It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that Theme Park games are all the rage these days on the PC.  Last year both SimTheme Park and RollerCoaster Tycoon were top 10 sellers, and now in 2001 EA is back with SimCoaster, Apparently it’s the sequel to SimTheme Park, conveniently re-named to take on RollerCoaster Tycoon.    Naming conventions aside, this ad for SimCoaster just sits there on the page – Where’s all the excitement and energy?  This looks like an old oil painting with a slightly comical gag (first-aid stations around the roller coaster).  It’s kind of cute, but certainly not funny enough to take up 75% of the ad’s space.  Where’s the tagline?  Where’s the theme? 

Part of the problem might be the way EA is positioning this game.  While it apparently is the full-blown sequel to SimTheme Park, the ad makes it seem like this is purely a roller coaster simulator.  The text in the ad does explain things a bit, but the whole presentation is so boring you’ll probably flip past this well before you even consider taking the time to understand the oh-so-clever first-aid station gag.

Even the screenshots shown here look drab.  While SimTheme Park was never easy to depict in screenshots, notice that all three of the images here show roller coasters.  In other words, EA forgot to mention the other aspects of the game.  Sure, this ad sells the game short, but most of all, it makes building a theme park seem like it would be about as much fun as running an art gallery.

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