Park Rush

We reach the penultimate episode of our current theme park video game review series with Jurassic World Evolution! Tom's been playing the Xbox version of the game and has some thoughts on how developer Frontier - best known for RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 and Planet Coaster - have translated this beloved license into the theme park management game space.

Universal delivered the goods when it came to podcast topics this week - we've got an opening date for Super Nintendo World in Japan and new details on its first two rides, a hype reel for Islands Of Adventure's upcoming VelociCoaster, and one of our listeners goes on an intrepid cookie hunt through the company's Orlando parks.

It's a packed show of theme park news this week, from Disneyland rolling out Spider-Bot merchandise well in advance of its new Spider-Man ride at the upcoming Avengers Campus, to Imagineeering legend Joe Rohde announcing his retirement. There's an update for excellent theme park video game Parkitect, and plenty more. Plus lots of waffle on coronavirus and the Xbox Series X.

It's been a busy week of news for US theme parks, despite the growing prevalence of COVID-19 across the country. We've got new looks at SeaWorld's Ice Breaker and Busch Gardens' Iron Gwazi, which are both due to open in Florida in spring 2021. Also this week, Disneyland has begun a very steady reopening in California, and Disney World is preparing to start letting guests hopping between parks once...

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 we...

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 &...

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

This week, we pay tribute to the theme park TV shows that helped us get through the lockdown! Tom has also seen the new Mulan and has some thoughts to share, we talk about some really bad RollerCoaster Tycoon games for smartphones, and Josh kicks off a very worthwhile discussion about the price of coffee.

This week's show opens with what everyone turns up to a theme park podcast for: film reviews. But once Tom has some brief thoughts on Tenet and The New Mutants off his chest, we dive into a decent week of news as raptors begin arriving on the site of a new Jurassic Park rollercoaster at Islands Of Adventure, Disney begins recruiting superheroes for Avengers Campus in California, and much more!

We continue our march through the history of theme park video games and - after fighting through the doldrums of some less-than-stellar console efforts - finally reach the promised land of Planet Coaster. Frontier's spiritual successor to RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 is just as good as we'd been led to believe and we invite you to share in the fun of what is undoubtedly the best theme park video game si...

Our theme park video game review series returns after some time off with Screamride, an early Xbox One title from Frontier. But unlike the studio's previous work on the RollerCoaster Tycoon franchise, and subsequent releases like Planet Coaster, this one's not up to much.

You wait about a year for some new London Resort details and then you get some on consecutive podcast episodes! The team behind the project have been holding online Q&As and Tom and Josh popped into one of them to eek out even more new info about the plans. We also talk about a tonne of leaks regarding Super Nintendo World (remember that?), relief for one of the UK's favourite family-run theme...

The London Resort has - after years of delay and uncertainty - actually taken a major step forward this week by launching its public consultation, providing up-to-date details about plans for two theme parks, a water park, an entertainment district, shops, hotels and more! We do a deep dive into the planning documents and discuss whether this project really could come to fruition. Plus, there are...

This week we talk in more detail about how coronavirus has impacted some of Epcot's major plans, notably the renovation of Spaceship Earth and Mary Poppins in the World Showcase. We also have news of Halloween cancellations across Disney and Universal parks, a rare violent incident at Thorpe Park, and much more.

Josh made it two theme park trips in the space a week by following up his Thorpe Park visit by hitting up Alton Towers. Once again he guides Tom through all the major rides, including some record-breaking rollercoasters, as well as how everything's operating in these unprecedented times. Plus, there's a few tidbits of news from the US, including all four of Walt Disney World's parks being back up...

Josh has risked his life and those of everyone he loves by visiting Thorpe Park in the midst of a dangerous pandemic. He guides Tom round the park as per usual on our trip report episodes, covering all the big rides from Stealth to Swarm, but also talks through all the new safety measures in place to keep guests safe from the threat of the coronavirus. Do you have to wear a mask? Are people paying...

An almighty cock-up during recording rather compromises the audio quality on Tom's end this week, but hopefully you can still garner some enjoyment from an episode packed with theme park news. We've got a report from the opening week of The Bourne Stuntacular at Universal Orlando, the latest on Walt Disney World's return, a delay for Super Nintendo World in Japan, and how we reckon the UK theme pa...

There was enough theme park news this week to fill a 6pm bulletin several times over, and we do our best to condense it into a digestible hour! More theme parks have confirmed reopening dates, including Disney's locations in France and Japan, and Josh has already got his dates booked in for a return to Alton Towers and Thorpe Park here in the UK. Walt Disney World remains on course for a July...