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[2025]: Ed & Edda Grand Prix Edventure | Mack Gameplay Theater

I make a variation of this post every year or so, but I strongly feel the Mack family have a rare, but inevitable blind spot when it comes to the modern interpretations/expansions of their mascots, and the whole 'Mack Media' empire.

The designs are absolutely charmless, sub-Illumination crap that already seems dated by about fifteen years or so. Happy Family was absolutely dire, nowhere near the level of invention and progression seen in a lot of children's media these days and this Ed and Edda Racing film looks even more banal.
 
I understand the drive to make the characters brands. I agree that giving Ed and Edda botox is not the way to achieve that. As you say, they are now far less charming, and frankly, pretty creepy.

It’s a real shame because I think the 2D animated version of Ed that appeared in the Enchanted Forest cinema was lovely. Of course he’s now disappeared to be replaced by another charmless Mack IP in the Yomis.
 
It helps to think of Europa Park as not just a theme park but also a showroom for the Mack™️ empire. Riding Voltron my first thought was "why on earth would they build this bonkers ride when they could have built about 50% of it for the same effect" and the conclusion I came to was that it's a way of showing what they're capable of building for potential buyers. On the high end this means a coaster with singing tesla coils and a perpetually moving loading area and a bounce track and a beyond-vertical launch and 7 inversions* and a mid-course turntable/reverse launch.

There's also the low end, which would be like cheap, high-capacity attractions for parks that don't have deep pockets or just need a C- or D-ticket attraction for some strategic reason. This Grand Prix EDVenture seems to be a lot closer to this side of things. From the videos I've seen it does seem to just be less-polished Midway Mania ripoff, but that might be exactly the point this time around. Seems pretty underwhelming as the new ride for the 50th but it's hard to be upset at this point since Voltron just opened last year.

* looking this number up actually shocked me a bit as from memory I would have guessed about 11
 
So, I had a go on this last week. Indeed, I rode it last Saturday afternoon and again on Tuesday. From what I understand, the ride has been plussed/improved since the soft openings started in March.

I have to say, I thought it was rubbish.

Now, I come at this from the perspective of someone who is no fan of solely-screen based dark rides. Yes, there are some slight exceptions (I don't think Transformers is terrible, mainly due to the ride system/tech) and I will entertain Midway Mayhem once a trip to a Disney resort as long as the queue isn't an hour. I am bored on Maus au Chocolat and also Popcorn Revenge (which does get a slight plus point for the ride system).

But this? It's just lousy. Dare I say it, it's the worst ground-up new ride that Europa-Park have added in the 21 years I have been visiting.

Can I forgive them? Sure. I get it. It's not the biggest budget ride, It's replacing something that was irrelevant. The ride system is, kind of OK. But it ends there. There is so little beyond just staring at the screen. Minimal effects, minimal physical theming. Brash theming on Luxembourg square. The queue was nice, I will give them that. The Edda animatronic at the end is actually pretty good by Europa-Park standards.

But this, ladies and gentlemen, is naff. I can only hope the film is a terrible failure and they rebadge the entire thing as soon as possible.
 
Currently watching a POV, and I'm bored to death by the second screen.

Wonder what happens if you try to shoot the mascots? I'll bet it won't let you.
 
To add to Dan's post, screen-based interactive rides have been a thing for nearly 20 years, it's hardly a new concept at this point but GP Edventure fundamentally fails as a game. Each scene starts off with a number of targets on the screen, all of equal value. Once hit, these targets are removed and not replaced. The result is that you get a few seconds of playing the game for each scene and then... nothing. It's pretty much just a static image from that point. Even if you enjoy interactive dark rides, this one just doesn't offer anything at all.

There are some good ideas in there, the ride system certainly has potential and could be an excellent use of a small space with a bit more refinement. There are a few issues with audio bleed due to the back-to-back scenes which might be fixable by careful sound design but really they just need to make it fun to play. I suspect they've tried to do everything in-house rather than outsource the interactive side of things to a company with more experience in that area. Sometimes you just need to stick to what you know.
 
The ride system (excluding blasters) is a great idea.

But yes, the rest is utterly awful. I am very surprised EP have produced something so poor. The blasters are crap (pull cord is a horrendous idea, see Maus au RSI) the screens dull and it would have been better to do nothing at all. Atlantis isn't a high bar for a shooter to beat at EP and they failed to even beat that.
 
Oh dear. It sounds like all of the fears I had for the attraction have actually come to pass.

With the lack of a major headline attraction for the 50th, they do seem to be placing a lot of reliance on the film. Nothing I’ve seen so far gives me any better expectations for that.

I know there is loads going on across the Resort development-wise, but I do keep coming back to the feeling that in some areas, things are being spread too thinly.
 
The Mack empire has a serious blind spot regarding the quality of their Mack Media investments. The film looks like peak arse-end of summer holidays crap, as was Happy Family. The storytelling, themes and humour are all bad, and the animation is equally second rate. In a time in which The Wild Robot and Flow are holding up well as Oscar-nominated family movies making bank, a funny animals racing car movie is just pathetic. Sad to see this lazy IP work seemingly sneak into the park itself.
 
I should add, whilst not wholly relevant to EDventure - the park was absolutely GLOWING for the 50th. Entertainment, displays, food/drink - you name it. The park looks better than it ever has. So it isn't all bad news!
 
AstroDan said:
I should add, whilst not wholly relevant to EDventure - the park was absolutely GLOWING for the 50th. Entertainment, displays, food/drink - you name it. The park looks better than it ever has. So it isn't all bad news!
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It makes the litter they've dumped as the ride's entrance clash even worse
 
As Dan and John have already said, this is not good. Europa-Park have gone from installing their best ever attraction one year to their worst ever attraction the next.

The only thing going for it is the indoor queue line, which is well themed and detailed. The ride system isn't too bad and I am interesting to see how Paultons utilise it. The fundamental problem is the scenes on the screens. Pretty much every target is worth 100 points so there is no incentive to go for harder targets that are worth more points. All of the targets disappear before the scene has ended. And there just isn't much happening in the videos, most of them are just loops.

I am not sure how they've managed to get it so wrong.

The new ending to Voletarium is far better than what they've done with this!
 
Benzin said:
The cynic in me reckons that it's minimally themed on the ride portion so it's easier to retheme after the film bombs at the box office.
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I'd be interested to see how this movie fares, I can't help but think it'll be successful in Germany and surrounding areas in Europe but will struggle in other countries such as the US.

I'd imagine the general public will think that it's basically a Mickey and Minnie Mouse clone with racing.

I don't think Mack will retheme regardless of the film's box office as it'd be promoting the IP they have.
 
Rode this for the first time a couple of weeks ago, but would echo what has been said above. Really, really poor - and a massive step-down vs the generally high quality attractions across the park.

- The animations were jittery, glitchy and fairly low resolution
- The gameplay itself was not particularly engaging or fun (I was fairly bored after 1/2 'turns')
- Even in the station, the barriers through to the scenes on the reverse of the cars loading weren't positioned correctly, meaning you could see through in to the scene

It all just felt cheap and poorly designed/thought-through - completely at odds with the rest of the park.
 
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