The late 90s to early 2010s was a golden era for online childhood whimsy. To never be bored again it seemed, allowing for limitless access to the world and creative visions within it. MMOs and simulation games blossomed during this period. Individuals could hop online and become an entirely new persona, putting themselves in situations they may never find themselves in. Children, teens, and PC-loving adults could temporarily become fast food workers in Papa’s Pizzeria; become wizards in Wizards 101; or become literal deities in the tycoon genre of games.
Perhaps you were too little, too afraid, or maybe too broke to attend a real-life theme park. Or maybe you were a curious child or natural-born engineer fascinated at the concept and design of coasters. In the midst of the simulator craze, the first RollerCoaster Tycoon was born in 1999. Hoards of people who had PCs in their homes flocked to this game. It became one of the bestselling games of its release year, establishing a gold standard for management simulators. RCT left a strong mark on young minds. Something about the game’s boundless possibilities, onslaught of visuals and sounds, and both creative brilliance and morbidity hit just right.
Fortunately for us all, Origin8 Technologies, with the help of the original developer Chris Sawyer, released RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic – a nostalgic, faithful culmination of the original two games. This remaster includes the Toolkit, and the Time Twister and Wacky Worlds expansion packs.
RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic was released in 2016 and can be played on PC, Steam, iOS, Android, and the Nintendo Switch.
The thrill of the ride
Like the good old days, the player’s main objective is to maintain the health and happiness of the theme park and maintain a profit margin. The game offers 95 preset park scenarios, all of which requiring an x amount of guests, a park rating of xxx, and/or x amount of revenue within a certain time frame.
In the main game, players can build a wide assortment of themed rides. Each ride falls under the category of “gentle” rides, roller coasters, thrill rides, water attractions, and transport rides. To name a few, gentle rides include observation towers, minigolf, and slides. Thrills have drop towers, fast spinning rides, and rapids, while transportation rides include chairlifts and monorails.
Players will also need to build pathways for guests to walk on, as well as food and drink stalls and restrooms to support their needs. You can manually set the prices for these stalls. However, unlike the original games, for some reason players cannot set an admission fee for the park. How unfortunate. This is a big miss for RCTC, and it makes it more difficult to accrue revenue.
Players must also keep an eye on both guests and hired staff members. You can hire mechanics to repair broken rides, handymen to clean and upkeep foliage, security guards, and wandering mascots. All hired staff must be paid and generally instructed. You can also check the number of guests currently attending your theme park, and their actions and thoughts. For example, one guest named Hilda N. was thinking “I’m hungry.” This could mean that either there are not enough food stalls, or the food is too pricey. Melody H. was thinking “This park is really tidy,” meaning that my staff is doing a great job and picking up litter. Overall, you want to make sure the attendees are happy, entertained, and well-fed. Also, uh, alive.
The adrenaline rush
Players can choose from various presets, but you are also able to craft your own coasters and scenarios. Building or altering a ride is quite tedious but very fun once you get somewhat of a handle on it. On custom builds, players can adjust the theme (e.g., wooden, classical Roman, and abstract), chain or cart speed, coloration, the amount of carts, and more. Each attraction will have an excitement, intensity, and nausea rating. This is all dependent upon the speed and length of the ride as well as the number of drops and lateral G’s. There is a sweet spot to ride enjoyment. You want to make sure all of your guests don’t throw up everywhere. Unless . . . that’s your goal.
Of course, it is no secret that while a big sector of RCT fans are potential mechanical geniuses, a morbidly huge portion of its long-term audience is more interested in the experimental side of things. If you are aware that some gamers love to trap, torture, or off their Sims, the same can be applied to RollerCoaster Tycoon. Yes, you can still destroy your guests in the Classic edition. As long as your roller coaster is a closed circuit, you are free to increase the deadliness of ride speed, lateral G’s, or just happen to miss a few pieces. However, unfortunately, this feature is significantly harder to do than in the originals. Anyways, I just had to call attention to the elephant in the room.
