Thule Trail is a re-imagining of the grade school classic, Oregon Trail, as an advergame for Thule Sweden, makers of outdoor sports equipment carriers and accessories. But instead of playing a family of 19th century immigrants, you play a group of 20 somethings road-tripping to a music festival. Instead of going to Oregon, you're going to Santa Barbara. The game takes its name from the 20th century occult society that sought the road to Atlantis; the music festival you travel to is called Atlantis, so it works. The rest of the game follows suit like a friendly slacker.
The interface is retro, like the 8-bit music, trying to cop the Oregon Trail feel. You select from a menu by typing in a number and pressing enter, this is how you select items to buy and things to do, when to rest, and so forth. While driving, pressing [Enter] takes you to a menu where you can take stock of your situation, rest, check the map, stop for gas, whatever. Along the way you're given the option to participate in random events — like hitchhikers — and there are also scenic side stops to check out. Most notably, you can enter "competitions" like snowboarding or mountain biking, and win cash to spend on the road. These mini-games are basically the same: move left and right, avoid obstacles press down to go faster and get across the finish line before time runs out. There's also a hunting mini-game where you shoot tacos and pizzas, and a traffic dodging mini-game towards the climax, as you approach the festival.
The game comes on a bit strong with its writing, all the idioms recall those naive days of the late 90s when California was better known for its culture than its natural disasters and predatory politics. As a friend, Paul Eres (Immortal Defense), commented, "the game takes itself so unseriously that it's too serious about its own unseriousness." Some of it, like the "pins and needles!" outbreak, are pretty funny, but overall it comes off as too intentionally unfocused for its own good.
But, its an Oregon Trail re-make.
You ought to take a trip down the Thule Trail.
(In case you're scratching your head over a feeling of deja vu, Thule Trail was featured in a recent Friday link dump.)
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Comments (may contain spoilers)
Broken link alert!
Posted by: Max | December 28, 2007 3:00 AM
Top link works, but not the bottom one.
Posted by: Dolly | December 28, 2007 5:06 AM
I never beat the Oregon Trail, but I got a penalty in this game for making it early.
Apparently you get a 'Slacker Bonus' of 300 or so. I haven't tried the others, and likely won't... fairly boring, although it's still quite nostalgic.
Posted by: Brady Cox
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December 28, 2007 6:08 AM
lol.. i didn't know choosing to be a slacker would award you 300 points..[student gives you 250 anyway to save money, you can buy pellets and hunt instead of buying food which cost 15 bucks..
this game is easy and enjoyable.
fyi, being on time gives you a bonus of 1k points.
you can move around while you hunt / change your position when you're hunting by pressing 'enter'.
i delayed my journey by sleeping to reach there on the 19th ^^
Posted by: poopaloo | December 28, 2007 6:30 AM
I have got to admit that there was some...Uhh.. "Weird"Humor in there, such as, "Took a wrong turn" And you se the Pyramids. We're in Nevada. NOT Egypt...There was stuff like, "____ has taken to playing tic-tac-toe on the windowsheild" It was enjoyable, but, I wouldv'e liked it to be a little better. In the hunting mini-game, you hunt fries. I mean, SERIOUSLY. "Ok then, Honey. Go shoot some of those tacos for the kids!"
Posted by: Kenny
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December 28, 2007 1:52 PM
Meh. A lot of driving, sprinkled in with random events.
But why the repeat review?
Posted by: annepin
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December 28, 2007 3:48 PM
We don't consider the mere mentions we give games in our link dump features full reviews.
Some of these games eventually get a full treatment by us and a page of their own. This is what you're seeing here.
Posted by: Jay
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December 28, 2007 4:23 PM
Thanks for that note at the end. I had absolutly no clue where it was posted, but I knew I played it! If it wasn't for the note, I would have never figured it out.
Posted by: rkr7
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December 29, 2007 2:53 PM
To be pretty honest, this is an extremely scaled down model of Oregon Trail, and fairly easy as well, since you get actally win money in this game, whereas with Oregon, what you have to start with is it. Oh, and I definately miss the river crossings.
I've finished playing this, and tried Oregon again. Got creamed badly. How I miss the days... :P
Gotta give credit for the game anyways. Nice introduction for players who have never played Oregon.
Posted by: Anon
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December 29, 2007 7:54 PM
What the deuce? How is the top score over a hundred million??? Hell, the score below that is almost as insane. What do you have to do to achieve that kind of score??
Posted by: Disco Dan
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January 1, 2008 4:26 PM
I submitted this game for review! W00t! I'm proud.
Posted by: Natalie | January 5, 2008 10:47 PM
I can't get this game to load properly, tried using firefox and explorer but all I see is a white screen. If a use my mouse to highlight text it appears but I can't do anything.
Posted by: jolly | February 6, 2008 6:13 AM
jolly - I'm not having a problem with it. Perhaps try updating your Flash Player? That's usually the issue when a game doesn't appear correctly.
Posted by: Jay
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February 6, 2008 3:18 PM