RollerCoaster Tycoon

aka: Guoshanche Daheng, RCT, White Knuckle
Moby ID: 288

Critic Reviews add missing review

Average score: 83% (based on 37 ratings)

Player Reviews

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 124 ratings with 13 reviews)

Please someone pull me away from this game. I cant stop playing!

The Good
Must play game. Must play Game. Must play game. Must play Game. Must play Game...... Wow. Sorry about that I can only talk for a few minutes I have to get back to my game.

All kidding aside Rollercoaster Tycoon can be VERY addictive. This game really was genius. It has just the right ballance of all the important things. (1) Good Learing Curve. (2) Good Graphics. (3) ORGINAL thought. ie.. they didnt just copy the game from someone else. (4) game draws you in and doesnt let go. (5) Replayability (I can pick it up after not playing it for a month or two) (6) Depth of programing. a good example would be how much thought and feeling went into each stall and sound of the game. (7) It all comes together and is still fun to play. All too often a great idea and lots of hours of work are for not, because it didn't all come together into something that is fun to play.
This is the only game that my wife is addicted to. If you can make a game that she even likes then you have accomplished something. So this is a must for Women who are looking for a PC game to play but dont want to see naked women or blow up everything. (although my wife does like to throw guests into water when they get lost... someday that will be me)

The Bad
Well even this game does have parts that can be bad. The land controler is horrible. They need to take a note from Sim City 3000. Second where are my arcades and skeet ball games? You cant have a park without Skeetball! :-)

The Bottom Line
Overall this is a game the entire family can enjoy from sun up to sun down. They should give out a copy to everyone who buys a new PC.

Windows · by William Shawn McDonie (1131) · 2001

Simple, elegant, and (most importantly) fun!

The Good
Roller Coaster Tycoon has a wonderfully short learning curve. You don't have to be the Supreme Roller Coaster Designer or Fortune's CEO of the Year to get started building your first successful park. The game comes with plenty of pre-built coasters that you can just plop down in your parks (if you have the cash), and the business management aspects of the game are extremely simple and easy to master.

Of course, if you can master the art of building a good coaster, the game becomes even more fun. It's really a blast to make an exciting coaster with lots of visual appeal and then watch your park guests zip around your creation. Once you start making your own coasters, the game becomes a challenge of trying to top your last design, or trying to make a good coaster within the limitations of the scenario's landscape. (One of my favorite custom coasters was a small wooden coaster that I built entirely inside a small hill.)

The Bad
The pathing management for your park employees is really a pain. I would love to have the ability to highlight just the path that I want my groundskeepers to walk instead of having to lay out a 4x4 grid everywhere. The 4x4 grid makes it very difficult to get proper coverage because you can't always keep your staff out of areas with a zillion intersections. And it's far too easy to miss sections of path if it's on a bridge or if there's a level difference between the path and the surrounding terrain.

The designer of the game, Chris Sawyer, seems to be extremely anal retentive about 3rd-party, fan-created add-ons to the game. He's released a couple of patches that served no purpose other than to thwart the existing crop of fan-created add-ons. And the programs he's most opposed to are the programs that allow you to create your own scenarios, or that let you play in "sandbox" mode (i.e. just a blank landscape without any scenario restrictions or requirements). In short, Sawyer gives the impression that he's a control freak who's determined to make sure that you can only play the game the way he wants you to play it. Fortunately, the fans have not yet been thwarted to any permanent degree, so these programs are still available and still work despite the efforts of Mr. Sawyer.

The Bottom Line
Despite my gripes, the game is fantastically fun and addictive. I recommend it highly to anybody who likes SimCity type games or who likes going to amusement parks.

Windows · by Afterburner (486) · 2001

If it were up to me, it would be game of the year for at *least* three years!

The Good
I liked designing roller coasters, You have to master all the little tricks of the game to make a perfect coaster park, and then after that you have to branch out and learn all the tips like bathroom to drink stall ratio, and then comes the expansion packs! It sounds like a lot of work, but actually its fun- especially if you actually become a tycoon. This is the kind of game that you can play over and over. I'm actually on my third year and I have two expansion packs and they're NOT DONE! I keep re-playing the same scenarios.

The Bad
I didn't like a couple of scenarios, and of course the ever-present threat of drowning. Also, the hamburger and pizza stalls make me hungry.

The Bottom Line
So addictive, I miss dinner!! And I happen to be an eat-aholic!

Windows · by Meg C (6) · 2005

Good game, more or less.

The Good
This sim city-like game is much more layed back than others, but fun at the same time. For lack of better wording, it inspires creativity.

