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Amusement Park Review & Win your own Amusement Park!

SimCity Amusement Park reminded me of Rollercoaster Tycoon before I got my hands on it. Now that I’ve spent quite a bit of time with the new content set, it’s nothing like the popular Tycoon at all. It fits with the rest of SimCity, and it doesn’t feel like it’s trying too hard to be something else. Maxis did a really good job of bringing new content and sticking to that SimCity feel we’ve grown to love since its release earlier this year. I would like to thank EA UK for providing me with a review copy of the Amusement Park DLC to review.

Fun Shunsine Park Sign

Fits right in

Although Maxis was trying to bring a new style of gameplay to SimCity, it doesn’t feel much different than what we’re familiar with in terms of attracting tourist to landmarks and casinos. You may be earning your money differently than what’s available in the base game, but in the end you’re trying to get as many tourists as you can to earn money.

concession stand

Less Challenging than Casino Cities

I would have to say running an amusement park city is less challenging than running a casino city, which can get overwhelming at times. I was able to get a good number of tourists to my park with being the only city in the region, no transportation, and a little bit of residential so my park would have workers. It would depend on what kind of challenge you’re looking for to determine if this is a pro or con, though. I feel that there is more depth to casinos than the amusement parks.

One of the things that make a casino city challenging is that they cause a lot of crime; amusement parks do not cause any crime. [Trying to imagine what kind of crime there would be in an amusement park, scary clowns?] Even though it adds gameplay value to the base game, Amusement Parks seem to be more for aesthetic purposes than extended gameplay.

ferriswheel

bigfoot rollercoaster

Missing the Details

Maxis have spoiled us with the GlassBox Engine in a way where everything is highly detailed. For example, if you zoom in on an industrial building you can see boxes moving along the conveyer belt, which shows you that it’s producing goods and functioning properly. I feel that they didn’t give us the same amount of details with the amusement park as the base game you can see the rides spinning and swinging, as well as the Sims walking through the park and waiting in line, there is no visual representation of goods they’re buying.

I expected to see my tourists Sims walking around with a balloon after buying one from the balloon stand. It doesn’t make the content set worse or less than good, but it would have been nice to see the same details as the base game carried into the DLC.

balloon stand
There are 3 main gates you can place to start your amusement park, and each gate has its own name and theme. Although they are themed differently, the attractions and concession stands look the same, which is a little disappointing. It would’ve been nice to have different theme parks with different kinds of goods that could be sold to the tourist that matched each gate.

bluebeards

Conclusion

In the end, I did enjoy the new content set and I feel that it adds a certain beauty to your city. I wouldn’t say it changes the gameplay value too much, but the content set is worth the money if you’re interested in something other than a casino city. I would like a little more detail in the next DLC, but other than that I have no real complaints.

Giveaway

With thanks to EA UK we have a code for the Amusement Park DLC to give away!

All you have to do is comment on this post with what you would name your own amusement park and why! You have until Friday the 14th of June 23:59PM BST to enter!

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42 Comments

  • I would name mine Palm Carnival because my city’s name is Palm Tides and it just sounds so tropical, and I will even make it tropical themed! 🙂

  • I would name mine Palm Carnival because my city’s name is Palm Tides and it just sounds so tropical, and I will even make it tropical themed! 🙂

  • I’d call my park Gawbad’s Fun’tasy Theme park. Why because for one I’m called Gawbad so I’d name it after myself 😛 It will be the best park with plenty of extreme rides, and a few calm rides to cool down on. I’d make it have a decent value to allow all people to visit and have the same amount of fun. All I need now is the code 😀

  • I’d call my park Gawbad’s Fun’tasy Theme park. Why because for one I’m called Gawbad so I’d name it after myself 😛 It will be the best park with plenty of extreme rides, and a few calm rides to cool down on. I’d make it have a decent value to allow all people to visit and have the same amount of fun. All I need now is the code 😀

  • I would call my theme park Dizzy Heights because it describes perfectly the experiences my sims can expect to have there. The name also makes me think of the old ‘Dizzy’ platform adventure games, except, instead of an egg, I envisage a nice welcoming freezer bunny over the park entrance sign 😀

  • I would call my theme park Dizzy Heights because it describes perfectly the experiences my sims can expect to have there. The name also makes me think of the old ‘Dizzy’ platform adventure games, except, instead of an egg, I envisage a nice welcoming freezer bunny over the park entrance sign 😀

  • I would run a full tourist hot spot adding the Park right in the middle of the city. I was never really into the whole tourist town thing until i seen the park add on.

  • I would run a full tourist hot spot adding the Park right in the middle of the city. I was never really into the whole tourist town thing until i seen the park add on.

  • I’ll name Dizzy’s Land 😀

    Cause it’s gonna make lots of my sims very dizzy, and it sounds like Disney Land. haha

  • I’ll name Dizzy’s Land 😀

    Cause it’s gonna make lots of my sims very dizzy, and it sounds like Disney Land. haha

  • I’m going to name it The Lizard’s Playground. Where the giant lizard comes to hangout! Let’s hope not though…

  • I’m going to name it The Lizard’s Playground. Where the giant lizard comes to hangout! Let’s hope not though…

  • My theme park would be name “OverTheTop” because I like things to be at the maximum fun. So everyone can ejoy the rides and have no complaints about it.

  • My theme park would be name “OverTheTop” because I like things to be at the maximum fun. So everyone can ejoy the rides and have no complaints about it.

  • My amusement Park will be named KillerCoaster, It will be the most Extreme and deadly coaster in Simcity 5 history. Why I named it that? Because this coaster, will be the most dangerous in the entire Community, You will need to Have A lot of Bravery In this Coaster, Over 1 Million have already Been scared.

  • My amusement Park will be named KillerCoaster, It will be the most Extreme and deadly coaster in Simcity 5 history. Why I named it that? Because this coaster, will be the most dangerous in the entire Community, You will need to Have A lot of Bravery In this Coaster, Over 1 Million have already Been scared.

  • I would name my park [Will Domination!!!LAND!!!] Because I would name everything after me. The Will Rippitulate!. Willmagaddon.
    [In the name of the Flintstones] WWILLLLLMAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!

  • I would name my park [Will Domination!!!LAND!!!] Because I would name everything after me. The Will Rippitulate!. Willmagaddon.
    [In the name of the Flintstones] WWILLLLLMAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!

  • Sim County Fair Express. Since I plan to make a country style theme park, with a very long set of train tracks..

  • Sim County Fair Express. Since I plan to make a country style theme park, with a very long set of train tracks..

  • I’d name my park Sim Plateau.

    I was inspired by this site’s name, Platinum SimCity. So I decided to coin the ‘Plat’ in platinum, and call it Plateau instead.

    I’m going to surround Sim Plateau with lots of high wealth residents. Hopefully they will love the theme park with its thrilling rides, and then have a relaxing cruise via the mini train.

  • I’d name my park Sim Plateau.

    I was inspired by this site’s name, Platinum SimCity. So I decided to coin the ‘Plat’ in platinum, and call it Plateau instead.

    I’m going to surround Sim Plateau with lots of high wealth residents. Hopefully they will love the theme park with its thrilling rides, and then have a relaxing cruise via the mini train.