will only last a few hours. The process of leveling up takes a little while.
Story
You're the park manager of Thrillville. However, that's not all to the story. You have one competitor, Globo Joy, that is determined to make your park fail no matter what.
Gameplay
In TOTR, your main goal is to create five successful theme parks which each have:
Three separate areas
Each area contains two spots for either two coasters or one coaster and one race track. (Only one spot can hold a race track)
Three areas to put in bathrooms, food stalls, drink stalls, carnival rides, mini-games, etc.
However, coasters and other attractions cannot interfere with each other. If they do, red will mask over whatever is trying to be built, showing it cannot be installed there.
In each of the five theme parks, there is something to collect. Whether it be anti-thrillville posters, or journal entries. There are six items scattered around the whole park, and it's your job to go get them. It is also possible to find blue-prints of new carnival rides, coasters, etc.
In each area of the park, there is a power limit to worry about. Each attraction uses a different amount of power, so be careful not to use it all! Interaction with your customers is possible, so be sure to find out what they need or want. By simply selecting topics to talk about, the friendship bar can go up or down. A good way to get more "points" is to make "max friends" with your customers.
Every two times leveled up, a new theme park of choice will be opened. The little bar in the top left corner shows how much you have leveled up. Leveling up will come with the more thrilling attractions you install, interacting with customers, hiring/training new employees, etc. Hiring new employees is mandatory, since parks will be filled with vomit everywhere possible, and other problems. From the menu, easily hire a new employee, hover the Wii Remote on top of their name, and press train. Then a mini-game will appear. Be sure to hire as many employees as needed, and train them fully. You can also ride your coasters/carnival rides, play mini-games, and ride your race tracks.
Many new "extreme" type of tracks are available in some types of coasters, such as fire hoops, explosions, even going off the rails!
Controls
The controls for the Wii version were a bit annoying for me. Building racetracks and coasters is done by holding the wii remote in the direction wanted for your track to turn, and leaning the nunchuck left or right if you want your track to lean to the side a bit too. It wasn't the best idea for controls, but they worked decently. Talking to guests and accessing the menu for attractions is done by pressing A.
Pressing B takes you to the menu, and the analog stick on the nunchuck is used for moving. Pressing Z on the nunchuck while the analog stick is tilt allows the character to run. While running, the sides of the screen blur a bit, which got me dizzy. The + button goes to the main menu.
Also, while playing the game I noticed a message appeared saying, "please connect nunchuck into Wii Remote 1," when it was clearly plugged in. After a few seconds of waiting it allowed me to press okay and go back to the game though.
Graphics
The graphics are really nothing special, and could have been much better. Wasn't enough to stop me from playing, though.
Sound
The sound that plays in the background while roaming the park are actually real songs, and one is from Miley Cyrus. But, it isn't as bad as her other songs.
If you played the original Thrillville for PS2, the sounds are identical. They work well, however. Many of the guests in the park use the same voice-overs, so don't be surprised if you hear the voice more than 50 times.
Overview
Thrillville: Off The Rails is a title definitely worth checking out, especially due to the low price it is being sold for, and not only is it about coasters, there's much more to do!
Pros: Replay Value, Mini-Games, Interaction With Guests, Tons Of Content
I have this game.. And it was a good review.. but you really didnt give the game justice... with 50 minigames, you didnt stress the fact that this game is amazing with friends. You also have evidently never played the roller coaster tycoon games.. This is sooo much better than that. If you have played RCT, you would know that building roller coasters on Thrilleville is 50x easier and the fact that you cant walk around the park on your own, you are confined to a god like view of your park. Thrillville doesnt make you do that. you get the real feeling of a park. not to mention its never the same.. you work in one park, then move to the next with different roller coasters, challenges in games and other things.
Graphics = needs more information. A couple sentences isn't enough. That's basically all I need to say, work on amount of content, like with your Super Mario Sunshine review. Keep up the good work!
