RollerCoaster Tycoon

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.

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.

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!