Head-2-Head Classic / Round 4 | Match 2

Retracing our collective footsteps

Round 4 | Match 2

Voting Rules
- You should only vote if you have viewed both parks in game.
- Take your time to reflect on each park. The poll stays open for three days, not three minutes.
- Everyone but players belonging to either team in the match may vote.

National Cherry Blossom Festival: Adorable little park and very distinctly Rob. Been waiting to see what you had planned for this contest ever since you mentioned leading a park. It's very calm and spacious but also really rails in on one specific theme like a classic H2H park. The focus is on the cherry blossom trees of course, and the landscaping is absolutely lovely. Loved the recreations of all the Washington DC monuments but the Lincoln Memorial definitely takes the cake. The selection of rides is fitting, although I wonder if something a bit more portable than a scenic railway could have been used. I also feel like the secret service areas could have been used to form some sort of side "plot" rather than just being there. Lovely little park though Evergreen Gardeners, you should be proud.

Poképark Kanto: To be a builder on this park would have been divine fate; I did indeed spend my 2005 playing tons of RCT2 making awful Pokemon-themed rides. With that said, I couldn't ask for a better combination to lead this park than J K and Iretont. J K did a hell of a job making this park feel like a passionate Pokemon tribute while adding his signature touch while Iretont filled in the current meta knowledge J K was lacking from his hiatus. And I mean come on, Dad Squad. Kumba did a wonderful job with his last-second contributions and IMO it led to something truly special. Couldn't be prouder of my team.

Look at the Obelisk on National Cherry Blossom Festival

Poképark Kanto: What a fun park. I am certain a lot of people around my age have at least considered tackling such a theme at one point or another, but this park is one of the first to really accomplish what I might have set out to do one day. Lovely references across the board, not that you'd have to play the games to understand what's going on as a whole. Nostalgia-baiting aside - I love the way this is formatted. The park naturally spirals along the course one takes as a trainer in the 1st Generation games, and I'm embarrassed to admit I didn't really realize it until I got all the way around. It's an amazing touch. Favorite part is Tangela as a Premier LIM - what a genius idea.

National Cherry Blossom Festival: This is a very pretty park. I think it captures a certain aesthetic from that era quite well. I also think it's perhaps in need of a bit of polish. I have no issue with the number of physical attractions in the park, but when there's one or two the rest of the park has to be really well executed to keep my attention. It mostly succeeded in that, but I do think the gardens could have been amped up - there's a lot of water included, for example, which takes away from space that could have been used for some lovely walking paths in the trees. That being said, it's very charming and beautiful with some fun humor mixed in. I love the scenic railway, true highlight of the submission and a really wonderful execution of a fairly niche ride type (something I always love seeing).

CC9 I'm pretty impressed you noticed as that's exactly what we set out to accomplish. We set the park out into 16 squares and picked the themes that would best tell the story and give us a variety of themes to go at. It's really rewarding knowing you've seen that, as the spiral park layout mixed with making peeps happy was a challenge. Thanks so much for your comments. 

National Cherry Blossom Festival:

A beautiful park, you can really tell a lot of thought has been put in the foliage here. The relaxing rides add to this atmosphere. There is a couple of scenes here that could have fared well in Alex's Evergreen Gardens (Hey, you guys live up to your team name). I really like the flower motifs and the little pathways through the gardens. I am not very much into the lore of 2005, and I am not sure if the park really took inspiration from NE builders that time, but surely the park does remind me of when I played RCT in the early 2000s. The landmarks are well done, I do think the white is a little bright in some places. All in all, well done guys!

PokePark Kanto:

Well, this is right up my alley. It is amazing how close you guys stayed to the original game. The amount of content crammed into here is incredible, might be a little too much, but I am all here for it. Gen1 is how far I got with my addictive pokemon phase, so I love all of this. (Screw you, other generations!)

The way you followed the original map is great, and there is so much nostalgia coming back to me here. Things I forgot about, like the SS Anna, the sleeping Snorlax and the Ghost Tower, very cool to see all of that. 

In the sculpture department there is a lot to discover. In all honesty, I think I might like the smaller sculptures more than the bigger ones. I wish some more love would have gone into the bigger ones, like Charizard, Psyduck, Gyarados and Onyx, because they act like Weenies and they should be the bestest of the bestest. The stadium itself is awesome though! In this park I found some of the smaller ones to be the most excellent, like the Eggcecutor, Butterfree, Oddish and the Vileplume (or is it its successor?) I am not saying the bigger ones are bad, I am saying the smaller ones are perfect!
Starmie and the Meowth balloon are both Chef's Kiss by the way. 

The areas are all great and recognisable. Cerulean Cave, Vermillion City, Pallet Town, I could go on but I won't. 

