![theme hospital by bullfrog theme hospital by bullfrog](http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/bullfrogproductions/images/7/70/Theme_hospital_levels.jpg)
None of it ever feels out of place and many of the tracks are ridiculously catchy. A perfect backdrop is also provided to these on-screen antics by the game’s MIDI soundtrack, which ranges from madcap circus top melodies to tongue-in-cheek disco funk. Treating these unique problems often involve the installation of a wide range of weird contraptions - with many of the ‘treatments’ they provide offering more than a chuckle or two. Before long, your hospital will be inundated with infirms suffering from afflictions like King Complex (a psychological disorder in which the afflicted believe they’re Elvis Presley), and the infamous Bloaty Head - which causes the sufferer’s cranium to be inflated to comically ‘bloated’ proportions. Far from being a serious hospital sim, Theme Hospital’s world is one of constant hilarity in which your patients can suffer from a various range of daft ailments. It all flows just like Theme Park and that’s a great thing, too - few other strategy games are as easy as these two are to get into.Īnd once you start getting into it - boy, what a blast you’ll have. With its clean graphics and uncluttered UX, getting into Theme Hospital from the outset is an absolute breeze. GP offices, radiators, trashcans, and even employees can all be flung straight into the action with a mere click or two. Drop-down menus at the top of the screen allow you to simply plonk various items straight into your hospital. Once you’ve laid down the brickwork for the building (a simple click n’ drag action), you can then continue to tailor it. Fortunately, the simple pick-up-and-get-into gameplay - one of many traits borrowed from Theme Park - shouldn’t get in the way. You’ll also have rival hospitals in the area who will be ruthlessly competing to outdo you in the patient turnover stakes, so you’ll have no chance to rest on your laurels while you bid to make your practice number one in each level’s region. Theme Hospital flows on a level-to-level basis, with each level having its own empty isometric plot to build a hospital on, and a certain number of requirements to fulfil (‘make X amount of money’, ‘cure X patients within X years’ etc.). Fast forward twenty years on, and it’s also very comforting to see that these qualities haven’t diminished, either - even if some flaws prevent it from coming away with a completely clean bill of health. It helped that the game still retained much of the comedy of its predecessor, as well as the addictive, fast-paced strategy element. Over four million copies were eventually sold worldwide - no mean feat for such a niche change of theme (pun maybe intended).
#THEME HOSPITAL BY BULLFROG PC#
Theme Hospital was released in 1997 for both the PC and original Playstation, to the kind of acclaim and sales that the company had grown used to by this point. But, in hindsight, a pretty sound one, too.īullfrog’s decision to step away from the candy floss and coasters of the first game and into scalpels and surgery certainly didn’t do its coffers any harm. So what did Bullfrog do instead? Naturally, they took the same mechanics of their original, and centered them around building hospitals instead. Any kind of follow-up would be sure to continue in that vein, you might think - just add better graphics and another instant hit beckons. As the pioneering title that founded the amusement park management genre, it got everything right - its simplicity to pick up and learn, its surprising depth and its droll sense of humour all combined to keep me coming back again and again to its funfair of delights. For me though, it was 1994’s Theme Park that topped them all.
#THEME HOSPITAL BY BULLFROG SOFTWARE#
Populous, Powermonger, Syndicate, Magic Carpet, Dungeon Keeper… the list of titles that came out of this once-mighty British software house is mind-boggling in its quality and quantity. Their legacy - and what a legacy it is - speaks for itself with no extra brevity needed. When it comes to considering the all-time classic strategy games of yesteryear, it would be criminal to overlook the works of a certain company by the name of Bullfrog Productions. But watch out for those Bloaty Head outbreaks! The Review If you can sustain your cash flow and your hippocratic reputation, you might just make it out alive. Hire doctors and nurses, build treatment rooms and keep pumping money into R + D so you can handle everything from simple sicknesses to deeper health-related conundrums. Your task is simple - build an efficient, financially successful hospital, and climb your way to medical administration greatness. Theme Hospital is a staunchly tongue-in-cheek management sim that puts you in the role of a hospital chairman.