The Bad
I never was partial to sim games. Once you build a big city (or in this case, amusement park,) the fun just seems to go away.

The Bottom Line
It's a sim game, where you build stuff, try to keep the people happy and make money. One of the better ones, I think.

Windows · by Sam Tinianow (113) · 2000

Everything one could want in a theme-park simulation

The Good
This game has everything. If you want a realistic simulation of running your own amusement park, that also manages to be a heck of a lot of fun (I found myself playing this thing for 5 hours straight. Really), then Roller Coaster Tycoon is definitely for you. The detail to which the designers went through to make the simulation realistic is amazing... You can click on any one of the tiny little guests that enter your park, purchase your food and merchandise, and, of course, go on your rides until they throw up, and find out exactly what they're thinking, what they're carrying, and how much money they've spent. In addition, the ability to create your own track layouts is a lot of fun... You can make almost any kind of roller coaster you can imagine.

The Bad
I was frustrated by the inability to start your park completely from scratch. There's no way to create your own terrain, or buy your own land. You have to start from one of the precreated scenarios, and work towards a preset goal. Another thing I found annoying was the music... The same darn merry-go-round style organ music plays over and over and over, until it gets really irritating. Fortunately, it only happens when you move your screen near a merry-go-round.

The Bottom Line
A really spectacular game. Great graphics, and top notch gameplay combine to form the absolute best theme park simulation game of all time.

Windows · by Null McNull (25) · 2000

(One part Bullfrog's Theme Park + One part Disney's Coaster ) over Micrpose's Transport Tycoon's Interface = Rollar Coaster Tycoon and a lot of fun

The Good
One of things that really shines about this game, is the little touches, and options. You don't want the temperature in farenheit? Make it Celcius. Don't like the color of that rollar coaster repaint it. This game gives you so many options and choices. You build your park the way you want it. My mind goes back to the game Theme Park from Bullfrog a while back. In that game you could make some rides custoom, but it didn't really make much difference. In RollerCoaster Tycoon, many of the rides you build your own designs, and everything matters. The scenary can make your ride more or less exciting. If you build over a walk way people walking near by will see it and get excited. This game does basically all you could want for a theme park simulator, without getting too complex like making you order the stock of french fries.

The Bad
I really only notice three problems with this game. The interface is a little heavy on windows. Every button or item you click opens a new window, much like Chris Sawyer's other game Transport Tycoon. Although these window allow you to monitor different things at once, they can make the screen very cluttered. Time is another problem. There are two speeds, paused and moving. This really can get to be a pain because when you are trying to build up some cash real quick speeding things us would be good, but more importantly because there are times whe n so much is going on that you really want to slow things down. The last problem is the fact that in a game that offers so many options there is no way to just start with a blank park and build. You can only play with the premade scenarios.

The Bottom Line
This game is a fun, cute game that has a lot of gameplay. Think of it as a mix of the best elements of Bullfrog's Theme Park, and Disney's Coaster with the interface from Transport Tycoon, but updated for the 1999. The graphics although not fantastic are cute and filled with little touches (such as everyone letting go of their balloons when you beat the scenario). The sound is really good. It is 3-d positional audio which you would think for this genre wouldn't add much, but it turns out really makes the park seem more alive. As you scroll away from the Merry-go-round the music fades off in that direction. The game has a delightful character that pulsates through it. The game is a lot of fun for all ages for the same reason theme parks are appeal to many people. A highly reccommended game.

Windows · by Andrew Grasmeder (221) · 2000

Great fun whether you play it seriously or not.

The Good
I normally hate this kind of game. I never liked any of the Sim games. This one grabbed me though. I think the management aspect of the game was easy enough to handle but still challenging enough to make it fun. The graphics and sound are nice and it ran well on my PII/233, even when I had an enourmous park with a million things going on at once. The rides were interesting and there were enough roller coaster designs to keep the game from getting stale. It's also kind of fun to make a deathtrap roller coaster that kills a few people every now and then. Though the physics of the game aren't perfect, it still takes things like gravity and speed into consideration. I also like the fact that you need to put a lot of bathrooms and garbage cans at the exits to the rollercoasters so people can throw up in them. Otherwise you get this gross little splotches on the pavement that never seem to get cleaned up.

