I shouldn't be too surprised, actually. If a park simulation based on Tim Burton's 1996 B-movie Mars Attacks wasn't on my bingo card, it's because I recently trashed it and replaced it with a bobble head that simply nods in amused acceptance of whatever video games decide to do next. And conceptually, Jurassic World Evolution with captive humans instead of dinosaurs isn't not A potential winner, right? Still, I was a little taken aback to learn that Mars Attracts, coming out next year, is the first game licensed from the movie. But then I realized I never thought to check before, which might partly explain their absence. Do you think they made the pun and then worked backwards from there? Respectable, honestly.
Watch on YouTube
You'll notice how the trailer jumps from one historical period to the next. You've got a desperate cowboy on an amusement park ride. A desperate ancient Roman on a ride. A desperate astronaut on a ride. Lots of despair on rides, that's the theme here. The reason for all this despondency is that you're actually going to be traveling back in time, as Martians, to capture humans from different periods. Then you'll be displaying them in “highly customizable habitats” that mimic their natural environment. Once they're good and docile, you can start probing them, unlocking new ways to entertain your guests. Apparently, they might try to run away if you probe them too much. As a human, this is true.
Ride-wise, things feel a lot more like a theme park than a Planet Coaster, with fixed rides rather than customizable tracks. I guess Theme Park had customizable tracks too. My main memory is of the swampy toilets, because apparently my brain thinks the books I read last year are less important to remember than a joke about poop from a 30-year-old game. Kudos for that, skull flesh! So your skull flesh in Mars Attracts will mostly be used to sort out power grids, keep your guests happy, and stay on top of escaped humans and environmental hazards.
This is from Irish studio Outlier, who previously made This Means Warp – a lively mix of FTL and Overcooked. I'm always up for a good park sim, and even more so a good exploration one, so I'm looking forward to seeing how this turns out.