The gem known as Rollercoaster Tycoon celebrates it’s 16th Birthday on March 31st. For those of you who didn’t have the opportunity to play, or if you’re a little too young to remember it, Rollercoaster Tycoon is a giant theme park simulator developed by Microprose that allows you to build rollercoasters, log flumes, tea cups, ferris wheels and so much more. You could even build custom rollercoasters using a tile based construction system.
A couple of the most important objectives of the game were keeping your guests happy, as well as ensuring your rides remain in tip top condition. You have to hire handymen to accomplish this one, fail to do that and your rides soon begin to malfunction. Well even with the handymen present, this seemed to happen on a all too regular basis.
Another crucial aspect of the game was to ensure you had adequate footpaths to and from the rides, otherwise your guests would wander round aimlessly. Took me a while to figure this one out
In October 2002 – Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 was subsequently released and then followed by Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 in 2004 (Not forgetting the expansions)
However in 2014, Rollercoaster Tycoon 4 Mobile was released but this recieved a lot of negativity from mobile users due to the micro transactions, missing features and the long loading times. However don’t let you put this off the fact that Rollercoaster Tycoon World is due to launch this year, with a promise for the game to return to the grass roots it became famous for.
Designing coasters in RTW will be slightly different this time around, with players having to use a spline system instead of the old style of laying individual pieces. You’ll still be able to ride the rollercoasters that you have designed, taking you right to the heart of the action.
Another cool feature of RTW, will be a multiplayer feature that will allow you to visit another player’s park and share ride “Blueprints” so that you can build another player’s rollercoaster in your very own theme park. However unlike games such as Simcity was at launch, you will be able to completely avoid the multiplayer if you’d rather play and design by yourself.
There’s not much more to say other than, if you haven’t played the classics, now is the time to do so. Hopefully you will not be disappointed.
Will you be purchasing Rollercoaster Tycoon World once it has been released? Let us know. I’ll certainly be giving it a go, however only time will tell whether it will be able to live up to the classics. Until then, Happy Birthday to the Rollercoaster Tycoon series.