The choice for Tangela as that Spaghetti launched coaster model is so clever, wish I would have thought of that when Mamarillas and I built our NCSO Kanto. I mean, look at my profile pic!?

I envy you guys because I wasn't there building with you. This is some great content and I want more of this please!
 

Wanted to leave a quick review. I loved the charming vibes in National Cherry Blossom Festival. Did a great job of capturing the macro approach to City Beautiful and the landscaping was very picturesque. Stylistically, I'm not sure this is quiet PT2, feels maybe a bit earlier, but still fits within the context of this contest. Unfortunately, I think it just came up against a park that had a bit more to offer. Not necessarily just content (cause PokePark is brimming), but conceptually PokePark feels more on the money for the era this contest is aiming at. Though, PokePark is much more H2H in style then PT2 specifically, and you can see some modern flourishes in the landscaping, but overall this felt like it was hitting all the right notes. I think PokePark did a great job of packing in tons of content and fun ideas as well as capturing that delicious nostalgia from a another beloved video game franchise (I coincidentally happen to be playing through SoulSilver again right now). 

Congrats to both teams on two great parks. As hinted, I felt PokePark had the right stuff in this matchup, so that's how I voted. 

Pokemon:

Love it. Nostalgia trip that has a lot of easter eggs, scenes, moments that really help sell the idea. Truly a fun park to view. Not a "classic" park by any means though. Which is a gripe I have with much of the contest, but I guess I'm in the minority there. But I do love the park a lot, minor tangential complaint aside!

Washington DC:

Very pleasant, easy on the eyes entry. I agree with FK that it unfortunately came up against a park with more content. But the effort here is great. The monuments were easily identifiable and well done. Good macro. I liked the scenic railway as well. 

pokepark was excellent - felt nostalgic through use of scenery, but fresh with new ideas, and very full. you managed to get a ton of content in there without making it feel TOO cramped... and even though it was a little, I didn't mind at all. some cool rides, great theming, everything was immediately recognizable. really good stuff.

I liked the cherry blossom festival, but it reminded me of evergreen gardens, but somehow less interesting? i dunno, maybe it was too flat, but it didn't have a ton of personality and didn't hold my attention for that long. some interesting things though, i appreciated the use of rarer coaster types. 

wow, pokepark is insanely cool. so much density and heaps of details (sad not to see a truck with mew underneath tho lol). the music totally sells it too. So much nostalgia for those games damn. The construction reminded me a lot of RMM which is always a good thing. Super crammed but it was fun clicking everything and exploring for sure.

Cherry Blossom Festival

Great idea of using an inter-government meeting to excuse a cultural mash-up theme in a real world location. It's all very low key, and what's there is certainly nice. I'm enjoying the recreated memorials, very recognizable. Ride selection is nice, cool lift mechanism of Sakura Slide! Gardens are charming. But the most prominent feature on the map is broken: the cherry blossom made by Ethan are broken and horribly glitchy. Strange that you guys didn't want to fix this. Last piece of criticism: the park is confusingly anachronistic... 1912? Why is there a secret service SUV?

Poképark - Kanto

I'm being sold on the concept as soon as I unzip the download. Making me choose a game version? Brilliant. Excellent readme. Opening the game: music, custom messages... Again an example of an old school builder showing us how you polish a submission. Pallet Town is seemingly boring, but patience is rewarded: squirtle isn't just squirtle, he's watering the gardens! Fun touch. Wild Pokémon in the grass are one of the best ideas in the contest so far - if not the best idea. Moving into the forest, I'm enjoying all the sculptures. Are all 150 Pokémon on the map? Makes me want to print a checklist and go find them all. Pewter City looks awesome. Mainly J K I presume? That's your best work post-comeback. Onix is a nice coaster, but a tad fast. Kabuto/Omanyte is a lazy inclusion. Wish you had more time to give these Pokémon proper representation, as they're among my favourites. Diglett Cave... The flash is brilliant, another top tier idea. TM28; Dig. Love it. I remember I was planning a similar Pokémon Park with dr dirt maybe five years ago. It would've been very cool, with 150 Pokémon sculptures hidden around the map to be found by the viewer. But I don't think we would've come up with these ideas. Except maybe we had HMs such as Strength and Cut to interact with the map and reveal stuff? Not sure. Anyway, also not sure you haven't done that stuff either, because I'm only just getting into the map. The next I presume is Cerulean City? Liking the Starmie wheel, as well as the smaller cogwheel starfish in the water. The game-like route with items and trainers is also nice. I'm just listing great ideas at this point. An easily overlooked detail that I really appreciate are the statues in Giovannis room. I instantly recognize them from the game. Maybe there's room for some criticism here too: from the Diglett Cave onwards, the route on the map isn't as clear and some more signage would've been nice. Windmills are an element I don't recognize from the game, and I think the concept would've been more pure without the Rocket balloon. Cool dojo. Vermillion City again looks fantastic, quite unique aesthetic that kind of looks like it could've been an area in Spellbrook Shores. Bike shop, hell yes! The Tangela corner isn't as spectacular, but again, some good ideas, such as the coaster concept. I like the Exeggutor sculpture and the inclusion of Safari Balls. Vileplume with it's powder moves is also one of the better sculptures, and the Victory Road bridge is another great idea. Battling Blue: of course. Always when it's inconvenient... The grande finale is fitting. Not from the game, but actually this is how I pictured the Pokémon League before I got there, back when I played the game for the first time, as a kid. Charizard: best sculpture. Nice trick with the 3D signs on the walls. I don't know how you thought of doing the Mewtwo head this way, but it's amazingly effective. A criticism: stadium could do with some more energy. I think there are moving crowd objects.

