Theme Park, originally released back in 1994, was a firm favourite of mine. I remember spending a fair few evenings constructing and managing my amusement park on my second hand Playstation.

So when EA released the Theme Park app, I had to give it a go. On Android and in the iTunes App Store, Theme Park starts off just as fun as I remember. Yes, the control isn’t as easy on a smartphone as it was on a console, but the game is still great. The only thing I’ve found, as with a lot of these free apps, is it takes a long time to get anywhere with the game and it begs you to pay for stuff at every opportunity. I’d rather just pay a flat rate for the game instead of paying for tickets.

As I said before in my Candy Crush review, I don’t like paying for upgrades. I will buy games, and I will buy apps if they are particularly useful (although I’ve yet to find one that falls into this category), but I won’t buy tokens, tickets, coins, or any other paid-for item on a ‘free’ app.

Theme Park has therefore taken a very long time to progress.

There have been some other very angry reviews of this app, like this one from Jim Sterling on Destructoid.

I don’t feel that strongly about it. I still enjoy playing it, but I’m sure the nostalgia of the original game has a part to play in that. It’s given me the urge to dig out my old Playstation instead.