The Thrillville brand is one whose existence certainly isn't a mystery. Although the actual experience of going to a theme park is often less than perfect thanks to dreary weather, long queues and expensive, greasy food, theme park memories are ripe for the influence of nostalgia. Give it a few months and all you'll remember will be the smile-inducing moment of stifling a little scream on the rollercoaster.

In Thrillville: Off the Rails you play the role of park manager, the one responsible for making the rides fun and keeping the park ticking over. Rather than adopting the traditional top-down view that is generally used for management or tycoon games however, your standard view is from behind your character, who you control directly. This actually suits the game pretty well though, because Off the Rails is only a theme park management game in a fairly superficial sense. Making rides and hiring staff costs money, but you can put finances to the back of your mind because they rarely become an issue. Even if you do run out of money due to some over-zealous expansion of your park, you can always take out a loan to fuel your rollercoaster avarice.

In fact, the whole theme park idea is largely just a portal to the whole host of mini-games that Off the Rails is really made up of. Need to fix a ride? Play a tube-linking mini-game. Want to train your entertainer? Play a dancing cheerleader rhythm game. Just about every action in the game, apart from the basic placing of rides, has a corresponding mini-game to play. Of course, you also get to have a go on the rides and play all the games that you build in your park. Riding a rollercoaster you've just designed is particularly satisfying and the various camera angles available make the most of this feature; the cinematic camera will make your latest loop-the-loop fest look like something out of a Disney promotional video. Not every mini-game is strictly linked in with a real-life though, and the stunt-biking and top-down tank adventure games are good examples of this in action. It's a good job too, because these games that focus solely on creating a solid gaming experience rather than trying to tie in with the theme park, um, theme, offer some of Thrillville's best moments.

However, for anyone already familiar with the Thrillville series from playing the last game, a lot of what's on offer here will seem very familiar. Most of the games from last year's PSP Thrillville outing return in Off the Rails. This is no bad thing for anyone new to the game, but if you're a Thrillville veteran then bear in mind that this is more a revamp than a brand spanking new game. There are fourteen new mini-games on offer though, with more than thirty in total, so there's certainly no cause to complain about a lack of content.

Visually, things haven't moved on a great deal in a year. The parks remain vibrant and full of guests, but a bit jageddy around the edges. Some of the new mini-games raise the bar in graphical terms, but the progress is muted when they're still surrounded by some of the more musty-looking additions adopted from the first Thrillville. Comparisons to Off the Rails' older brother will soon stop, I promise, but there is one other faulty sceptre that has also been brought over from 2006 that deserves a mention. In an attempt to give the game a sense of direction that isn't supplied by the limited money-grabbing side of things, Thrillville has a story. Your rival, the Globo-Joy corporation, is trying to sabotage your park so that it can rule the market. As you make your way through the game's five differently-themed parks, the boys over at Globo-Joy use ever more elaborate methods to try to bring Thrillville to its knees. Unfortunately, the story falls flat and the cut scenes that relay the plot don't usually show anyone from Globo-Joy, rather featuring a loony but friendly inventor character. As a result, your supposed enemy always seems very remote. There are missions in each park that refer to the story, but it's all too easy to ignore, leaving the storyline seeming like a tacked-on afterthought.

This situation isn't helped by the fact that the parks feel a little hollow, despite all the punters walking around. They are split into several differently themed areas, each of which features a few blank zones where you can build rides. This regimented structure in each park diminishes any enjoyment of actually exploring, as they all end up feeling largely the same after even the quickest browse, and you'll find yourself more or less ignoring all the animated mascots and scenery. In short, you never feel immersed in you environment. It's not that they don't seem enough like theme parks on the outside. They look like theme parks and the crowd noises and busy walkways make everything seem active enough, it's just that they're not very interesting to wander around.

However, as we've already discussed, the parks are largely a cover, a skeleton to put all those mini-games in, and as such they work just fine. It's the mini-games that really matter - and on that front, Thrillville is largely a success. To go into too much detail on them would spoil the game, as part of the fun is discovering new games as you progress, but there are certainly a lot of them and the majority of them are great fun. Working your way through the main game mode unlocks the mini-games in the single-play party mode and there are also multiplayer options, but unfortunately, it's ad-hoc only, so you'll need to find a nearby friend who has the game too.

Thrillville: Off the Rails is no revolution, given that it's a very similar package to last year's Thrillville. However, its light refinements mean that if you're interested in playing Thrillville then Off the Rails is the game to go for. If you already own the original then you should have a think before buying this - unless you couldn't get enough of the first game and are just dying to see the new additions in Off the Rails. And there are a fair few new mini-games on show - but be prepared for an experience that looks and feels a lot like one you've already had.

Reviewed by Andrew Williams for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).