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REVIEWS

It’s been my opinion that there’s entirely too much pre-release hype about games nowadays. I can’t stand it when we get article after article about a game before it’s released and it turns out to be total junk. We know everything about the game even before we open the box, so nothing is a surprise anymore. That’s why I was surprised to hear about Rollercoaster Tycoon from Microprose. I hadn’t seen anything about this game until it actually came out. Once I heard that it was designed by Chris Sawyer, the man behind the tragically underrated Transport Tycoon, I started to get excited. On playing the game, I am pleased to say that Rollercoaster Tycoon has all the makings of a cult classic.

The idea is simple: you are put in charge of an amusement park. It is your job to oversee all the day-to-day operations, from designing rides to hiring staff to deciding how much sodas cost in the park. There are a couple of dozen scenarios, each with a goal in mind – it may be to get a certain amount of guests or to earn so much money by a certain date. Each scenario brings something different to the table and once you complete a scenario, more can be accessed. The scenarios are enough to keep you interested and give you a goal to reach toward (unlike open-ended games like Sim City that get dull quickly).

As park manager, everything is under your control. Fortunately, the interface is streamlined enough so that it isn’t a chore. If you need feedback on your park, it’s easy enough to pull up customer comments from everyone currently in the park and plan accordingly. You can raise or lower prices, hire more staff, or just check up on things easily.

Of course, they wouldn’t call it "Rollercoaster Tycoon" if there weren’t at least a little bit of coaster design. This part is very well implemented. As your research staff (think Disney’s Imagineers) makes new developments, you are able to design more and more complex coasters. Each ride has ratings for excitement, intensity, and nausea, which affect the customer’s perceptions of the ride. Some people won’t go on a ride that’s too intense, others want a more exciting ride. It’s your job to create a park that has something for everybody. If you find coaster design too confusing, you can always use the pre-made designs in your park until you get the hang of it.

Even though the name of the game is "Rollercoaster" Tycoon, there are more rides to design and use. Go-cart tracks, trains, Ferris wheels, water slides and more can be used. Of course, most of these things will have to be developed by your research staff before you can use them. Some of these rides are just a matter of clearing space for them (like merry-go-rounds), and some of the rides (like the hedge mazes) require a little more planning and design, but like with the rollercoasters, the tools to create your own rides are fairly easy to master.

The graphics and sound are very well done. You can watch your patrons walk around your park, pull out their maps (that you sold to them, thank you very much) and decide where they’re going next. If it starts to rain, everyone pulls out umbrellas. (Didn’t bring one with you? That’s too bad, that’ll be $9.50, please.) The patrons lounge around on benches eating ice cream or pizza while they take in the scenery. My favorite part is when people get off a ride: the first few people off jump in the air and give each other high fives and those that come off later look greenish and stagger toward the nearest bench or restroom. Music from the merry-go-round, the clatter of the rollercoaster, and screams of delight from your customers help to make the game that much more enjoyable.

Even though it’s a great game, there are a few extra features that would have made the game more enjoyable. First among these would have been a rollercoaster "workshop" where you could build coasters to test them before you start building them in your park. That way you could see if a design was viable before you started clearing land for it. Even though the scenarios are well-balanced, a "free form" mode with a terrain editor would also have been nice to build your own park from scratch.

In summary, Rollercoaster Tycoon is the sort of game anyone even mildly interested in strategy games would enjoy. Fun enough to keep you interested and with an interface intuitive enough to keep gameplay easy, this game is easy to pick up and very addictive. My wife who hardly ever plays games at all couldn’t help watching over my shoulder while I built log flumes and bumper car rides. There are so many games that are more like work – Rollercoaster Tycoon is the first game in a while that I think of that the term "play" a game is appropriate.

If you would like to comment on this review, please post a message at our forum.
Reviewed by Ed Sherman

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