I played this game a lot as a kid, and had rather fond memories of it. Since it recently became free on Xbox, I wanted to revisit it to see if it was actually good or if it was just the nostalgia talking.

Thrillville: Off the Rails isn't quite sure what it is. It falls between being an amusement park management game and a collection of arcade games. Neither aspect of it being too impressive as a standalone game. The park management is fairly dumbed down, as the game is clearly geared toward younger players. Meanwhile, the arcade games aren't good enough to play on their own over an extended period of time.

Despite all this, the game is great for what it is. There are 50 arcade games total, with genres like racing, platforming, first-person shooters, and beat-em-ups all being covered. Some games are obviously better than others, but the sheer amount of variety and depth involved makes it impressive. The park management is decently fun in its own right, even if it's basically RollerCoaster Tycoon-lite. There is not one great individual feature of this game. but the whole is certainly greater than the sum of its parts.