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
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.

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.