Game review: Karnival - iPhone / iPod Touch (From Wandsworth Guardian)

Game review: Karnival - iPhone / iPod Touch

11:53am Thursday 12th November 2009

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Back in the deep dark depths of gaming history there was a fine game called Theme Park.

The aim of the game was to create the best, well, theme park. Players had to build rides, stalls and other facilities as well as hire staff, maintain a clean park and maximise profits.

It went on to become one of my all-time favourite games, and I have longed for it to make a triumphant return in portable form on either the PSP or iPhone.

I know there is a Theme Park on PSP but it’s a hideously bad conversion of the very old PSOne game.

Until someone does a proper modern version, iTheme Park if you like, that does justice to the original classic, I will have to contend myself with other similar entertainment-themed tycoon games.

The latest one to come around on the carousel is Karnival from Hands-On Mobile for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

The premise of the game is that you are a young lad born with a goat’s leg for an arm and branded a freak.

You decide to use your curse to your advantage by setting up a travelling carnival and heading out on the road to make your name.

From humble beginning in your hometown you will eventually explore 15 locations containing 20 maps.

Each map, or carnival field, is presented as a grid and on each square on the grid you can put one of 30 rides, shops and freak shows.

You start with just a merry-go-round and your enthusiasm, but you will quickly begin unlocking the other attractions as you build up fortune, fame and karma.

After placing items in your carnival you then control variables such as ticket prices, maintenance spending and salaries. The aim is to maximise profits while keeping costs under control.

Each game ‘day’ lasts about five to 10 minutes – you can tweak your park’s opening and closing times by touching the ticket booth. At the end of each day you have the chance to rearrange the layout of your carnival and buy new attractions which have become available.

A little way into the game you are able to receive a daily tarot card reading. This can provide a boost to your carnival’s performance, or have a negative effect.

Much of your time during each game day will be spent watching your visitors meander around, tapping on your rides and stalls to check how they are doing.

There are also five mini games to play, including ring toss, whack-a-mole and balloon pop.

Further into levels other local ‘freaks’ will opt to join your carnival and at this point you can pack up and move on to new towns.

The game can be played in either story or sandbox modes.

Karnival conjures up an authentic funfair atmosphere and is a real treat both visually and aurally.

There is great attention to detail in the graphics while the music sets the perfect carnival tone.

The game is beautifully presented with nice touches abound, such as the day to night switchover at 7pm ‘game time’ when the screen goes darker and lights flick on around the carnival.

The dusky, mysterious image of travelling carnivals of old has been captured very nicely.

It’s clear that developer Bitwise Design has put a lot of effort and care into the design as well as the gameplay.

The touch controls in the game generally work fine, though I have had a couple of slight interface issues. Once or twice status panels have got stuck on the screen and I’ve had exit to the main menu to get rid of them. I’ve also found the pinch-and-zoom function for getting different views of my carnival to be somewhat fiddly.

The pedestrian pace of the game is also not ideal. At least early on when there are not many attractions to watch over, the game can move along very slowly even on the faster of the two game speeds.

A third faster-still speed is available on some devices but apparently cannot be used on older devices like mine.

The mini games do fill some of the game days but otherwise things are slightly too leisurely as you watch your visitors roam around. This might put some people off fully exploring the game’s treasures and giving it the time it deserves.

It’s not possible to make any layout changes to your carnival or add anything new once a game day has started. Once I had a day when my carnival got no visitors at all – a very boring few minutes!

Aside from sorting these things out, if I was going to make recommendations for future updates they would be for expansion of what’s already in the game rather than any wholesale changes.

I’d like to see more rides and stalls of course, but I’d also like a bit more to do around my carnival such as more advanced interaction with guests and customising attractions.

I’d also like to see a bit more information about different elements of my carnival. At the moment if I change the ticket price for a ride it’s hard to see what if any effect it has on its popularity.

Parts of Karnival closely resemble Theme Park and other similar games such as Rollercoaster Tycoon, but Karnival isn’t as pure a tycoon game as those.

It’s more relaxed, casual and therefore accessible, ideal for people not particularly into their micro-management or hardcore strategy.

The App Store blurb says Karnival is “tycoon style”, which is an apt description, as is the comment I’ve seen elsewhere from the game’s designer Ray Graham that this is a “carnival simulation with character”.

I was always more interested in building fun rides than worrying about money in Theme Park, so I really like the feel of Karnival.

Overall, Karnival is a pleasure to play and is easily one of the elite tycoon-type games available for iPhone and iPod. It’s the closest thing to reliving the Theme Park glory days I’ve come across since, well, Theme Park – so that’s a big compliment.

Verdict: 8 out of 10 – Roll up, roll up for all the fun of the fair in this enjoyable and enchanting tycoon-like game.

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