EA confirms Theme Park DS

By Robert Purchese Published 20 December, 2006

Handheld rollercoasters for 2007.

EA's Tokyo development studio is working on a DS version of Theme Park, the publisher has confirmed.

The latest incarnation of the popular fairground simulation will, as ever, allow you to create your dream-park and fill it with stomach-churning rides, tacky shops, and 'Butlins' sideshows. It's a familiar description of an old franchise, but EA believes the DS can bring a new, intuitive approach to the series via the touch-screen interface.

"Theme Park is one of EA's long standing properties, and we are excited to breathe new life into the series by bringing it to the NDS platform for the first time ever," said Stan Chow, general manager of EA Japan. "Taking advantage of the unique controls in the NDS, we are able to create an easy-to-pick-up game that will have the depth to satisfy fans of the series, and also be accessible to lighter and new gamers with its user-friendly controls."

The game is due for release in spring 2007. Meanwhile you can peruse the latest screenshots in the game's gallery.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (21) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • chupachups #1 5 years ago

    These kinds of games are perfect for styluses, hopefully they won't mess this up.

  • PearOfAnguish #2 5 years ago

    Excellent. Don't screw it up, EA.

    Now where's Syndicate DS?

  • Muddtallica #3 5 years ago

    That looks a decent rendition, actually...and PearOfAnguish is right, we need to start seeing all of Bullfrog's back catalogue on DS. Syndicate, naturally, but Dungeon Keeper DS would be pretty damn nice too. :p

  • Hunam85 #4 5 years ago

    \o/

    Hopefully Rollercoaster Tycoon will make a DS version to compete :D

  • Dizzy #5 5 years ago

    Theme Park no... Dungeon keeper yes plz.

  • sir_tripod #6 5 years ago

    They should release them as twin-game carts like Theme Hospital and Dungeon Keeper.

  • schoozzzmmii #7 5 years ago

    This looks pretty exciting, loved the original all those years ago. I still remember the cheapest toilet you could purchase being called the 'boggy crapper' (*chuckles)

  • the_dudefather #8 5 years ago

    i would buy dungeon keeper DS in a heartbeat, even if it costs more than buying the pc original nearly 10 years ago

    completed that game too many times, even if i just used the 'train a dragon up to level 10 then stomp about other dungeon in fps mode' tactic too much:p


  • aldo_14 #9 5 years ago

    This could be ace, but I still want Cannon Fodder & Syndicate :)

  • Horse #10 5 years ago

    Hmm. Not sure about the whole 'stylus taking the place of a mouse' theme to be honest. With a mouse you have a pointer on screen that you manipulate other objects with. With a stylus your position on screen is only available when you're actually touching the screen, so you need to press buttons in combination with drawing movements to achieve the same level of interaction. It's the difference between having a pointer on the Wii with the Wiimote, and having an inert stylus and a touchscreen on a DS. Not quite the same, and it makes RTS games and the like harder to control.

    Edited to finish my sentences!
    Edited by 1 at 20/12/06 @ 16:43

  • MadMirko #11 5 years ago

    But the pointer is only a workaround to the problem that you can't directly "touch" the object you want. With a mouse you abstract positioning on one surface and apply it to another. That's why you need the pointer.

    With the stylus / touch screen you don't have this extra surface. You also don't have more than one button (touching = clicking), but that has worked for Mac users for a very long time.

  • Horse #12 5 years ago

    True, MM. What I'm getting at is that the extra plane is useful. For example, simply moving the mouse pointer over an object can highlight that object without selecting it necessarily, whereas with a stylus & passive* touch-screen, the interaction model is different.

    Not worse, necessarily, just different. So importing RTS interfaces over to the DS won't work without some tweaking to take account of the difference, and I can't think of any game that's done that tweaking yet.


    *active touch-screens like the ones required by MS's Tablet OS can sense where the stylus is over the screen even when the stylus isn't touching the screen, and tapping the screen acts like a mouse-click at that location, so essentially they've re-inserted the extra plane. But the DS doesn't have that.

  • chupachups #13 5 years ago

    "With a stylus your position on screen is only available when you're actually touching the screen, so you need to press buttons in combination with drawing movements to achieve the same level of interaction."

    There's not really any problem, you can tap the screen just like clicking a mouse. If you needed to simulate hovering, the game could be set to have one tap as a hover and two taps as a selection.

    I've never played a DS game where you had to move the stylus to a particular place and then press a button, because that would require you to have three hands (one to hold the stylus, one to hold the DS, and one to press the button).


    "Not worse, necessarily, just different. So importing RTS interfaces over to the DS won't work without some tweaking to take account of the difference, and I can't think of any game that's done that tweaking yet."

    I can see what you're getting at, but I just can't think of any examples on the DS where this is an actual problem. In most strategy games the position of the pointer makes no difference to gameplay, it's only where you click it, and this is something that's functionally identical to a stylus.

    And whatever the situation, a stylus is a heck of a lot better on a strategy game than a direction pad.
    Edited by 2 at 20/12/06 @ 17:45

  • haowan #14 5 years ago

    It's actually a bit of a problem in Zoo Tycoon DS, actually, and I could see it being a problem for other things too, at least before some fairly major interface changes. For instance, you select a new inflated-head-popping machine and want to place it in the hospital - touching where you want with the stylus isn't enough as you might want to move it, whereas with the mouse you could move it around and click when it was in the right place. Yes, this example could easily be fixed with a "finished" button. But the point remains that there is one less layer when using the stylus than with a mouse, and it has been a problem in at least one (possibly badly ported) game.

    While we're on requests, you've probably guessed... Theme Hospital please!

  • Lost_in_Darkness #15 5 years ago

    This game had been confirmed with screens for about a month now.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #16 5 years ago

    The lack of a visible cursor can really become a hassle. I played a few adventures on the DS using ScummVM DS and there it clearly shows because you have to literally search the screen for items with the cursor. But ScummVM DS handles this quite well. You control a cursor mode with the dpad; Press left on the dpad and you are in left click mode, up on the dpad switches to hover mode which allows you to move over the screen without actually clicking something, dpad right switches to right click mode. It works quite well. Although the best solution would really be simulating a click with a double-touch. Everything else is scrolling and moving the cursor. This should work quite well if a few millimeters off does not change to another grid.

  • Mr_Brown #17 5 years ago

    Sounds good. But I'd rather have Theme Hospital DS.

  • macksed #18 5 years ago

    well if this does well - then maybe there will be a theme hospital (crosses fingers)

  • louse101 #19 5 years ago

    Fantastic. Now if only they move onto Theme Hospital next...

  • andymale #20 5 years ago

    Omg Theme Park... I loved this game back in the years. The sound of kids throwing up is music to my ears. :D

  • frag.uk #21 5 years ago

    Theme Park is easily one of the most addictive games I've ever played. The only game that beat it [in terms of business sims] was RCT3 + Soaked [Water cannons FTW!]. From what I've seen, it should be good on DS.