New Element - Fantastic Wonders

Fantastic Wonders By Timothy Cross Added on Saturday, 16 June 2007

One of the most anticipated parks I can remember, and the scary thing is: it's still the parkmaker's debut. Starting as an upcoming legend at RCT Station until the site closed its doors, word spread until it finally reached me about the talent of Timothy Cross. When I finally did receive the park, I still didn't really expect to be blown away, but I was. I most definitely was. I was so much, to the point where I had completely forgotten about the newly formed NE Parkmaker Committee, and offered Cross a Parkmaker Spot right there. I regrettably had to take back that offer, but I think it's clear to the world that Mr. Cross will have a spot one day. With a style of parkmaking that reminds me of aero21 in many senses, where he doesn't care about the usual style of theming, coaster making, or architecture. Instead, Cross focuses on the atmosphere of the park, and makes it fun to actually walk through, admiring various details along the way, regardless of how it looks, the park will be fun above all. I think that Timothy Cross will be a legendary parkmaker one day, one to pave the way for the way RCT2 is played.

One of the most creative rides in the park is "The Great Ant Hill Invasion" where Tim Cross pulls off a wonderful kiddie mine train adventure ride themed to spiders infiltrating with more details then most of the other rides in the park. Something about this ride just always puts a smile on my face, makes me feel like a kid and I always think of it when I hear RCT's pirate music.

This screen shows a portion of the entrance plaza of Fantastic Wonders. The architecture is excellent, so appealing, even though it doesn't follow all the NE trademarks. It really has a sort of traditional feel to it, mixed with a welcoming tone that really just sets the table for everything the park has. The water theming as you continue down the midway just continues what I'm talking about. Not many parkmakers still build their parks in this style, but I'm definitely grateful that Timothy Cross still does.

Who remembers when the old RCT2 official site released that Panda set? Well Mr. Cross pulls off a pretty nice mini coaster that guest can ride while being hugged safely into their seats by the Panda cars in "Flight of Imagination". However he does come up a bit short and awkward when he attempts larger coasters like "Rocketman" which you can catch a glimpse of in the upper right-hand corner.

This screen shows the very awkward Robo World area of the park, that will be love/hate for most people. The scenery is blocky in places, but for some reason, I seem to like it here. The buildings shown in the screen are very creative, and captured my imagination completely. I could totally imagine myself standing in front of one of these buildings, just standing amazed. The music, the lights, the smoke, the whole atmosphere of Robo World just ties together perfectly, bringing a sense of realism to this hybrid fantasy park.

One of the first great works of architecture in RCT came to us in Fantastic Wonders in the form of the "Sky Point Cafe'" which is an elevator that takes you up to a cafe' once you cross over the sky bridge. You can also see one of the giant robots in RoboWorld to the bottom left and RoboWorld Tours transport coaster.

Finally, showing just how far you can stretch the limits of realism before crossing over to fantasy, Timothy Cross has this gigantic garden area of his park, that is just so totally unlike anything I've ever seen before. The "Leap N Lunge" freefall complex is tremendous, with the overgrown beanstalks crawling up the towers and everything. The gardens (food gardens, not flower gardens) located throughout the area were a great touch, and of course the architecture was on point. Great job Timothy Cross, and congrats on such an amazingly successful debut at New Element.

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