I shouldn't be too surprised, actually. If a parking simulation based on Tim Burton's 1996 B-Movie adaptation Mars Attacks isn't on my bingo card, it's because I recently threw it in the trash and replaced it with a bobble head that amusedly nods to whatever video games decide to do next. And conceptually, Jurassic World Evolution, with captive humans instead of dinosaurs Negative A potential winner, right? Still, I was a little surprised to learn that Mars Attracts, due out sometime next year, was the first licensed game for the film. But then I realized I hadn't thought to check it out before, which might go some way to explaining their absence. Do you think they made the pun and then worked backwards? Respectable, honest.
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You'll notice how the trailer jumps between historical periods. There's a cowboy despairing on a theme park ride. An ancient Roman despairing on a ride. An astronaut despairing on a ride. The theme here is a lot of despair on the rides. The reason for all this despair is that you'll actually be Martians traveling through time to capture humans from different eras. Then, you'll display them in “highly customizable habitats” that mimic their natural habitat. Once they're nice and docile, you can start exploring new ways to entertain your guests. Apparently, if you explore them too much, they might try to escape. Speaking as a human, that's true.
On the ride front, it feels much more like a theme park than a Planet Coaster, with single fixed attractions instead of customizable tracks. I think Theme Park had customizable tracks too. My biggest memory of it is the swamp toilets, because apparently my brain thinks the books I read last year are less important than a poop joke from a 30-year-old game. Cheers for that, skull meat! So your skull meat in Mars Attracts will be used primarily to regulate power grids, keep your guests happy, and stay on top of escaping humans and environmental hazards.
It's a lively mash-up of FTL and Overcooked from Irish studio Outlier – who previously made This Means Warp. I'm always up for a good parkour sim, doubly so for a good one, so I'm eager to see how this one turns out.