Thorpe Park

I'm a bit of a theme park enthusiast and I recently got back from Thorpe Park, which is in the west side of London near Staines and is up there battling it out with Alton Towers for the acclaimed number 1 theme park in the United Kingdom. Originating from the north my allegiance will always be biased towards Alton Towers. However I had only visited Thorpe Park twice previously and this was before the inclusion of rides such as Stealth, Saw and the new for 2012 multi million pound roller coaster The Swarm, so I thought it was about time I travelled down south to check Thorpe out, and with it been my birthday I thought there was no better time.

The Swarm

Just like everyone else who went to Thorpe Park this sunny monday we all rushed towards the new investment by Thorpe Park, The Swarm. the ride looked a alot smaller than I thought however the theming looked top notch, The rides backstory is about a swarm of angry bee like creatures who basically go around kicking ass and tearing up people and buildings to shreds. The ride itself was very enjoyable but was lacking something, it didn't feel as forceful as I thought it was and was over very quickly and offered little airtime. Easily the best aspect of the ride was the barrol roll into the half loop drop which was a very unique concept to even modern roller coasters around the world.  That experience alone was great, but to me it just felt like anti climax. The ride was enjoyable but I was just expecting something more thrilling and exciting. 7/10

Rush

Next up was Rush, which was a swing type ride that offered absolutely huge amounts of airtime, what was even better was that there was no queue and its well documented that due to its low capacity on busy days they have been up to an hour's wait. Not gonna lie this ride literally scared the holy crap out of me which is something I love. The adremilin rush I felt when I thought I was going to fall out of the seat was incredible, and with there not been much to hold onto you feel yourself clenching your muscles. I thoroughly enjoyed this ride, the only negative I found is that the ride was over very quickly but I can forgive it for how awesome the experience was. 9/10

Saw

The worlds first so called horror roller coaster, well companies will use any loosely term to promote there products these days, following up the very popular saw franchise which is still going strong despite the many numerous titles, of which I have lost track. Overall Saw is a very enjoyable ride with plenty of surprises along the way which I don't want to ruin which can all be found at the start of the ride within the very well themed building. Saw contains many inversions along the very twisting and forceful track, and even contains a beyond vertical drop which is defiantly the highlight of the ride. One of the most uncomfortable experiences I had though was travelling up the vertical lift which I hated, it was a weird and unexplainable experience as you looked up towards the sky, but builds up tension greatly as you build up to the main sell point of the ride which is the beyond vertical drop. Saw is a great ride and will defiantly be one of the most popular rides in the park for many years to come. 8/10

Colossus 

Having all ready ridden this ride many years ago I just wanted to cement my opinion. Colossus once held the record for the ride with most inversions with a groundbreaking 10, however has been beaten since. The ride is an absolute mess of steel with what seems like track everywhere and you seem to spend more time upside down. I advise never to ride Colossus if you are suffering from a hangover as your head is battered around than going a few rounds with Mike Tyson, evidence of this is the please remove all earrings sign at the entrance of the station. Colossus overall is an OK ride but you can defiantly tell the ride has aged, and like said before is not the most comfortable, though the 4 inline twists in a row towards the end are a whole lot of fun if it does not make you dizzy by the end. Colossus is defiantly one of the weaker new generations roller coasters in the park but is a good ride for filler, just don't ride after you have had summit to eat. 6/10

Stealth

Stealth was the ride I was most looking forward too, prior to coming. It is my dream to ride Kinda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey, USA. However I will have to settle for its little brother Stealth which is around 200ft smaller, however not let that put you off. Stealth doesn't half pack a punch and launches you from around 0-90 mph in 2.5 seconds. If that is not enough it then launches you up a 200ft odd vertical hill and back down again. The speed you experience on stealth is immense and even I was holding on for my life as you are launched. It is a much more thrilling experience than Rita which is found at Alton Towers. The only problem I have is its over too quickly and after the vertical drop your sent into a brake run. The ride should carry on over more drops and inversions but you can't have it always and for what Stealth does it is brilliant and was hands down my favourite ride of the day narrowly beating Rush. All I can say is bring on Kinda Ka. 9.5/10

Nemesis Inferno

Situated around a Volcano towards the back of the park is Nemesis Inferno, the ride franchise began at Alton Towers with what many say is the best rollercoaster on the planet. Nemesis Inferno follows on where the legend was created, how ever is million miles behind its counterpart. If you go onto Nemesis Inferno and compare it to Nemesis chances are you will be left thoroughly underwhelmed. Its not a bad ride by any imagination but just lacks the force and the unique layout which Nemesis has and the amount of near misses. If you treat Nemesis Inferno as what it is. Its an enjoyable experience, I really like the start of the ride as you dive into a volcano, however the tunnel should be made to represent that of a volcano and not just a tunnel, there should be effects of lava and steam. I was left disappointed by this, it just the little areas which add up to create something brilliant. Its what makes Disney great, not the actual rides but the incredible theme. The ride contains plenty of inversions and helixes to keep you entertained but compared to other rides on the park you will feel let down, the hour queue did not help its cause either as they was only running 1 train which was an absolute joke. 6/10

Other rides

Zodiac - Just a standard enterprise ride, that can be found at most parks, but it is fun even though I was a little intimidated by the amount of squeaking the ride did and the fact I was riding in car number 13, scary times 5/10