The Bad
The perspective is a little skewed and at times it's hard to manipulate land when you accidentally lower it too far. Customers get lost much too easily and frankly, they're annoying when they whine about how they can't find the park exit. I like to think that in real life, someone just might figure out that the park exit is not going to magically appear in the 20 square foot area they refuse to leave. And in real life, maintenance men are not that lazy. They're probably teamsters but I am constantly having to make them clean the place up and it really distracts from the parts of the game that are fun. And the park guests are the biggest weenies I've ever seen. Sure the coasters look scary and I would never ride them in a million years, but don't you think that when you let someone design a rollercoaster that will never materialize in the real world, they're going to make it as scary as possible? Half of my coasters are never ridden because the guests are too chicken to get on.

The Bottom Line
I guess it would be best compared to a Sim game but I hate those and love this so draw your own conclusions. It's really like nothing else out there.

Windows · by Courtland Funke (53) · 2000

A terrific, classic game any gamer will be addicted to

The Good
There's a lot about RCT to like, but the major points include:

  1. As business simulations go, RCT is arguably the best of the bunch. It's well-balanced, deep and complex without being overly complicated, and gives the player a lot of freedom.

  2. The roller coaster construction functions are surprisingly cool. I've been able to replicate just about any coaster I've ever personally been on. The building and terraforming controls are very nicely done.

  3. The game is a visual and auditory feast; frankly, it just looks awesome. It's colourful, has great little animations, and has great-looking rides.

  4. It's a very accessible game and a load of fun for either the obsessive gamer or the casual computer user. RCT is one of the few games I'd be confident anyone would enjoy.

RCT is probably the third-best pure business simulation ever made for the PC; I'd rank Railroad Tycoon and SimCity ahead of it, but not by much.

The Bad
1. As has been complained about by many others, RCT's scenarios are nice but the game really does need an open-ended sandbox mode or some random land areas or something. Furthermore, UNLOCK THE DAMNED SCENARIOS! (You have to win some to unlock others.) I paid my money for this game; why should I have to win a scenario I find uninteresting to play another?

  1. The game's manual is atrocious.

  2. It could use midway games. I've never seen a theme park that didn't have midway games, so their absence is a strange oversight.

    The Bottom Line
    A classic and fun game that anyone will enjoy.

Windows · by Rick Jones (96) · 2001

A great way to kill time

The Good
This game was ace. It had both some theme park to start with and also ones that just had the bare land which allowed you to start with a park that already had rides and a theme. I thought that was great because you get to play about for a bit before constructing your own little playground. They had a variety of rides and landscapes for you to play around with. I really liked the variety from rollercoasters to a haunted house and water rides.

The Bad
You can't really complain about a game that let's you be god. Okay, just one complaint- the costume for the park employess...ugh!

The Bottom Line
I played this at first to kill time and because it was the only PC game that I had. It grew on me as it should on most people. It was entertaining and is definitely a great addition to any gamer who also has a passion for amusement parks.

Windows · by Jennifer Johnson (8) · 2003

Greatness takes time.

The Good
Roller coaster tycoon was the only reason that I kept playing Theme park simulators. Because after I had out played the game Theme park I thought that I would never be able to play a theme park simulator again. But I was wrong.

The graphics that are used in Roller coaster tycoon are beautiful. On the Merry go round you can see the shadow from the sun and it looks like it is always early morning and the sun is just coming up over the hills. And the rides themselves have a lot of detail, but not to much detail because even though this game has reasonably good graphics it is not a game where you need the most souped up computer to play. The people are simply portrayed with just showing the colour of their clothes and whatever prize they might have won or if they had bought any souvenirs or food.

The sounds of the park are like you are actually controlling a theme park (even though these people never go home.) You can hear if someone is having fun on the new roller coaster you just installed and you can hear if there is someone throwing up after coming off the new roller coaster you just installed. Another great thing about the sounds of the park is that there are specific sounds or songs that go with specific rides. So there is not just one kind of music that you hear from one side of the park to the other, instead if you have your screen above the haunted house you will hear creepy sounds and if you have it above the Merry go round you will hear happy little music.

The game play is simple to learn but it is hard to master. Anyone can put rides in and hope that people will come in and not complain about the prices, but you actually have to think about what you are doing if you want to turn a profit while you are making your park prosper. But after you have made all your prices right and have made sure that you are making as many people as you can happy, from then on it is reasonably simple. You just have to keep checking on your park every so often and make sure that you have not had any disasters and that is about all that is to the game play. So in a word, simple.

The Bad
The most annoying thing about Roller coaster tycoon is probably the fact that after you have finished making your park and controlling your prices etc. you have to wait about two years more until you finish the level. And these years don’t go rolling past like they do in some other games, the years in Roller coaster tycoon would take approximately and hour a year. So that’s still about two hours of waiting after you have finished building your park.

