Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: 7 Studios
Genre: Action
Release Date: Available Now
Reviewer: Christopher J. Troilo

It wouldn’t be a new month without a new minigame compilation being released for the Nintendo Wii. However, this new game has the distinction of being branded with a household name in its title. The Six Flags chain of amusement parks, known for their rides and carnival games, has been converted into a party title for the Wii, aptly named Six Flags Fun Park.

When perusing the carnival grounds solo, you start by making an avatar in the form of a portly little child, who then begins his or her adventure. Your character meets various people who are either park employees or other visitors. Each of these people gives you a quest to complete, such as collecting items, delivering objects to other people around the park, or accomplishing simple tasks. Upon completion of these adventures, you receive payment in the form of new quests, or coins and tickets that can be used to play the minigames.

Fun Park is divided into themed regions, and each one has its own games specific to that region. In the Fright Fest area, you can fight ghosts on a rail-shooter through a haunted house, using the Wiimote to point and aim. Other games are reminiscent of classic carnival staples, such as whack-a-mole (in which you bang your Wiimote like a mallet) and SkeeBall, which makes you flip the Wiimote up as if you were rolling a ball.

These days, taking your kids to an amusement park, especially if you have a large family, can be an expensive outing. At a budget retail price of about $20, Six Flags Fun Park offers the little ones at least some of the fun of actually being at the park and playing the overpriced games at a fraction of the cost. The single-player Adventure mode probably has enough content to keep players occupied for at least one or two rainy afternoons.

Unfortunately, while multiple minigame titles continue to be released for the Wii, there are two problems most of these games tend to have: poor controls and lack of replay value. Six Flags Fun Park has both. Many of the shooting games lack targeting reticules, so it’s nearly impossible to figure where you are firing, and while the game boasts more than 36 different minigames, most of them are just carbon copies of each other in different settings, more than half of which are locked when you begin playing multiplayer.

If you’re a family looking for the next big hit after Wii Sports, I’m afraid you’re going to have to keep waiting. Six Flags Fun Park is mediocre at best; you can probably find 10 other titles that are just as good, if not better, in this genre, and at a lower cost to boot. While it might entertain for a few hours, there just isn’t enough substance here to warrant multiple plays.

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