Vortex - Another type of ride which can be found in many parks and is thoroughly fun with very little queue and acts as a great filler ride, it basically swings from side to side however rotating at the same time, not the most thrilling ride but is a whole lot of fun. 7/10

Quantum - Very fun ride which is like a magic carpet ride, I remember going in this a few years a go and is a whole lot of fun which gives you a great tickle down below and is surprisingly quite forceful indeed 6/10

Detonator - A really impressive drop tower, do not be fooled by the height, as its not as tall as many other drop towers across the UK, but it is just as intimidating as the others, what added to this is the timer went out of sync in our ride so we did not drop when the counter reached 1, which really added to the tension. A great ride and one of the most surprising drop towers i have ben on. 8/10

Loggers Leap - One of the most beautiful settings for a log flume as you meander through the woodlands in this Canada themed log ride. The ride contains 2 drops, I  will not spoil as to where theres are as 1 takes you by complete surprise. The final drop is really fun and others a some good suspense, The only let down was you don't get that wet at all though for the UK thats probably a good thing. Setting wise alone Loggers Leap is a fun and relaxing ride. 7/10

Rumba Rapids - What theme park does not have a Rapids ride, however Thorpe Parks is one of the most uninteresting out there, I got more wet washing my hands at the toilet then going on this, however is nice to just sit and relax and get away from the loudmouth chavs and the thundering rides for a few minutes. 4/10


Overall Thorpe Park is a great theme park, however is more catered towards the adremilin junkies, and is not a place I would recommend to families with young children. There is a great selection of rides, we didn't even ride 3 of the big hitters due to 2 of them been closed in Samurai and Slammer which was disappointing and it was not warm enough to ride Tidal Wave which gets you ridiculously wet.  Thorpe park does seem a little messy and cramped. Numerous times we got lost trying to find the entrances to the rides, however the rides easily made up for that. Is it as good as Alton Towers ? not by a long shot but it certainly is not a million miles behind, even though it seems like a tall order, especially with the very interesting and exciting project Alton Towers has for 2013. Overall I would defiantly recommend Thorpe Park for those looking for a good and exciting day out.

Super Mario Brothers 2 (3DS)

Here we go then this is my first blog of many hopefully, First off I'm going to introduce myself as been a huge fan of video games and have a degree in the area and have been a massive follower of the mario series from an early age, the SNES is still one of my favourite gaming consoles growing up. The Mario franchise has been a huge influence into me wanting to get into the gaming industry, every aspect from the level designs, characters and the gameplay is what I love about the franchise, its just so simple for your grandpa and casual gamers to pick up and play.

For those of you, if any that are not familiar with the Mario formula, its pretty basic story telling. The Princess gets captured by Bowser and his helpers, you really think she would learn by now however its up to Mario and luigi to save her from his evil clutches by going through a variety of different levels and crossing worlds, meeting familiar foos along the way.



The new features which come with this version is firstly its Nintendo 3DS only so you get the 3D graphics which look really great and colourful and add a little extra depth in 3D but its really not the best game to demonstrate the capability of the 3D feature with it been a 2d side scrolling game. The interface, and the maps look really effective however. Super Mario Brothers 2 also introduces this new feature which is all about collecting coins with the target set to a million and you can compare with people via street pass. Whilst at first I thought this was an interesting concept and increases the playability the main fault I have, is that with this feature there are a lot more coins to be collected per level so within playing the first world i found myself with other 100 lives. This making the campaign mode a lot easier, I realise the Mario franchise is aimed towards the more casual gamers but they probably should have balance these two aspects more, apart from these two features there really is not a lot different from the previous Super Mario Bros, which I can't decide if its a positive or negative, I agree with the mentality of if its not broke, don't fix it, but Id also like to see more imagination.

As with every Mario game, I can't fault the range of the level designs and all provide a challenge. The most difficult aspect of the levels I found was collecting the 3 major coins per level, some are really challenging and provide you to have a certain attribute for example a fire mushroom at the time for you to achieve the goal, though getting from A to B i didn't find challenging enough, though for the target audience of the game it probably has around the right difficultly. The one aspect I strongly dislike was the feature that if you die 5 times in a row on a level you a granted this special attribute which basically is like giving you a free by. as nothing can kill you apart from falling off the screen. Its like rewarding you for mistakes, and it should be more about upping your game to complete the level, instead it just makes it easier than easy at times, of cause you don't have to take the attribute but the fact its even included is a element that is not to my taste.

As with most games in the franchise the gameplay is pretty much nailed on, its so simple and fluent to play, and like most mario games its so fun, if not challenging enough at times. Playing with people in co op mode is a great feature as you battle between you to earn more coins than the other player whilst at the same time working together to complete the level. Id defiantly recommend playing the campaign mode on your own and with another player via co op as its two completely different experiences and others different challenges. The Coin Rush is also a fun new feature which I forgot to mention before which allows you to revisit levels as you battle against time to complete the level with as many coins whilst been awarded bonus and multipliers which really boost your coins total, which you can compare with other people and friends on the world rankings.

Overall if you have a Nintendo 3DS, then no doubt you are a fan of mario as the two things come together, however I wouldn't recommend this game to any hardcore gamers or players wanting a challenge. I'd recommend Mario 3D land for the 3DS instead. Super Mario Brothers is a good game but it offers nothing much different to previous titles, but theres enough to warrant the £30 rrp but I wouldn't be rushing and queuing up as soon as it hits the shop, id sit back with a cigar in hand and wait for the price to drop.

7/10