Park Rush

We are nearly up to the present day in our journey through the history of theme park video games, reaching Parkitect from what already feels like the distant year of 2018. Tom and Josh discuss their time with the game and how it honours the legacy of RollerCoaster Tycoon, while also holding its own against other modern heavyweights of the genre.

Disappointing news for theme park fans in Europe and the UK this week as a resurgence of the coronavirus forces theme parks to close once more, but there's happier headlines from elsewhere as Hong Kong Disneyland sets a date for its new castle to open and we get a new look at the coaster trains for Guardians Of The Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind.

There's lots of London Resort chat this week thanks to the public consultation coming to an end and a surprisingly in-depth interview with the man leading the project, who previously worked on Disneyland Paris and the Millennium Dome. There's also news of coronavirus-enforced theme park closures in Europe and a couple of upcoming changes at Walt Disney World.

A busy weekend means a rare Monday release for the Park Rush podcast - this time bringing you bad news for California's major theme parks, but exciting developments at the upcoming Universal Studios Beijing.

Our theme park video game review series continues with Disneyland Adventures - a 2011 Kinect game for the Xbox 360 that later became a more bog-standard controller experience for Xbox One and also came to PC. You can watch us stream theme park video games at twitch.tv/parkrush!

This week we discuss an emotional final trip to our local cinema and the current state of coronavirus in the UK, before diving into listener emails, Nintendo-themed food coming to Universal Studios Japan, a positive development regarding Disney theme park jobs, and more!

Disney are making 28,000 theme park staff redundant - a harrowing figure that certainly lights a fire under Tom and Josh this week as we question what it says about society when a major, cash-rich corporation can find it so easy to make such brutal job cuts. In lighter news, Universal has offered more exciting details about 2021's VelociCoaster at Islands Of Adventure. All that and more on this week's show!

Universal kindly recognised us reaching the milestone of 100 episodes by finally confirming Jurassic World VelociCoaster, which we now know will open at Islands Of Adventure in summer 2021. We also talk about first impressions of a new Beauty And The Beast ride at Tokyo Disneyland, some renovation for one of Walt Disney World's most popular hotels, and much more!

There's some actual theme park news to talk about this week - Walt Disney World's water parks are staying shut until next spring, but some exciting new rides are opening at Tokyo Disneyland in just a few short weeks! We've also got word from the CEO of Comcast on the future of Universal Studios theme parks, and a mad football project at PortAventura. We've also got esteemed thoughts on Bill & Ted, James Bond, and coronavirus.

Our theme park video game review series continues with RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic - an amalgamation of the first two RCT games for mobile and PC.