Classically crazy controls
Anyways, RollerCoaster Tycoon seems overwhelming at first . . . and it is. Building awesome, working coasters is difficult in my opinion, and managing hundreds or thousands of park guests is a hassle. You have to keep in mind the money you have available to spend, and you need to invest in other items like trash cans, benches, and plants. Also, players have access to terraforming where you can make divots, hills, and pools of water all up to your own discretion (as long as it is within park boundaries). As RCTC is grid-based, you terraform one square at a time. Or one corner of a square at a time. Mending the landscape is precise and finicky so you want to take advantage of camera zooming and rotation to make sure you are getting the results you want.
Players can pause time or increase the game’s speed up to trifold. You can also pick up and move people around, and you will want to do this with your staff. It seems that sometimes your workers are either incredibly confused, lost, or just lazy. However, pathfinding your staff is also a troublesome mechanic (at least on the Nintendo Switch). Overall, the game has a complicated and dense control scheme and requires a lot of button or keyboard and mouse combinations. There are only so many buttons you can press, but RCTC includes terraforming, ride construction, placement, navigation, menu selection, park management, and more – I had to pull up the control menu every 15 minutes.
Where dreams come to life!
RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic contains isometric sprite work and utilizes parallel projection, giving this 2D game a look of dimensionality. While the frame rate sinks occasionally, this pixelated art style makes movement look seamless and just plain cool. RCTC is also colorfully dynamic. Despite having so many controls and features, the UI is generally pleasant to look at. The cursor is styled after a 90s computer mouse.
The main issue with isometric pixel art is that depth perception can be thrown off when rotating the screen. You may try to place a tree on a specific square, or you might have chosen to specific square to dig down on; but, when you rotate the screen, your chosen location is actually three grid spaces further than you realized. It could be frustrating, but for some people this is all a part of the nostalgia and fun.
RCTC’s soundtrack is a mix of compositions by Allister Bramble with pre-existing public-domain tracks. You will hear classic organ-style fairground music on the Merry-Go-Round. There are some varying styles of tunes, like the fan favorite “Rock Style 2,” “Roman Fanfare,” or “Wild West.” It depends upon the theme of the attraction you built and placed in your park.
Around the world
RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic includes extra park scenarios ranging from beginner to expert difficulties. The Time Twisters expansion pack has 14 levels based on unique themes. For example, one scenario is called the “Roaring Twenties – Prison Island,” and is described as follows:
The infamous Prison Island – whose population once swelled with bootleggers and racketeers – is now up for sale. You’ve decided to convert it into a top tourist attraction, and money is no object.
Regardless of the scenario, it all plays the same and generally harbors the same type of goal, but each level looks unique and the context is fun to keep in mind. The Wacky Worlds expansion pack is perhaps even cooler, as each level is based on a real-life geographical location. There is a European Cultural Festival scenario, Six Flags Belgium, a Rain Forest Plateau in South America, an African Diamond Mine, just to name a few.
Oh! I cannot forget to mention “Panda World” – a scenario where the player’s park is solely panda themed!
Final thoughts
RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic edition is almost identical to the original two games with a slightly different UI and automatic inclusion of the expansion packs. Yet, it is missing some old features. It is upsetting that players cannot alter park admission prices. Also, RCTC seems to lack a complete sandbox mode. While players are allowed to build their own custom coasters and scenarios, there is no free space to build from the ground up and allow creativity to full-on explode onto the screen.
Otherwise, RCTC looks and sounds amazingly faithful to the originals. It is a blast from the past, reigniting our childhood creative energies and perhaps borderline sadist curiosities. Despite the overload of mechanics, confusing controls, and tedious coaster building, it is easy to spend countless hours in to the game. It is one of those titles, like The Sims or Animal Crossing, where you truly forget that time really exists.
For those who remember RollerCoaster Tycoon fondly, or for those intense fans of management sims, RCTC is absolutely worth playing.
