[1] To do this, the player must choose how to spend their funds, finding ways to expand the number and scope of their parks while remaining profitable.

[17] Various elements can be controlled by the player, such as the name of the park,[18] the price of admission,[19] the layout of the roller-coaster tracks,[20] and the quality of goods in the shops.

[21] The player can build cafés, novelty stores, restaurants, and parlours for foodstuff such as chips (fries), ice creams, and burgers.

[28] The player can earn golden tickets or keys for completing tasks such as getting a certain number of people in the park, reaching a certain happiness level, and making a certain profit in a year.

[39] There is also an Instant Action mode, in which the player starts with a pre-built park in the Lost Kingdom, some staff, and double the usual amount of money.

[51] Early in development, there were 12 artists, who were led by Darran Thomas before he left Bullfrog with Jeremy Longley and Glenn Corpes to found Lost Toys.

[49] Board said that the most important feature was the queuing behaviour, and that he spent a while making it look interesting when visitors were in long queues.

[68] Theme Park World received generally positive reviews, though it failed to match the success of its predecessor.

[89] In North America, it sold 309,516 units and earned $8.51 million from January through October 2000, according to PC Data.

[90] These figures rose to 563,299 units and $13.08 million by the end of 2000, which made Sim Theme Park the region's eighth-best-selling computer game for the year.

[76] PC Zone's reviewer complained that the player cannot build more than one of the same item at a time, and must keep re-entering the menus and select it again.

[80] Jeuxvideo.com's reviewer thought Theme Park World is better than the original due to the 3D graphics, and also praised Bullfrog's humour, but also described the appearance as "repetitive".

[81] Bob Colayco of FiringSquad found the 3D graphics as colourful, and liked the refined user interface, describing it as "context sensitive" and believed that hotkeys play a greater role than in the previous game.

[84] Génération 4's Rémy Goavec was highly complimentary: he said Theme Park World was "a real treat" and "possibly the best Christmas gift Bullfrog could give".

[86] Theme Park World was more heavily criticised by Ben Silverman of Game Revolution: he liked the graphics, but described the adviser's advice as "worse than a nagging housewife".

[87] Daniel Erickson of Next Generation stated that "hardcore sim fans might miss having to trade stocks and manage land grants, but everyone else is in for a treat".

He thought the sound is "fantastic" and the adviser's voice acting is "perfect", but criticised the sprites as not becoming more detailed as the player zooms in, making close-up views a "pixeled horror".

[85] Jeuxvideo.com's reviewer thought the PlayStation version's gameplay is "mediocre", and criticised the interface for being too complex, although the action was described as "rich".

[75] Eric Bratcher reviewed the PlayStation 2 version of the game for Next Generation, rating it four stars out of five, and said that "a stripped-down PC sim that shared the strange, hypnotic appeal of amusement parks themselves – you can't logically explain why you're there, but you'll find yourself captivated, unable to wipe the smile from your face".

[96] The Macintosh version was believed to be "just plain fun" by Michael Phillips of Inside Mac Games, who also praised the vibrant graphics.

The award was collected on stage by composer James Hannigan, Richard Joseph and Nick Laviers of Electronic Arts.