Okay guys, I want you to picture this in your head, you are super excited and thrilled to be going to the most magical place on earth. South Florida’s Happy Funland, where fun conquers boredom and fantasy vanquishes reality!
You are lining up waiting to go through the big gates, you see your favourite character smiling at you OMG it’s Randy Rodent!
He can’t wait to see you have a killer time when you’re at Happy Funland you will have so much fun it will kill you!
Don’t forget to visit the giftshop before you leave… But in Happy Funland, no one leaves the same way!
Yes, hello my fellow thrill seekers and VR fanatics you have come to the right place for your horror needs! Step right up and let Lewis take you on a world of pure imagination, thanks to the developers at Spectral Illusions you will finally understand the true horror of what you will see as the dark side of places like Disney Land!
My friends at Perp Games who have published this creative nightmare, let me into the park early and what I saw will haunt me till the end of time. So, buckle up, hold on, and enjoy the ride as we take a plunge down into the mascot horror that is Happy Funland!
Where Fantasy And Fun Come To Life
Story
Hey kids! Welcome to Happy Funland, where you are in for a rollercoaster of a time
The famous Mort Grisly and his favourite rodent mascot, Randy Rodent cannot wait for you to come by and enjoy a fun and definitely not dangerous time…
Everyone is just dying to be there and you’re in luck because you have been hired to do a very special job! You get to visit Mort Grisly’s Happy Funland the best theme park in the world.
The best part guys, you are the only guest so no stress about waiting in lines!
You can enjoy yourselves, but you are also given a job to do by Larry, an ambled-bodied man who asks you to break into Happy Funland to record some footage of the now-shut-down theme park.
You will come across so many rides to try out, some of them are killers LITERALLY! And it gets even better the mascots are there to greet you and want you dying with excitement.
Explore famous locations like Fancyland, Westernland, Futureland, and even Dangerland!
No lines, the fun begins once you step through the beautiful castle and remember what happens at Happy Funland, stays at Happy Funland!
What’s The Time? Play Time!
Gameplay
Happy Funland lets you on a certain number of rides, warning these can make you feel a little sick, I had to close my eyes on one of them.
Not all rides can be accessed with some being obstacles that will kill you. Once you leave the ride there is no way to return to the areas, or rides once leaving unless you restart and go through the entire game again.
You can jump on famous rides based on rides from a real-life theme park (not saying the name) like “It’s a Happy Little Grisly World” I hate this ride in real life, and I hate it a thousand times more in Happy Funland, NO SPOILERS but you will understand why!
What I love about the rides is that they have a sinister turn based on the actual rides, although the names have been changed the idea is 100% there and you will know the actual location and what it is based on.
The animatronic mascots are not big fans of yours and will chant the words “KILL, KILL, KILL” at you or shout profanities. I must say out loud here (NOT A GAME FOR KIDS) there are so strong adult humour, themes, and even gore.
You can fight these mascots and I must admit the combat mechanics in Happy Funland needs a lot of work! You will find weapons that can be used such as a golf club, pirate sword, and other weaponry.
You can carry two weapons and use both or even use just your hands, I wouldn’t recommend this.
If you die, you are jump scared by the logo of Randy Rodent and spawn where you were attacked, and you are still being attacked so fight as soon as you return or run!
One thing that you will be doing most of this game is swinging your hand or arms frantically trying to kill the mascots, it takes forever, and the problem with this you spend more time fighting off these mascots than the story itself.
These mascots do a very good job jump scaring you, there isn’t one time the jump scare didn’t send my heart into a panic as some of these mascots are literal nightmare fuel. Just no!
These mascots will forever haunt you! So, the combat needs a lot of work, but your weapons do not break so that is very helpful.
The horror aspect of Happy Funland makes this game worth playing, the story starts well but as you progress it slowly plunges and there is so much, they could’ve done but didn’t though I would still buy this game for what it is! I just wish the story went differently.
To open doors you have to do a different kind of puzzle, you have to play mini golf! Some of these take a while as you have a certain amount you need to get for your score card but by testing it you can just slowly roll the ball to the hole if you want to just get on with it.
There are instances where you will start to feel overwhelmed and maybe for some could be sick, I like this detail as it really makes the game feel more real, and for someone who plays at the fastest speed, with smooth turning it almost made me throw up on my girlfriend proving this game is full of surprises.
You will find as you play plastic models, they are not hard to miss as they are an orange, kind of gold colour and being close to them you will hear a sound like a squeak.
Using your map which is a map like you would get at a theme park you can see how many out of 80 you have found, I unfortunately missed 10 so I will need to play through the whole game again and collect what I missed.
I enjoyed the fact you can break EVERYTHING. Castle model, smash it up. Mascots knock their heads off and even their hats and eyes. You can send prams, wheelchairs, and pretty much anything flying out of the map.
I enjoyed yeeting things far. I did this a lot!
If You Can Dream It, You Can Do It!
Graphics and Audio
Firstly, the graphics have some amazing features, they use a realistic mixed with cartoonish art style.
The animation in Happy Funland for the character is amazing, with no issues at all. the locations are somewhat realistic, and you can see where the inspiration comes from, creativity truly went into all the environments, mascots, and other enemies you will come across.
The rides are based on a certain theme park, and you cannot tell me they are not. I love the fact you can see behind the scenes of these locations and just the small details with all the characters and places like the gift shops, rides, and more!
The flashlight beam is one of the most realistic flashlights I have seen in any VR game and just it was such an amazing way to bring life into the game as well!
This gives the game a really good lighting effect as well. There are a few glitches where you can walk through walls and look outside of the map, one of these glitches saved me from dying a lot! But the glitches do not affect the game whatsoever or break the game.
The audio in Happy Funland has a variety of different songs in the rides, voice acting, and sound effects. Some of the character’s voice lines will have you laughing.
It has moments where it becomes really quiet, and suddenly you will get a jump scare, it has eerie moments that give a tense feel due to the atmosphere using ambient sounds.
Above All, Fear The Machine
Options, Controls, and Accessibility
One part of the Happy Funland I had a problem with was the options and controls.
You are unable to change any of them. The triggers make you also move forward which I never understood.
You can only turn with snapping, there is no option for smooth turning which makes it harder to control for those used to the smooth turning option.
There is no option for those who would prefer to teleport plus no options for subtitles or vignettes so hopefully a patch or update will add these in.
There are not many for those with accessibility needs, again hopefully something added to a future update.
Thanks For Visiting! See You Again Soon!
Final Thoughts
Happy Funland was a game I was eagerly waiting for and although the story was not what I was hoping for the horror elements gave the game the life it needed.
I loved the little easter eggs and inspiration based on a place I grew up exploring my whole life.
I hated the “It’s a Happy Little Grisly World” and I was disappointed with the lack of content from characters you never actually see but all in all I would still have bought this game, as it was exactly the type of horror I have been waiting for.
So, remember kids! What happens at Happy Funland, stays at Happy Funland! Thank you for your time and please leave to your exit on the right! Happy Funland is waiting for you!
Happy Funland is AVAILABLE NOW! on PSVR2 and Steam VR
GAMERHUB RATING: 3.5 (Out of FIVE) JOYSTICKS
(Thank you to Mickey at Perp Games and the team at Spectral Illusions for providing the code for this review)
