Theme Park coming to iPhone, iPad this year: Get your tickets ready

Here's a piece of news from this year's gamescom convention that I'm genuinely excited about: Theme Park (you know, the classic mid-90's amusement park simulator) is coming to iPhone and iPad later this year! The game is being rebuilt from the ground up and will be released by Electronic Arts as a freemium (free-to-play) title with some premium extras.

Digital Spy has captured some details about the new game, which will allow you to build new rides and attractions with their construction (and profit intake) taking place in real time. You'll have a "Park Rank" that serves as your level, with new rides being unlocked as you level up, or you can use a premium currency (we suspect they'll be called "Tickets") to unlock items and complete other tasks without waiting.

Similar to a city-builder, Theme Park will allow you to expand your amusement park by purchasing additional plots of land, and will then let you style the entire park in a number of themes: pirate, futuristic, and natural/organic being just a few of the announced examples.

While you'll eventually be able to let your park earn money over time without interaction, you can also use your device's touch controls to interact with items like the bouncy castle (by poking it) or the swinging ship by flicking the ship with your finger. To add more flair to the game, EA will use its many franchises such as Mass Effect, Dragon Age and Dead Space to inspire new rides or perhaps even themed areas in your park that will be available to build or otherwise purchase. We can only imagine that those sorts of items would cost premium currency, but a girl can hope for a free dragon statue, right?

As more news launches about Theme Park (including any details about its assumed social features), we'll make sure to let you know. For now, I'll just keep myself busy with my other versions of Theme Park while dreaming of new park ideas for this one!

[Source and Image Credit: Digital Spy]

Are you excited about Theme Park for iPhone / iPad? What sorts of rides or themes do you hope EA adds to the games? Are there other EA games you'd like to see integrated into an amusement park? Sound off in the comments.