Ben
TS Founding Member
- Favourite Ride
- Your Dad
While having a think about Alton tonight I deducted there are 9 areas to the park:
Towers Street
Mutiny Bay
Katanga Canyon
Gloomy Wood
Forbidden Valley
Dark Forest
The Towers
Cloud Cuckoo Land
Cbeebies Land + Sonic
so remove the 'youngster' areas: Cbeebies, and Cloud Cuckoo Land and also Towers Street as it has no rides. You are left with:
5 areas, of which the predominance of each area is of a dark nature.
Mutiny Bay is not a dark area, but its generic pirates - you probably could argue it is dark, but I think its more jovial in its existence so Ive not included it.
Katanga Canyon - again isnt a dark area, its a hidden African continent with a couple of rides.
--
So lets move on:
'Gloomy Wood' - not to be confused with Dark Forest (-eh)
In its time a 'one ride' area focused on a haunted house, its become more than that due to the opening of Haunted Hollow *shudder* and certainly doesn't seem as remote as it originally should have been.
Anyway, it is intended to be an essentially spooky and grim area.
'Forbidden Valley'
You've got a monster, who fought people and was chained down - it chucked bits of fighting equipment around the local area. Recently there was a whole ride based on the egg discovery of this monster. Its all pretty nasty stuff!
Yes Air is there, but the horrificness of the bad theming and 'car park view' and the fact it doesn't really belong makes it worse.
Theres no glimmer of hope there!
'Dark Forest' - not Gloomy Wood.
Enter this dark woodland area... well apart from its surprisingly open and light. Whatever.
The 2 rides here are about fighting either a force and escaping at speed (to where you start from). Or one where some unexplained hooded figures make you drop into a crypt, but no reason why. Anyway theres clearly meant to be some sort of nastiness.
So thewood forest is evil!
'The Towers'
Well we all know how well they are looked after.
Anyway Hex is there. Again evil trees. I find a theme here!
Trees in Towers are EVIL.
'X-Sector'
Some evil company, we aren't even sure who anymore - has planned rides to test how well your body can cope under duress. The company is hidden, its all done to observe you - its all very Orwellian and cloak / dagger.
So yeah, nasty men!
--
Over half of Altons areas have an 'evil' 'nasty' theme - and thats excluding the family areas!
Are alton too reliant on things being bad? Why can't we have something more original and different. I mean in one park we have 2 bad woodland areas, neither of which has a good story.
Lets look at some well executed themes elsewhere (IP mentioned if needed):
Super Heros (IOA) - IP
Old Cartoons (IOA) - IP
Dinosaurs (IOA) - IP - but could be done without
Mystical Greek (IOA)
Princess / Medieval - (Disney) - easy with no IP
Old Hollywood (DHS, UST, etc) - no IP needed
Film Studio (US, USH, UST, etc) - no IP needed
I just don't get why Alton / Merlin Studios have never expanded their base to something abit more lively, interesting and different.
My last visit we spent most of our time in the more thrill-seeker areas, and didn't touch Katange or Mutiny Bay and and I left feeling rather crap about the whole visit. On reflection it wasn't that I didn't have a good time or have a bad ride count, but that I never experienced any joy or fun or humour in my visit.
It was (intentionally) drab area and dark themed rides.
--
Am I alone in this?
Towers Street
Mutiny Bay
Katanga Canyon
Gloomy Wood
Forbidden Valley
Dark Forest
The Towers
Cloud Cuckoo Land
Cbeebies Land + Sonic
so remove the 'youngster' areas: Cbeebies, and Cloud Cuckoo Land and also Towers Street as it has no rides. You are left with:
5 areas, of which the predominance of each area is of a dark nature.
Mutiny Bay is not a dark area, but its generic pirates - you probably could argue it is dark, but I think its more jovial in its existence so Ive not included it.
Katanga Canyon - again isnt a dark area, its a hidden African continent with a couple of rides.
--
So lets move on:
'Gloomy Wood' - not to be confused with Dark Forest (-eh)
In its time a 'one ride' area focused on a haunted house, its become more than that due to the opening of Haunted Hollow *shudder* and certainly doesn't seem as remote as it originally should have been.
Anyway, it is intended to be an essentially spooky and grim area.
'Forbidden Valley'
You've got a monster, who fought people and was chained down - it chucked bits of fighting equipment around the local area. Recently there was a whole ride based on the egg discovery of this monster. Its all pretty nasty stuff!
Yes Air is there, but the horrificness of the bad theming and 'car park view' and the fact it doesn't really belong makes it worse.
Theres no glimmer of hope there!
'Dark Forest' - not Gloomy Wood.
Enter this dark woodland area... well apart from its surprisingly open and light. Whatever.
The 2 rides here are about fighting either a force and escaping at speed (to where you start from). Or one where some unexplained hooded figures make you drop into a crypt, but no reason why. Anyway theres clearly meant to be some sort of nastiness.
So the
'The Towers'
Well we all know how well they are looked after.
Anyway Hex is there. Again evil trees. I find a theme here!
Trees in Towers are EVIL.
'X-Sector'
Some evil company, we aren't even sure who anymore - has planned rides to test how well your body can cope under duress. The company is hidden, its all done to observe you - its all very Orwellian and cloak / dagger.
So yeah, nasty men!
--
Over half of Altons areas have an 'evil' 'nasty' theme - and thats excluding the family areas!
Are alton too reliant on things being bad? Why can't we have something more original and different. I mean in one park we have 2 bad woodland areas, neither of which has a good story.
Lets look at some well executed themes elsewhere (IP mentioned if needed):
Super Heros (IOA) - IP
Old Cartoons (IOA) - IP
Dinosaurs (IOA) - IP - but could be done without
Mystical Greek (IOA)
Princess / Medieval - (Disney) - easy with no IP
Old Hollywood (DHS, UST, etc) - no IP needed
Film Studio (US, USH, UST, etc) - no IP needed
I just don't get why Alton / Merlin Studios have never expanded their base to something abit more lively, interesting and different.
My last visit we spent most of our time in the more thrill-seeker areas, and didn't touch Katange or Mutiny Bay and and I left feeling rather crap about the whole visit. On reflection it wasn't that I didn't have a good time or have a bad ride count, but that I never experienced any joy or fun or humour in my visit.
It was (intentionally) drab area and dark themed rides.
--
Am I alone in this?