by Faith Marlow

Created on: February 04, 2009   Last Updated: August 09, 2010

Rating: 3/5

Think back, back to humid summer evenings and the smell of fresh cotton candy. Can you hear the familiar tones of the Carousel mixed with the sounds of colliding bumper cars? Remember how exciting it was to go to the Fair? Did you ever wonder what it would be like to run it yourself? This is the setting that Tik Games are trying to capture in the new sandbox style game, County Fair. In this title, you play the role of a greenhorn business promoter that is trying to transform your long lost relative's Fair into a thriving business again. After arriving on site, you can choose how much to charge for tickets, what rides and attractions to build, when to tear them down and how much or how little to advertise. But beware, meet your budget before you have to leave town or it's Game Over for you. But you can't do it alone. Hire and maintain a staff of mechanics, security, sanitation and health workers to keep your attractions running and to keep your patrons safe and happy. More rides and attractions are added to those available as you progress, each of which are able to be upgraded in some way. This makes for happy patrons who will pay more for higher quality entertainment. You are limited only by your available funds and by the size of the venue.

The graphics for County Fair are brightly colored are quite detailed considering that many of the objects in the game are small and at some distance from your overhead view. Sometimes the venue is a dusty lot in the desert, another time it overlooks the ocean. The rides are well rendered and animated. The carousel turns, bumper cars move, etc, each stopping and starting to let riders on and off. This makes it is possible to see how successful an attraction is by how much foot traffic it garners. Music and sound effects for County Fair are very appropriate to the title, consisting largely of organ music and the sounds of functioning rides, happy customers, and sometimes malfunctioning equipment. Although the music can get a bit repetitive, it sounds better than most comparable games.

The sandbox style game may not be new, the overseeing your own fair is a welcome change from the traditional build- a- city games that dominate this genre. The game ramps up the difficultly level fairly quickly and teaches on a tough learning curve. While this can be frustrating, it forces you to plan and think about your actions. It was frustrating that you were unable to sell back attractions or (as far as I know) unable to turn them to face a different direction. But as far as the genre goes, I enjoyed this title and if I were to buy a sandbox game this would be the one at the top of my list.

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