Price: £39.99

Players: 1

So you've had a hard, stressful day at work, trying to balance budgets, organise staff and most of all, keep the customer satisfied. Then when you get home, it's time to relax - by doing it all again on your Playstation 2. Theme Park World gives you the chance to manage your own set of rides, such as a Rollercoaster, the Crazy Ape, Rocky Racers, of the King of the Swingers; sideshow attractions including an Arcade and the Jungle Spray, plus food shops selling burgers, fries and drinks. You must also build features such as toilets, security cameras and a staff room, otherwise your customers will go where they please, crime will be rife and your employees will not be happy. First, however, you must select the world in which to inhabit, be it prehistoric or futuristic.

Some bad points about Theme Park World though. It takes forever to load up after saving a game. Also, the tutorial coach, in the form of a Scottish ant, gets on your nerves when first playing, but he is necessary for much of the time while getting to grips with it. I found it odd when my park's entertainers threatened to strike unless I set them specific boundaries to patrol. I did nothing and they called off the industrial action stating they were impressed with my improvements (!) Finally, in this whinge-fest, it had a tendancy to crash once in a blue moon so make sure you save regularly. However, it was placed atop a Philips ONdigital box at the time which did get very hot. Since then, it's been replaced with a Nokia on which I've had no such problems, as of yet.

Everyone knows what this game looks like and the pictures will confirm this. It looks like Lego-land, although it's easy enough to interact with the scenery, develop your business and place new staff around the joint. The sound's not a great deal to shout about. The customers make little indistinct noises around the park, while the incandescent Irish tones of your tutor speak out way too often, repeating the same pieces of dialogue (Yes, I know I haven't finished building the bloody rollercoaster yet!) The vibration is a nice feature when you're travelling on the aforementioned ride, but other than that, everything plays exactly as you'd expect.

I was never particularly into God-sims, but am partial to the odd trip to Alton Towers or Blackpool Pleasure Beach, but this game is really for those who want to be completely anal about the whole thing, right down to constantly adjusting the height and angle of every single pylon on your rollercoaster, although it is possible to take a spin on each of these rides to see just how they perform.

GRAPHICS SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC PLAYABILITY ORIGINALITY ENJOYMENT
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Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2001.