Store in Europe on 31 January 2008, in North America on 31 August 2010, and in Japan on 28 October 2009. This version is no longer available for purchase in Europe since September 2014, after becoming free for a short period of time. A Sega Saturn version (titled Sim Hospital as of October 1995) was in development and due for release in mid-1996, but was cancelled. In 2012, Theme Hospital was re-released on the digital distribution service GOG.com. In January 2015, Origin distributed Theme Hospital free for a limited time through their "On the House" programme. It was distributed a second time through the "On the House" programme in September the same year, as a temporary replacement to Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 due to an excessive number of requests for the latter. It was released a third time in selected countries in 2017 from 7 March to 17 May as a replacement for Syberia 2. An open-source remake, CorsixTH, improves the game with features such as higher screen resolutions and a level editor. CorsixTH is available under the MIT Licence, and in 2012, a version was released on Android, available on the Google Play Store. Reception Theme Hospital received positive reviews. Critics noted the strong gameplay, detailed graphics, satisfying comedic tone, and voice acting performance, but fell conflicted on music, repetition, the artificial intelligence, and the user interface. The British magazine PC Gamer Steve Owen praised the game's challenge and "cute" graphics, but criticised the interface. Frederick Claude of Coming Soon Magazine also complimented the graphics as "highly detailed", and the "very simple" user interface, although he criticised the repetitiveness and lack of multiplayer support that would later be introduced with a patch. GameSpot Trent Ward agreed about the graphics too, lauding them as "fantastic", and also complimented the "realistic" voice acting performance, and the humour, although he criticised the artificial intelligence as "flawed". His conclusion was that the game "just doesn't fly". Bonnie James of The Electric Playground also liked the graphics, as well as the "lovely" opening sequence, but found the music "horrible". Computer and Video Games Alex Huhtala concurred about the graphics, describing them as "large and colourful", but commented that the humour wears off after a while, although he felt it is good to begin with. Another reviewer who liked the graphics was Dawn Jepsen of Computer Gaming World, who also praised the humour,