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New LucasArts Games
Product: Thrillville, Traxion
Company: LucasArts
Date: 05/13/2006
Avaliable On:

LucasArts had two brand new titles to show off at this year's E3. These two titles include the PS2, Xbox and PSP sim game, Thrillville and the first game to come out of the newly formed Internal Handheld Division, Traxion.

Thrillville lets you manage a theme park. Okay, I know you're probably thinking you've done that before, but this game has enough differences that it is definitely worth checking out. For one thing, the park isn't just for your patrons. You, the owner of the park, can get on any roller-coaster, ride or play in any of the midway games that you have made for your park. If you want to take part in that wild-west shooter game you just installed, all you have to do is walk your character right up to it and you are shooting up robots like a common park-goer

One of the most interesting aspects of Thrillville is that you can tweak the options as much as you want to make it fit your playing style. If you are like me and find that most sim games are too frustrating because you have to manage everything from money to maintenance to customer satisfaction, then you can let the computer make all of those minute details for you. Sure you won't make as much money as you might if you control it all, but you will typically be able to jump straight into the rides and most of your patrons will be pleased. If you are the type of gamer that loves to micro-manage and wants to modify the park layout just right so that it generates the most revenue, then you can take over the computer's role and make all the decisions yourself.

Thrillville supports 5 parks and 15 different themes and allows you to not only find out what your customers think, but you can completely interact with them, even flirt.

LucasArts' other game, Traxion is a PSP only title that reads in MP3s, analyzes the data on the fly and changes the mini-games based on the content of the song. The best part is that even though the game will come with some pre-packaged songs, the game can also read the MP3s straight off of your Memory Stick Duo.

With 24 different mini-games, what all does Traxion offer? The game has a wide variety of puzzle, arcade and rhythm games that will keep you entertained constantly. One mini-game had a Guitar-Hero-like feel to it as your try to match your cursor up to notes that fly down a fret. Another one will have you tapping specific buttons thus creating the song that is being read in. The game also reads in the MP3 file's meta-data to know what type of song it is, who the artist is and other similar information to change the game-environment to fit the song.

Both of these games are different from LucasArts' typical franchises, but both show a lot of promise and both are slated for release this Fall.

J.R. Nip aka Chris Meyer

GameVortex PSIllustrated TeamPS2