Come one, come all to the best theme park in town! Whose park will that be? Attendees can’t wait to see! Choose the best array of attractions and add upgrades to make them bigger and better, hire staff to help things run smoothly, and match blueprints for more bonuses! Just don’t bite off more than you can chew if you want to succeed! Let’s check it out.
What Is It?
A tableau building game where players are trying to build the best theme park in the city! Players can buy attraction cards to expand their park, or upgrade those attractions to make them all the more exciting. Each attraction and upgrade has an icon associated with it, and the more icons players add, the better players will score at the end! Players can also hire staff who may give them special abilities, or more ways to earn income, as well as end game points.
Each round players will gain income based on the star value of their park, and they’ll need to manage their money wisely if they want to continue growing their park. Players can also grab blueprint cards that may give them even more points if they build out their park just right. After 6 rounds of building, the players tally up their scores and the highest score wins!
Who Is It For?
- 2 – 4 Players
- Ages 12+
- Fans of welcoming / gateway weight games
- Fans of the game Unfair who want less take-that
PROS
- Theme – Cute, fun, and works well with the gameplay
- Aesthetics – Great art, very colorful, theme shines through the look
- Components – Nice cards, cardboard money, and cute step marker
- Time – Plays smoothly and doesn’t overstay its welcome
- Rules – Well-written, good examples, easy to learn from
- Replay Value – A bit different every time and various strategies to try
- Some cool combos can be made if you play certain cards together
- Investor money on showcase cards is a neat aspect that let’s you strategize the best time to build that bigger attraction and gain an extra action
- Scoring website is a neat addition
CONS
- Unequal 1st Player Turns – In a 4 player game only, 6 rounds means that the first two people get to go first twice and the others only get to go first once. I don’t know if it makes that much of a difference most of the time, but it can affect things if certain cards are needed right at the end
- There’s quite a bit of front loading with the available actions and explaining the scoring, so it could easily seem intimidating at first
Final Thoughts
If it isn’t abundantly clear by now, I have a lot of great things to say about this game! It’s got a great theme, it’s attractive, it plays so smoothly, and it’s just a lot of fun!
If you’ve played it’s predecessor Unfair, you’ll find that this is similar but a little bit lighter / more family weight. For me, Unfair was a bit too finicky, specifically with the event phase, it was too long, and the heavy take-that aspect didn’t work because it made the game too swingy. Funfair streamlines the set-up and game play, removes the far-too-long event phase, and strips out the take-that element. It’s similar enough to scratch the same itch if you want less player interaction, but if you haven’t played Unfair, fret not, because this one is solid enough to stand on its own.
Overall, this is a really great game, with a very inviting box cover, that I think will appeal to a large range of players of all ages and experience levels!
Additional Information:
My Final Rating – 8/10
Designer – Joel Finch
Artist – Mr. Cuddington
Publisher – Good Games Publishing
MSRP – $39.99
Website
*I was provided a copy of this game to do this review*
If you like what I do, consider Supporting Me.
If you like what I do, consider Supporting Me.
Leave a Reply