Mobile Game Review of "Prehistoric Fun Park"

Image via WikipediaI can't find a link at THQ Wireless's own website, so I have to link to someone else.

Basically, it's Theme Park Tycoon / Rollercoaster Tycoon set in a cellphone. It seems to be a semi-sequel to "Prehistoric Tribe", also from THQ Wireless. It's done in an isometric view, and starts with your park completely empty, a few hundred "stones" in your account, a lot of imagination. You need to build rides (which, BTW, only have doors either to the "right", or "down". The "rotate" command only flips the doors between those two locations, not the ride itself. You need to build path to the rides so people can get to them. You need to build benches for people who get tired. You need to hire guards to maintain order and prevent fights. You need to hire maintainer to keep the rides running. You need to build food stands (and other stands) and hire salespersons to "man" them. You need to build cafes and hire cooks. You need to build toilets and fountains to satisfy other needs. You need to build a variety of rides to satisfy a variety of people. Don't be surprised if your rating 10 coaster sits idle while your rating 4 slide gets a queue 10 people long. And yes, you need to do it all under pressure of money, and ratings. Some rides are powered, so you need to build a dino motor and a dino rider to power the motor. But a motor only cover a certain amount of area... You get the idea.

I find it quite hard to figure out what the riders want, and how to raise the happiness rating overall. Building bigger and badder rides isn't always the answer. Too bad there isn't an "advisor" type function that helps you figure out what to build next. But I guess that'd be a bit too much for a wireless game.

You can go through the campaign in easy or hard difficulties. The hard difficulty have higher "happiness" requirements. Or you can do the custom missions, where you can do a "competition" as you try to run your park against some AI opponents, or you can do a pure free-play as you experiment with your rides and layouts and do a pure sandbox approach.

The graphics are 2D, but the animations are excellent. Each ride have their unique animations. Bungee jump (called banjo here) looks right, as are catapult, tower, and coasters. However, there doesn't seem to be many crowd control devices, other than paths, and the occasional signs.

While you can control the ride's prices, they don't seem to affect the peeps much on their desire to ride them. It's also very difficult to herd the riders into the furthest reaches of the park. A single loop may be the optimum path here.

All in all, Prehistoric Fun Park is a fun little tycoon title that could have commanded $10-15 in a bargain bin, and lost nothing when played on a cellphone. I admit I am a bit spoiled by the big screen I have on my LG VX9900 enV, but even when played in lower resolutions you should enjoy the activities occurring in the park. This game may stay on my phone a bit longer.

Overall: 8/10
Pros: full tycoon title in a phone, fun animations and rides
Cons: hard to judge what to build next, can't get riders into further parts of park