There is nothing really bad about the graphics in the game apart from some flickering here and there. But apart from that there is really not much to complain about.

The sound of the game might try and sound like a real theme park. But the fact is that most of the sounds are then made up of screaming. Not just little screams either, this is ear piercing screaming that does not stop for the whole level. So every time I play Roller coaster tycoon I have to either have my sound muted or nearly muted other wise the sounds of the people screaming and shouting tends to drive me insane.

As I have said, the worst thing about playing Roller coaster tycoon is the fact that if you play a level and then finish your park in the first year or so you will still have (in most cases) about two or three more years to wait until you can be done with the level and move on to the next one. The only other annoying thing I can think of that is wrong with the game play is that if you have handymen (not mechanics) and you give them an area to patrol, even if the area is small they seem to have trouble cleaning up anything and in most cases I have to pick them up and drop them where I want them to clean.

The Bottom Line
Roller coaster tycoon is a simple game and it has some quite nice features, such as the infamous jumping fountains. So if you don’t mind taking about three hours to finish a level then this game is a nice bit of fun. So in other words this game is great for a person with allot of time on his/her hands.

Windows · by Horny-Bullant (49) · 2003

A great sim for the theme park enthusiast.

The Good
The controls on the indiviual sims in the game made it adictive for continual play. Being able to moniter their spending habits along with their excitement level makes this game a joy to play.

The Bad
There are times that the sims get to tedious to manage, such as, when they get lost in the park or not being able to find the food stand when they are standing right in front of it.

The Bottom Line
A great game that puts the player in the drivers seat in creating roller coaster works of art.

Windows · by Benjamin Willis (2) · 2000

A Sim game for those who don't like a ton of micro-management.

The Good
Everything. From the moment I heard about RTC being released, something told me that this would be an incredible game. Taking its cues from Theme Park and Sim City, Roller Coaster Tycoon gives us a chance to design our own theme park, with so much to design with.

The graphics, although Isometric, are fantastic. Haunted houses, Ferris wheels, go kart tracks, and scenery are all produced very well. The animations get choppy on my P233 w/ 64 Meg RAM, but more so when I am zoomed in real close and with a LOT going on in the park.

The sound is fun and amazing. The sounds fade as you center your screen further from the park, and even slow down if a ride breaks down (listen to the Merry-go-round when it happens... the effect is really neat). Flushing Toilets, screams from coaster riders... it's pretty cool.

The game play is good. You can set prices for indiviual rides, the prices for food, souveniers, umbrellas, maps, etc. It seems like a lot to manage, but you have such a fun time playing you don't really notice it. Watching the costers run is also a great side-product of this, but not quite (I'll explain in a bit.)



The Bad
Although I love this game to death, I have a few dislikes.

1) As another reviewer said... There is no way on Earth that Maintenance men are that lazy. The constant task of cleaning up messes that they should be cleaning up in the first play really detracts from the whole game experience.

2) No Sandbox Mode. Railroad Tycoon II was great for the simple fact that you could build your railroad empire without worrying about scenario deadlines or running out of money. This game DESPARATELY needs a sandbox mode.

3) The game also needs a decent Coaster editor. Something so that when you want to build a coaster you can actually work on getting the physics and layout right BEFORE you commit ant real game-time into doing so. Would be nice to have so when it comes time to build that Batman the Ride -type ride, you can get it right the first time.

The Bottom Line
If you love roller coasters, pick this up. It's a great sim for people who really can't get into them. It's a sim at heart, but the theme-park cover is so fun, you won't even realize that this is really a sim game... Great fun!

Windows · by Chris Martin (1155) · 2000

One of the best games ever!!

The Good
Everything! (well almost.)

The Bad
Stupid AI of the guests and workers.

The Bottom Line
If you like rollercoasters, amusment parks, theme parks, or sims, buy this game. Basicly you run a amusment park, building the rides, seting em' down, even for a few rides design them.
For all rides you design you have to make sure that the intesity rateing isn't too hi. Also you want exitment rating hi to get maximum profit.
This is also a business game.
Even if you don't like sims this game might make you an instant confert, I know, it happened to me!

Windows · by Wolfang (155) · 2000

Contributors to this Entry

Critic reviews added by Cantillon, Tim Janssen, Patrick Bregger, Wizo, Jeanne, Plok, Tomas Pettersson, Apogee IV, Alsy, oct, Cavalary, Scaryfun, Koroner, ALEX ST-AMOUR, vedder, CalaisianMindthief, Klaster_1, Longwalker, Emmanuel de Chezelles, ti00rki, Big John WV, Riamus, Kevin Puschak.