Gameplay

General

As an operator, your job in Sim Theme Park is to build the best possible amusement park. You want to attract as many visitors as you can and convince them to part with as much of their money as possible. To do this, you'll need to build an exciting park - have as many rides as possible, and lots of fun sideshows. You'll also need to set up gift shops for them to spend their money, food stands for when they get hungry, drink stands for your thirsty patrons, and of course decorations and ornamentation for the park (trees, shrubbery, rocks, fountains, etc.). Don't forget that all amusement parks need adequate bathrooms and a huge janitorial staff to clean those bathrooms (and all the vomit that results from your nasty rides). You'll need mechanics to fix rides that break down, and costumed entertainers to amuse the kids who are waiting in line. New to Sim Theme Park is the need for security guards to deal with unruly children who set off stink bombs and litter willfully in the park. To help your security staff, you can set up security cameras (which you can access with your camcorder mode!) to monitor wider areas. Tweaking prices on your shops, sideshows, and the quality of your goods is the key to making the most money.

Barney's bouncy belly

A closer look

The rides

Most of the rides in Sim Theme Park are pre-made. Your staff researches them, you plop them down and they just go. You are free to design and upgrade some rides, including rollercoasters, log flumes, and go-kart tracks. Example features and upgrades include loops, jumps, twists, and tunnels. Overall, the rides in STP are very fun and creative looking, although some of them are not totally realistic. In particular, there's an attraction that literally flies its riders around the park like they're riding the back of a bird. On the more realistic side of thigns, The Lost Kingdom theme features a bumper cars type ride called Hot Pot. The neat thing about Hot Pot is that it uses bumper boats in a huge cook pot, instead of standard bumper cars. Very cool! If you've ever been to Disneyland and enjoyed Captain EO or Star Tours, you'll be pleased to know that Bullfrog also includes a "simulation" type ride that shakes and jostles riders around as they view a movie screen.

What's somewhat disappointing is that every world has basically the same set of rides - they're only changed in name and look to suit the particular theme world they're in. For example, the Bouncy Belly dinosaur in the Lost Kingdom makes an appearance as the Bouncy Brain in Halloween World, masquerades as the Bouncy Jello ride in Wonderland and evolves into a zero-g room when you create a park in Space Zone. It's pretty much as if all the rides simply get a new "skin" when you change worlds.

Entering Wonderland

Taken from a SpaceZone coaster

Golden Tickets, Keys, and Challenges

Another aspect that makes Sim Theme Park unique is its reward system. Rather than just let you go free form in a "sandbox mode" (which is still available, it's just called 'instant action'), you have to prove yourself by earning Golden Tickets for job performance. Get enough Golden Tickets, and you'll win yourself golden keys. At the outset, the Lost Kingdom, and Halloween World are the only worlds available to you. Wonderland costs 3 golden keys to open and Space Zone requires 5. As you develop parks in Lost Kingdom and Halloween World, you'll gradually gain the keys you need to unlock the other two worlds. Golden Tickets don't just earn you keys though - within each "world" you'll be able to spend them to get special rides that you can't purchase with money. Earning the tickets is generally a trivial matter; you get them for having good rides, getting lots of visitors, earning lots of money, etc. You get plenty of them just for playing well, but if you get stuck, the advisor will sometimes give you hints as to how you can earn more.

A scary tree stump

Mechanic fixing a ride