Park / Zippo's Wacky World of Wonders
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18-August 09
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Zippo's Wacky World of Wonders
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- Comments 82
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89.62%(required: 80%) Spotlight
5dave 100% yes geewhzz 100% yes RCTFAN 100% yes zodiac 100% yes Xcoaster 95% yes Casimir 90% yes CedarPoint6 90% yes chapelz 90% yes Katapultable 90% yes Fr3ak 85% yes Kumba 85% yes nin 85% no Evil WME 80% yes posix 75% no Ride6 75% yes 89.62% 86.67% -
22 fans Fans of this park
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I think you're on to something here. It seems to me that anything that isn't purely, 100% realistic nowadays gets categorized as 'fantasy'. I LOVE the idea of 'freestyle" because, that's where a large majority of parks should be 'ranked'. That being said...why not just let people build what they want to build and accept it all for what it is, and not HAVE to categorize everything?
Of course, that's just my opinion...I could be wrong.
Edited by CoasterForce, 22 August 2009 - 11:03 AM.
Exactly what I was thinking.. this park is AMAZING.
Even with that being said I have enjoyed the park more with each successive visit, particularly how refined everything is. In where it doesn't take leaps in bounds forward in giving us something we've never seen before, it gives us better ways of doing things that have been conceptualized before but never really brought to their full potential. The park is also very well rounded in all areas of parkmaking, and it does have a lot of charm and inspiration (I'm sorry I'm not citing specific examples in this post but I have to wake my ass up at 6am).
I do think its a spotlight park.
But this is not the beginning of an era. RoB stands for Rivers of Babylon, please check that out if you didn't know what that stood for. Also I must remind everybody about Fantastic Wonders and how underrated that park has always been, please take another look at that one in-game (and ignore realism while looking at the coasters for the most pleasurable experience).
I'm being dead ass, I really wish you would come back and give us one more park.
-JDP
It is definitely 100% a Spotlight park. I can't see how it isn't. I'm not sure of all these 'best ever' comments; I would have scored it at around 17/20 - which is an exceedingly high and exceptional score... but I wouldn't give it the 19/20 or 20/20 for perfection. For me, the one thing it really really lacked was a coaster which made me go "wow, that's incredible". And seeing as the game is called RollerCoaster Tycoon, I think that's a big thing that's missing.
At the same time, I don't agree with any of the negative comments about the coaster selection. Whilst I think that there is one big 'Wow' coaster missing, the ones which are there are all - as Xophe said - solid, with good layouts which would be fun to ride. The B&Ms are just that - the layouts are realistic but are slightly twisted to be a bit different to the norm - definitely would be fun to ride. But as an RCT viewer, nothing 'wow' - just solid, good, fun to watch. The Intamin Rocket is the best coaster out of the bunch, for similar reasons, but it's executed even better. I liked the GCII too, particularly its out and back finale. So in general, the coasters are all good; sort of 7 or 8 out of 10. But there's no 'jewel in the crown'.
Whilst I'm still reviewing the attractions, I will say that where this park does excel is some of its other rides. Coasters are the number one thing I'm looking for in a park, but here, some of the other rides were superb too. Obviously the Ghosts of Scotland dark ride is great, but that Sewage Works waterslide is simply superb - one of the best dark rides I've seen. Superbly presented. Looks awesome. Everyone's raving about the Rapids too - whilst I really like it (love the station) I wasn't quite convinced by some of it; it didn't seem as 'realistic' as the style some of your other rides had. The layout seemed too spread out and sometimes the 'river banks' were at the same level as the water etc. Minor details, but stuff which detracted slightly from it for me.
Onto other stuff now:- and the number one thing about this park which makes it such a good Spotlight park for me is its PRESENTATION. The whole thing is superbly presented and executed wonderfully not only for the peeps but also for the RCT viewer. The theming is realistic - it's not over the top, but seems like something a real park would do. I'm glad that you yourself Xophe have drawn comparisons to Alton Towers - I definitely see the influence, except the theming in Zippo's is a little more immersive. The Medieval area feels a bit like a better version of Alton's (former area) Merrie England. Scotland is superb - it's crowded and busy but it somehow works. A bit Busch Gardens Williamsburg-style. The Loch Ness Monster sculpture is great.
The best area is in my opinion Zippo's Grimey Glen. It's fairly unique, but works wonderfully and for a theme which could have easily flopped and gone terribly wrong, it's superb. Again, awesome presentation - great use of the piping everywhere. Elsewhere - the petting zoo area was well pulled off, but I felt it was slightly oddly positioned in the middle of the park. I dunno why, I kinda feel a petting farm wouldn't be right in the centre. The snail theatre was genius - another great detail, of which there are tons: the sidestalls and games everywhere, Zippo at the entrance, the radio controlled boats, invisible golf course, bone-cage entrance to Cannibal etc.
I liked the queue-line for the inverted coaster; again I'll use the phrase 'great presentation'. However, I thought the China area was quite a bit weaker than the others - here was one of the few times where I thought your use of 'negative space' didn't work so much. It felt a little bare. Otherwise, your use of open areas, mixed with areas of foliage worked incredibly. As everyone's said, your foliage skills are immense. Whilst I wouldn't call it a 'themed area', one of my absolute favourite sections of the park was the Gardens in the middle. Obviously there's more Alton Towers influence here, but they really were stunning and you made RCT look beautiful! Great use of the Wooden Side Friction track as plant borders.
On the subject of non-ride areas: the hotel. That's definitely the weakest section of the map, and I really think you shouldn't have included it. In comparison to some of your other buildings, the hotel looked quite ugly and rushed and wasn't really worth putting in in its current state IMO - it didn't really add anything positive and detracted from the quality a bit for me. But this is a rare weakness in the overall superb presentation.
So. How to sum up? This is definitely one of the best presented parks out there: great foliage, detailing and theming, some of which is very unique. For the most part, the rides are all really good; some of the dark rides are superb. Coaster-wise, the majority are all good, solid rides. However, along with a couple of other minor details which drag my score of the park down a little, the main thing missing from the park is a coaster which is 'world-class' - totally superb and makes me go "wow". Nonetheless, this is most definitely spotlight quality, easily; one of the best parks on here for a while - you've done a great job.
I'm glad you used the Alton Towers analogy, as that's how I was going to close off this review. I think this park is quite similar in style to Alton Towers - and I love Alton! However, there are a couple of clear differences in style or design choices - the theming in your park is much more immersive and impressive. And secondly - the reason I can't rate this park more than a 17/20 or so - your park lacks a 'jewel in the crown'. Alton Towers has its own little 'ace in the hole' in the form of the world-class coaster Nemesis... and that's what Zippo's lacks... a truly unique blows-your-socks-off coaster.
Everything theme was brilliantly portrayed, you had me submerged the entire time. Definately the best RCT creation this year, the park was so vibrant and fun.
I'll give a more in depth review when I have time, so maybe in about a month or so
Edited by Liampie, 12 September 2009 - 07:26 AM.
I'm glad! Thanks!
I've just finished my exams at the end of a crazily busy year so hopefully I'll have time to build something new soon...
Beautiful park Xophe *two thumbs up*
I'm gonna say it right here. Right now......
This park is fuckin' awesome.
Can't believe this park is 4 years old!