Thrillville for the PSP System is a game that is also available on the PS2 and Xbox. It is slightly different for the PSP though. Basically the whole game revolves around your crazy Uncle Mortimer. He is the scientist who owns Thrillville. He really liked your coaster designs, so he decided to put you in charge of running Thrillville. You make all the decisions that have anything to do with the park. Like, the number of rides, how much each ride will cost, how many bathrooms, where you put your food stands, and so much more.
In Thrillville you are in charge of every aspect of the theme parks. Not to mention there are so many other things you can do. You have five parks that you will be in control of. In order to switch parks you just have to choose which one in the menu screen. You can customize your character to look exactly as you want it to. You get to build your own roller coasters in this game too. Anything you can think of you can control in this video game.
The game play in Thrillville is broken up into 2 different aspects. There is the management aspect and then there are the rides and mini games. The management aspect of the game is played by finishing missions, or specific tasks. There are different tasks for each part of managing your park. Things like hiring employees, building new rides, changing prices on rides, and other thing involved in managing a theme park. When you complete the tasks you earn money, this money is then used to improve your parks. These tasks do not need to be completed in order to continue in the game. It is just like a side story. You are able to roam around and build the park the way you want it to be.
The other aspect of the game is riding your rides and playing the games. This is my favorite part. You get to play on the games and rides that you put in your parks. The thing that I enjoy is that most of the games will be similar to another game you have played before. For example there is a shooter arcade game that will remind a lot of people of Gradius or R-type. None of the games are particularly fantastic but having so many to play makes it great. The great part of this aspect of the game is that you get money for playing the games which you can use for your parks. You can also ride all of your coasters and rides if you just get bored.
Like I said before, there are so many things you can do in this game. You can sell your old rides, you can build new ones, research potential rides, spend money on advertising your park, and even take out bank loans to spend more on your parks. It is really like managing a theme park. You are also able to talk to the people in your park to see if they like it. You can also play the flirt game, this allows you to increase your "attraction" rating by matching a series of heart colors. You have to try and press the correct colored heart in a spinning wheel. You will sometimes be able to challenge visitors to mini games, and sometimes you are able to play matchmaker, which allows you to control your visitor. Once controlling them you go and talk and flirt with other visitors.
Another part of the game is hiring and training your employees. You have three types of employees, groundskeeper, entertainer, and mechanic. All of the training is done in the form of mini games. The mini game to train your entertainers is very similar to Dance Dance Revolution, you have to push buttons at just the right time to make her dance. The mechanic mini game is kind of like pipe dream for the computer, you have to put pieces together to get from one part of the puzzle to the other, in order to repair rides. The groundskeeper mini game is like a third person shooter, you have to go around the park and try to catch debris and clean up puke. You also earn money for these mini games.
Some of the mini games may seem a little pointless, but they are still fun. The fact that the PSP only has one joystick makes it a little hard to play some of the mini games. For instance, in the groundskeeper game you use the joystick to move your character and then you use your X, circle, square, and triangle to aim your gun. This would have been a much easier mini game if there was a second joystick to control the gun. Another downside in Thrillville is that because of so much going on in the park, sometimes the frame rate breaks up a little or slows down too much. Basically Thrillville is a great mini game collection and a simulation game, it's like the best of both worlds in one game. The mini games aren't original but they are really fun.
The amount of options in the simulation aspect of this game makes great game play, but the lack of originality in the mini games is a little disappointing. There is a little motion blurring in the game, but since there are literally hundreds of visitors running around your park that you can see and talk to that really isn't that bad. The soundtrack for this game includes a lot of original rock songs. It sets a good mood for the game but isn't distracting. I would say that this is a pretty easy game, there are good tutorials to help you get started, and the rest is pretty self explanatory. You can play the tutorials at any point during the game. The multi player option is great. You can play any of the mini games with a friend via ad-hoc. While Thrillville isn't the first theme park simulator, it does feel more original because of the mixture of simulation and mini games. This is a great game to sit and play for a long time to build up your park, or if you just have a minute you can play one of the many mini games. I would give this game 9 out of 10.
For more on the PSP check out my blog at http://psp-game-reviews.blogspot.com
