Roller Coaster Tycoon is a highly relaxing game. I love these games where you have to manage resources and accomplish a simple goal. There is no win condition, and the stakes for not completing a scenario are low.
In this game, you build and run a theme park. The big draw is building roller coasters, but there are other rides you can create. My personal favorites are the water slides. I didn’t go to a water park as a kid, so these rides are something I could only dream about.
Playing this game brings up a few memories. I’ve played it on and off for over 20 years, which makes me feel so much older than I am. I’m reminded of playing this game in the Navy and of going on trips to Cedar Point when I was little.
TLDR: An amazing game that is as much fun as the first time I played it.
Narrative
Roller Coaster Tycoon doesn’t have an overarching narrative. It is a collection of scenarios that the player can tackle in any order. Once a scenario’s goal has been achieved, it turns into a sandbox.
The version you can get today includes the expansion packs. When I first started playing the game back in the early 2000s, I didn’t have them, and it wasn’t until a few years ago that I played the scenarios on the expansion packs. They don’t add much to the game, but they offer a change of scenery.
Seeing how a story plays out in these games would be interesting. The game doesn’t need a story; it is similar to SimCity in that way. It is a relaxing game where you can let your creativity run wild.
Gameplay
This is a tycoon or management game where you build a theme park. It should have been obvious from the title, but sometimes you need to restate the obvious. The only resource you need to worry about is money.
There is a little people management in this game. You have to hire workers to clean the park, repair the rides, and make sure the park is safe. Here is a list of the workers you can hire:
- Handyman – Cleans park, mows lawn, and other tasks to keep the park tidy.
- Mechanic – Repairs rides and does maintenance on rides.
- Security – These rent-a-cops wander around and keep things safe.
- Entertainer – These are costumed mascots. You can dress them up as a Panda, Tiger, or Elephant.
Most of you’re doing placing rides, stalls, and paths. Building roller coasters makes things more complicated because you can design where the track goes. With most of the gentle and thriller rides, you place a structure.
You can use some premade rides, but where is the fun in that? There is an option for you want to make your own rides and try to make them as crazy as possible. You do need to balance a few things:
- Excitement
- Nausea
- Intensity
This can take a while to get the hang of. I don’t have any tricks to finding a good balance. Sometimes, you need to remove some of the cooler things in a roller coaster, make it longer, or scrap your design and go for something simpler. Part of the fun is experimenting with new designs.
I’m partial to the water rides. I didn’t grow up near a water park, and the one in my area, Michigan’s Adventure, is more of a kids’ park. There weren’t a lot of exciting rides, as most of it was the wave pool and water slides.
You won’t start with a lot of different rides to build. New gentle rides, thrill rides, food and merchandise stalls, and roller coasters are automatically researched. The funding and the area of research is all you need to control. Here is a list:
- Roller Coaster
- Thrill Rides
- Gentle Rides
- Stalls and Shops
- Themes
- Ride Improvements
Funding research doesn’t cost much per month. I set the maximum and limit the areas of research. The parts I focus on are Roller Coasters, Thrill Rides, and Shops. Once those areas are exhausted, I move on to the others. You’ll randomly get a new ride, shop, or ride improvement throughout the game.
Scenarios have a few simple win conditions. They vary depending on the park you choose to play. Here are a few of the possibilities:
- Increase the Park Value to a certain point.
- Have X number of guests in the park.
- Maintain a Park Rating of X.
- Time limit.
Several scenarios combine two or more of these conditions. For the most part, these are easy to achieve. To meet the goals, keep building rides and improving the park.
When you first start the game, only a few scenarios are available. To unlock more, you have to complete the starting maps. This isn’t too hard to do, and it makes the game more fun as the scenarios get more difficult as you play.
Once you beat a scenario, the game turns into a sandbox. You can do whatever you want and try to build anything. This is when the game becomes a lot of fun.
The gameplay is very good. I love games like this because I can kick back and relax while trying to develop something creative. It is fun to take an existing theme park and turn it into a fantastic place or start from scratch and try to make it stand out from your other designs.
You can also follow around a guest to see what they do. It is an interesting part of the game and a way to see what the guests want from your park. It is a type of market research that you can pay attention to or ignore altogether.
Visuals
This is a great-looking game. Sometimes, retro games from this time can show their age. Fortunately, that isn’t the case for Roller Coaster Tycoon. Even though it is a 20-year-old game, it still looks great.
You can rotate the map anytime, and the player can zoom in and out. This feature is similar to SimCity and other tycoon and simulation games.
The roller coasters, thrill rides, and gentle rides all look great. You can see the people walking around the park and getting on and off the rides, which makes the park feel like a place where people live.
You can easily see it when the park guests litter, vomit, or break your stuff. The same goes for the park workers. You can see them wandering around and doing their jobs. There is also a visual indication of people needing help.
Things can explode in the game. When you do a bad job of designing your roller coaster, the car can fly off the track or collide with something and explode. It looks fine, but don’t expect anything amazing.
The graphics get the job done, and they hold up very well. They hold up as well as games from the early and mid-90s before the video game industry tried to make everything a 3D game. I like how Roller Coaster Tycoon looks, but I like this art style more than anything else.
Memories
I’ve played this game a lot over the years. This is one of the many games I like to compare to a grilled cheese sandwich. It fills you up and makes you feel happy for a bit.
My first memories of this game are playing it with my friend Drew. I can’t remember how we heard about it, but I remember having a lot of fun designing roller coasters. Like many of the PC games we played, I was the one who bought and played it. Drew normally played console games because he always seemed to get the latest console.
I got my first laptop computer when I joined the Navy in 2002. Thinking back to that time is wild, especially since I was in a very different place than I am now. Roller Coaster Tycoon was one of the first games I got for it.
I showed the game to several of my friends I made through submarine school. It was like playing with my friend Drew as I tried to create the coolest roller coasters possible. It was something fun to mess around with and show off to my friends.
My other memories of this game are largely the same as these two. Once COVID-19 happened, I went back to playing this game. Like many other people, I had a lot of free time on my hands.
10/10. Nostalgia is mostly responsible for this score. Roller Coaster Tycoon is a game that still holds up. It is one of the timeless games you can return to over the years.
Pros
- Easy
- Good Controls
- Fun to play
Cons
- No Story
- Can Be Slow
- A Little Repetative
Conclusion
If you like tycoon, simulation, or management games, then you can’t do much better than this one. Roller Coaster Tycoon is as much fun as it was when I first played it. I recommend this to anyone who wants to kick back and mess around with a theme park.
Going back and playing this game again was a ton of fun. I enjoy the challenge of making the craziest roller coaster that is still fun for the guests to ride. There is a delicate balance you need to find when trying to put everything you want into the design of a roller coaster.
This is such a fun game to play. I haven’t played the sequels yet, but I’m sure they are just as good. Aside from more parks, roller coasters, and other rides, I’m not sure what they could’ve added to them.
For more relaxing games, check out my review of A Short Hike on YouTube or read the review here.