In the last review, I promised to bring RollerCoaster Tycoon Games back to life. Here, we are! This game made me feel smarter than my age. Plus, most of the management skills I have now, I owe it entirely to the game; no wonder I pursued project management as a profession.
I have chosen to review this game because of my love for simulation games. I started by playing Transport Tycoon Deluxe that I was given as a birthday present. Later I played Sim City 4 and the Cities Skylines. The RCT4 game is currently available on Google PlayStore. You should try it out. Although I would say, it has its fair amount of kinks compared to the original RCT.
What exactly is RollerCoaster Tycoon (RCT)?
RCT is an amusement park simulator. The game had pre-made scenarios that you had to choose to build your park. You could also build them from scratch. The game was developed and published by Chris Sawyer Productions and Hasbro interactive and Microsoft Windows. This was the first title in the Roller Coaster Tycoon series and was the only one that was released for Nintendo Switch. It later received tow expansion packs: Added attraction released in 1999 and Loopy Landscape that was released in 2000.
How to Play
The objective of the game was to develop and manage amusement parks by business ownership successfully. You were supposed to complete a variety of preset scenarios within the set time and resources. Players would build log flumes, carousels, bumper cars, haunted houses, go-karts, Ferris wheels, and swinging ships, among others.
In the game, you could hire handymen to sweep the paths, clear the garbage cans, maintain the flowers, and to mow lawns. You were also to hire and manage mechanics who were supposed to fix the rides and security guards to keep thieves in the park. A player was also supposed to hire people to entertain the guest in the park.
It was an entire engineering project that covered all the aspects of project management. It was built with passion.
The park's geography and terrain can be modified, allowing the player to raise or lower the ground and water levels to improve the appeal of your park and allow for ease of access to the park. Success was when a player could meet the park visitor's needs by positioning food stalls, concessions stands, bathrooms, and information kiosks strategically.
The game allowed players to create their designs and rides by designing individual track sections, choosing the path, the height, and steepness, and adding elements like Zero-G rollers, corkscrews, vertical loops, and even on-ride photos.
Now here is my Story…
Although I played this game when I was young, I have realized it is still popular today. I can't fathom the hours I spent playing this game, leave alone the lives I lost while testing my roller coasters. May their souls rest in eternal peace.
There is this time I remember I had spent loads of hours building this one roller coaster, and I was sure it was going to be the mother of them all. A monstrous roller coaster. It was supposed to be the leader of them all. And sure, it was gorgeous, freaking gorgeous.
It had steep drops, and it was super fast, had loops, and even had some underground section. It was the best I had ever built so far. I was so excited to open it for the public, and to have my clients amazed and thrilled with the beauty of my metal beast. Unfortunately, nobody came to ride it! It was so scary even to the most daring riders.
I also took them to the roller coaster and locked them in and picked everyone in the park, and put them in the queue. But none of them took the ride. Sometimes the game was so frustrating that you forget it is just a game.
The Story behind the game
Almost half of the school children of my generation were hooked to at least one video game back in the '90s. There was a wide range of classic games like Mario, Zelda, Spyro, Mortal Combat, Star Wars: Jedi Academy, Donkey Kong County, among others. But for me, I preferred the Roller Coaster Tycoon.
It is among the few games that have remained relevant for years down the line. Even now, I still check out what I built back in the '90s. This game shaped most of who I am today. However, the sequels that were released after the first one were boring. Their qualities have never matched the original RollerCoaster Tycoon of the '90s, even with the current advancement in technology.
It remains one of the games from my childhood that I still play now. It was part of a series of games by Tycoon that were released to beat their arch-rival Sim City. This classic strategy game is still a darling of many today. It has stood the taste of time and technological advancement, thanks to the creator Chris Sawyer and the team from Atari.
Besides being a fun game, nostalgia also plays a significant role in my affection towards the game. We all like to look back at the original release of something, and it usually stirs our emotions in some way. That was the foundation on which this GeezeZone.com forum was built. This game is not an exception.
Looking at the game from my adult perspective, I realized that Chris Sawyer managed to design a "forever relevant" kind of game because it appealed to the two basic human instincts of nurturing things and creating new things. Many people get gratification from creating things, regardless of how big or small they are.
In this game, you could create a huge multi-billion roller coaster or just a small, well-designed garden. Additionally, the game was fun because it was about amusement parks, which is a fun place by its nature.
Thankfully, the creators created a mobile version of the game, just to keep pace with the advancement in technology and the preferences of the new gamers. That way, the new gamers can see what made the original game famous back in the days.
The RollerCoaster Tycoon had some level of depth; you cannot compare with the other games like Pokemon or Mario. It required some critical thinking to develop a scenario that would amaze the guests. It required you to have good management skills since you would be in charge of staffing and employee management. Failure to which, you would not be able to finish the projects within the set time limits.
It was very satisfying to complete a project. More so, to keep your guest entertained. I was frustrated when my first roller coaster crushed. I had spent a lot of time to design it. But after several tries afterward, I was able to construct one that attracted more guests. I never got through every park in this game because they were so many of them; you may think the adventure will never end.
One of the most magical things about the original RCT 1 was the lack of a tutorial. It only contained the basics of placing a ride in parks. It was designed to be very easy to understand.
All you needed is to pick up the pace with what you know. It took me several years to figure out everything. But either way, you could complete scenarios whether you know much about the game or not. It was learning on the go. You could reveal new features and tactics as you move on. This changed on RCT 3 and RCT 3D, which was a blunder. The latest releases have since not been appreciated, like the original version of the game.
Conclusion
If you love strategy games, no doubt, you will love RollerCoaster Tycoon. If you ever played the original RCT, you may not like the latest RCT adventure, but the nostalgia it brings is just epic. Go check it out, thank me late J The blend of strategy, fun, and luck is just awesome as it delivers creativity and amusement in one package.
