I'm a very ruthless manager - probably the most ruthless you'll ever meet. I don't let the big shots at head office govern how I run my park, I don't like negotiating deals to increase staff wages and I certainly don't like paying extra money for my goods. My entrance fee is as high as I can have it - it'll cost you almost $250 for some extremely salty fries and when that salt dries you out, it's another $300 for a drink. My souvenir shop costs more per item than it does to get in the park itself and the handymen I employ get paid the minimum I can get away with too - last time I looked, they received a measly $100 each for doing possibly the worst job in the park; mopping up vomit. Welcome to Theme Park. You'll want to leave, but my signposts prevent you from doing so!

Let's get one thing straight - Theme Park is a number crunching game. If you shy away numbers, hate maths, loathe statistics and despise probability then you should take a walk in another park. However, if you want something a little more visually pleasing and creative than Brain Training then Theme Park DS is for you - and if you can complete the goals in Theme Park then congratulations… you've earned the right to brag!

Theme Park for the DS is essentially a port of the 1994 game of the same name. The graphics remain unchanged, which means that all those little pixelated people, two-dimensional shops, roller coasters and generic yellow puke puddles are how you remember them. This is not a bad thing either, as part of Theme Park's charm is its nostalgia factor - I just fear that younger gamers might frown upon the visuals a little. While the main game remains intact, EA Japan have added a few little anime style characters to help you make all those important decisions, characters that appear on the top screen from time to time and give you helpful hints on a range of game elements. You can choose from four different characters, each with their own personality, to help you - although the old man is probably best for his wise words, I just can't get enough of the barely legal hot eighteen-year-old girl with her immature yet insightful look at all things rides. Plus any girl who likes to ride the Big One can't go wrong in my books!

The best thing about Theme Park is that all of the building, ride placement, laying paths and altering prices is carried out using the touch screen. The only buttons you need to use are the directional ones to move around the map. This DS version also caters for people who are left handed; you can move the map with the XYAB buttons while holding the stylus with your prominent left hand if you prefer. Excellent!

It's amazing how you can do everything with the touch screen though; it is, in essence, like playing Theme Park on a pocket PC, with the stylus replacing the mouse. How I ever played this game on the PSOne is beyond me, because the touch screen makes it so easy to control and such a joy to manage your park. The interface is a little on the basic side - choosing your rides, scenery, paths, queues and staff is done using little buttons at the bottom and the top of the touch screen. The top screen of the DS always provides information that's useful - if it's not coming from the mouth of your helper, it's in the form of a description that's attached to whatever you're about to purchase. You'll never know how satisfying it is to build a path by dragging the stylus across the screen - or how fun it is to build a roller coaster or a water ride in the same way until you actually play Theme Park on DS, but take it from me - this is what your DS was made for.

Of course, the numbers come back to haunt us, but thankfully they're all altered by the touch screen too. You can manage your rides by touching them, seeing the information displayed on the top screen and then pressing edit - bringing the top screen information down to the bottom screen for alteration using your stylus. You can do the same with the staff too - click on them and even define where they walk in the park, which is particularly useful for handymen who need to stand guard by the nauseating rides on sick patrol, or for the mechanics who need to be close to the rides that are constantly failing. You can tap on people to see if they are having a good time and then go into park management with the buttons at the bottom of the touch screen to put money into research for new rides, upgrades, shops and amenities, as well as going to the bank for a loan, viewing your budget and increasing the fee on the gate. Factor in the regular negotiations for staff wages and prices for goods, where you have to shake on a fair percentage deal with the stylus and you've got numbers coming out of your ears!

Some things stand in the way of Theme Park being an outstanding game on the DS. The sound, for example, really annoys me. You can select from five different background tunes to listen to while managing your park, all of which loop after a short minute and all of which sound terribly similar, really testing your nerves after a couple of loops. The sound redeems itself when you click on a ride though, as each has its own little sound - the haunted house sounds spooky for example and there are little noises to alert you when new rides become available and current rides break down, but all of that is drowned out by the crummy, repetitive music.

That's the only real downside though - there are other nice touches like the wi-fi options that allow you to visit your friends' parks, a feature that's as great as the four helper characters - and both of these features are exclusive to the DS! When your park breaks into profit year after year, your guests are happy and your staff are as well, you get the option to sell your park and begin in a new location. Starting again with a limited amount of rides and having to put research in to get your rides back is a bit of a pain however, and sometimes it feels like the game could get a little repetitive with extended play. However, in all fairness, Theme Park is a game that you should perhaps break into a mental sweat with once in a while for a hefty session of management before putting it down for a couple weeks, then move onto the next level when those inevitable micro-management cravings return.

Theme Park is a great game, and even if it is an old port at heart, the touch screen control method more than makes it worth your time. Although it isn't for everyone, this DS version should definitely be snapped up by those who enjoy games that require a bit of thought and time investment, as well as by those who like to show off their creativity. Now, I wonder if my young, hot assistant would like to test out my bouncy castle… wheeeeeeee!

Reviewed by Dexter Pearson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).