Thrillville: Off the Rails (Wii) > Reviews (2)

I love the music from Thrillville Off The Rails although the game is not as great as the first one. The graphics on the Wii are really good and we enjoy playing this game with our five year old daughter. My husband prefers this game on the PS2 because he felt that it was a better game in his opinion.

You need to build rides, games, stalls and other fun fair attractions. Each facility requires a specific amount of power and you can only build them if you have enough power. When building you have to move the attractions until they turn blue to place them. Then you have to build a coaster that should be state of the art. There is an annoying voice tutorial that talks you through everything. Many of the activities include playing games and even training staff involves some sort of game.

There are plenty of mini games so you will never get bored. Every single game is a mini game that is either ridiculously hard or easy. Most of the mini games will make you laugh. There is literally hours of endless game play where you would never get bored. Stunt Rider is a mini game where you have to ride a motorbike and collect coins. A bit similar to the 1980's types of games.

There are also fair ground types of games where you have to whack a strength machine and get points. Test Your Strength is a silly game that is very easy. Marketing involves choosing a magazine or newspaper and starting a campaign. The statistics are under each newspaper or magazine and tell you how good the campaign will be. You need to choose the right campaign for your park for the most visitors.

You go around the park building rides and attractions. Also whilst going round the park you need to talk to customers and make friends. You'll find that some people are specifically sent to the park to present you with challenges. For instance, the players in the park have a trophy above their heads. You can check who you are friends with by hovering above their heads. There is so much to mention in this game and for that reason it is very in depth. There are many different areas to this game and things that you can do.

You don't just level up by going from one level to another. You have ten grades on each level and you have to make it to each grade before you can go up a level. You get grades for doing each task.

Thrillville: Off the Rails is wonderfully designed so that each part of building and maintaining a theme park is excellent fun for the entire family. There is so much to do that you'll never feel bored. It is easy to play for young children and also enjoyable for adults. Although it is on the Wii it is not designed very well and could look better.

The frame rate could be improved and be more challenging. The mini games will not feel new to people who have played the first game. Some of them are new, but generally most of them are not new.

The colours on the game are not great and it's weird how some people seem to run through each other. Almost like they are ghosts and are not really there at all.

A lot of the mini games have very basic graphics and remind me of the 80's Spectrum games. With so much to do nearly all of the things in the park can be enjoyed in some way. This game also makes an excellent party game with 50 mini games it's well worth the money. It makes me laugh how some of the mini games say funny things like, "You'll be running the grave yard shift soon"

The single player campaign allows you to be a theme park manager. You will need to look after the guests and keep them happy. Keep the critics happy so that they paint a good reputation for your park. If the critics are not happy then they will not speak well of your park. You will start off with a theme park that is broken into three themed areas. As you do missions such as participating in mini-games, completing rides and caring for your staff then you will receive thrill points. Thrill points will help to unlock new parks with their own theme.

There are simulation elements to Thrill Ville, but nothing as good as "Tycoon games". Money is not a problem during this game so setting prices, running advertising campaigns are not really worth it. Most of the time is spent on designing new rides, stalls, games and coasters. It's very easy to place new attractions all you need to do is scroll through a menu till you find a place, good spot and press a button to drop it. A bad aspect of this game is that you are limited to the places where buildings can be placed. Every new building consumes energy and each of your park's areas have only a limited amount of power.

All in all Thrillville: Off the Rails is an excellent game that is well worth the money. It costs 8 pounds new from most shops and on the Internet also.