Long review. Outcome is evident. Poképark, I choose you.

Pokepark

I loved exploring this so much. It is so chock full of references to the game. Every little area brings on another hit of nostalgia. The use of custom sounds is done better here than almost any other park. I wonder if we'll see more of it. The battle theme and Lavender Town songs are so iconic. This is a park best enjoyed zoomed in fully and explored linearly. Zooming out to take it all makes it clear it really needs more space. It also made me realize I wish more space was given to certain areas over others. I'm sure it was tough to balance. I would absolutely love the ideas here to be expanded to a full park. I think a decision needs to be made though. Would be a recreation of the game, or would be a theme park. Some areas here fall in between.

P.S. (Blue - Squirtle)

National Cherry Blossom Festival

The National Mall is very recognizable here. I enjoy the serene and understated landscaping. The macro works well. The huge black fence and guard tower added a dystopian undertone for me.

The use of custom sounds is done better here than almost any other park. I wonder if we'll see more of it. The battle theme and Lavender Town songs are so iconic.

Thanks a bunch, finding and getting these songs ready was my contribution to this park. I really wanted to use the FireRed and LeafGreen versions since those were fresh around 2005 but the builders convinced me to use the original Game Boy versions. In retrospect I'm glad I did; keeping it as old-school as possible means more of us would be able to connect to it. Hang around the Pokemon Center long enough and you may hear a little surprise!

Winner:

Cherry Blossom:

This was a really clever theme idea - I love that you took an instantly recognisable location then gave it a seasonal/cultural twist.

Pokepark Kanto:

This was a big nostalgia trip. I found myself closely following the map route to see if it included everything I remember and it was great discovering all the details along the way. I'm amazed you crammed so much in, the ride integration and spatial design was all super clever.

Pokepark Kanto:
I've never played Pokemon, but this was a ton of fun to look through with the amount of content and action packed in here. And it's presented so well, with the way you progress around the map going from zone to zone, I tend to miss things, but this park made it pretty clear to me where to go and what to look at in what order.

Cherry Blossom:
Great atmosphere in this park, I like how the gardens are here, and the nice recreations of DC landmarks. And I like seeing a switchback railway, recreations of early coasters are always something I like seeing.

how has this mfer never played pokemon

Hopefully you'll try Pokemon some time after this park Lurker, it's a tonne of fun!

Quickly wanted to comment on this match still. I think both parks in this match up are really good. Both parks are polar opposites stylistically imo, Pokepark is filled to the brim with content to the point where it almost becomes too much in some spots while Cherry Blossom Festival is much more tranquil and open. Because the styles are so different I had expected the votes to also be spread out a bit more as I figured some people would be put off by the full style in pokepark. In the end it became a landslide, and while I am definitely not complaining (since my team won) I do want to do a friendly shout out to Cherry Blossom Festival also, as I really liked the park. My favourite things were the Sakura Slide rollercoaster and station (which was a very unique choice) and the two memorial buildings (Jefferson and Lincoln I believe?). I also love the overall landscaping and vibe of the park.

For PokePark, I already told the builders what I thought in the discord, but I thought this park is awesome. There are so many clever ideas and cool little details in this park like the tangela rollercoaster, the meowth and psyduck balloons and all the different pokemons. My favourite ones were the Gyarados and the Starmie. My other favourite areas were Pewter City and Vermillion City. I especially really like the train going through Vermillion city. Having the park follow the path of the games was also clever imo. The only downside to this park is what I already mentioned and that is that it feels a bit too full and cramped in places for my taste, which is kind of a sacrifice that had to be made to be able to allow the park to follow path of the game.

Overall two awesome parks and I am glad our team could take the win.