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Universal Studios Theme Park Adventure

by Jonathan Metts - July 18, 2001, 2:47 pm EDT

Check out everything we know about this upcoming theme park game from Kemco. Includes full walkthroughs of the E3 video footage!

We contacted Kemco about its GameCube games today, and found that some information from GameSpot/EGM has not been entirely accurate. First and foremost, Universal Studios is the official title, and the game does NOT currently have a subtitle. We don't know where EGM got the "Theme Park Creation" bit, but apparently it wasn't from Kemco.

In fact, Universal Studios doesn't involve any theme park creation at all. Kemco is billing it as a "theme park adventure". GameSpot was fairly accurate in calling it a collection of mini-games, although there will be more to the game than just that.

The Universal Studios dev team is working very hard to get it ready for the November GameCube launch in North America. Kemco plans to have lots of new information and media available for the game towards the end of July, so check back for a big update then.


Last updated: 07/16/2001 by Jonathan Metts

According to this report by GameSpot, Universal Studios: Theme Park Creation will consist of several mini-games based on the actual rides at Universal Studios. Woody Woodpecker is said to be your tour guide through the park.

Oddly enough, GameSpot's report doesn't mention any simulation aspects to the game, although they do reiterate the game's subtitle, which was originally reported by their print form, EGM magazine.

However, the new screenshots posted by GameSpot do seem to support the "Theme Park Creation" subtitle, with many views of the Universal Studios locales populated with tourists. The screens also indicate that the game will feature polygonal characters against pre-rendered backgrounds...an unusual choice by Kemco, and the first announced GameCube title to use that graphical technique.

The new screenshots are apparently taken from a playable E3 demo (according to Woody's text dialogue), which is particularly bizarre considering that Universal Studios was shown in video form only at E3 2001.

This game just seems to get weirder as we learn more about it. We're trying to contact Kemco and get some real, concrete explanations of just what the hell Universal Studios: Theme Park Creation is all about. Stay tuned...


Last updated: 06/21/2001

Even more than a month after E3 2001, little is known about Kemco’s unusual theme park title for GameCube, and even less has been said about it. Though at first glance the game seems to be based on a variety of movie licenses from the Universal Studios portfolio, it turns out that everything is based in and around the famous Universal Studios amusement park.

That’s not to say that big movie licenses won’t be smattered throughout the game. Kemco’s E3 video footage focused on Back to the Future, namely the time-traveling DeLorean car, and Jurassic Park’s lovable Tyrannosaurus Rex. The aforementioned footage was divided into two separate clips, the first one pre-rendered and the second done in real-time, presumably on a GameCube development kit (since the game has not been confirmed for any other platforms). Here is a play-by-play of each clip:

The first sequence is pre-rendered in great detail and with vibrant colors. It begins with a fly-by of Doc Emmitt Brown’s DeLorean, which is actually your “tour guide” for the rest of the clip. Cut to a close-up shot of Woody Woodpecker, who is sporting a gorgeous high-polygon model. Due to Woody’s geometry, it’s possible that this very short glimpse of him is actually real-time. Cut to the DeLorean flying past the Universal Studios globe statue, which greets visitors to the theme park as they walk in. The car continues into the park, cruising through a street designed to look just like Hollywood. Cut to the DeLorean again, this time flying through a dense jungle. The T-Rex suddenly appears and snaps at the car, but misses. Cut to a stone wall, perhaps the jungle’s outer barrier; an old-styled airplane flies in toward the camera and smashes through a portion of the wall, while the DeLorean swoops in from off-screen and deftly avoids the doomed flyer. Cut to a logo screen, displaying “The Power of Hollywood”.

Though entirely FMV except perhaps for the Woody Woodpecker scene, this first chunk of footage displays the type of big-name licenses Universal Studios will tout, and it hints at some possible gameplay scenarios. Still, you can’t beat real-time, and the second video clip tells its own story:

The second sequence is wedged into some other game footage, so it has no introduction. We see a jeep from the original Jurassic Park film, racing along its track and trying to escape the T-Rex on its tail. There are hills on either side of the jeep’s track, presumably to hide the lack of any real landscape beyond. The camera swings around to show the T-Rex up-close from the front. Cut to the jeep, with the camera positioned inside the vehicle facing forward along the track. It pans upward as the jeep enters the wooden “Jurassic Park” arch, and the clip is over.

This real-time scene says a lot about the game’s progression and direction. Though it may not necessarily be gameplay footage, it surely gives us an idea of the graphic quality. The T-Rex has some nice skin textures, but his animation doesn’t really bring across the ferocity and cunning that we know from the movies. The jeep and really the entire scene have pretty good geometric complexity, but there are no shadows implemented, and anti-aliasing is sorely missing. Not a bad showing, but the graphics seem to indicate that Universal Studios is pretty early in development.

So far, the gameplay is very much a mystery. There are a lot of obvious routes Kemco could take with the theme park setting; each ride or exhibit could be its own mini-game, or you could even take photos of all the interesting sites a la Pokemon Snap. However, the August 2001 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly has a few extra clues. EGM lists the game title as “Universal Studios: Theme Park Creation”. If accurate, this news obviously points to a simulation game where you design your own theme park and possibly the rides contained therein. The magazine doesn’t have any other text information other than noting that it appeared in video form at E3, but there are two previously unseen screenshots. Both depict the theme park’s streets from an elevated, slightly isometric view. The park attendees and building-lined streets are very detailed, and we can only hope that these screens are not pre-rendered. Both of the screenshots seem to confirm that Universal Studios will be a simulation game about building and running a theme park, because there are no visible mascots like we saw in the E3 promo footage.

Universal Studios is being developed and published by Kemco, and it currently has no announced release date. We’ll keep you informed if any new details or media become available.

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Genre Adventure
Developer Kemco
Players1 - 2

Worldwide Releases

na: Universal Studios Theme Park Adventure
Release Dec 18, 2001
PublisherKemco
RatingEveryone
jpn: Universal Studio: Japan
Release Dec 07, 2001
PublisherKemco
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