I absolutely love theme parks. I love the thrill of the rides, the theming that goes with them and just the overall fun to be had in them with your friends. With another trip to Thorpe Park fast approaching I decided to search high and low for my copy of the original Rollercoaster Tycoon. After a complete rummage around my room I managed to find it and began loading it up on my computer. I couldn’t wait. But would it be as great as I once remembered it to be all those years ago?

In Rollercoaster Tycoon things are kept nice and simple with a simple single player campaign the only real option available to you. Here you tackle numerous situations throughout a campaign of around twenty varying in goal, location and difficulty and build a successful theme park in each. You’ll need to keep your park rating high or have the amount of visitors stay above a certain level. Some settings include an open area in a forest, a massive lake with small amount of land surrounding it and even in a desert. Each have their own features such as massive hills, a high amount of tree cover or just a lot of the wet stuff making building tougher and more expensive. The way you go about tackling the objectives you are given is totally up to you just as long as you meet the requirements by a certain date.

The amount to do goes on and on. You can buy new land, take out loans, raise and lower prices on anything, level out land, build lakes and obviously build rides. Giving you everything at your disposal straight away will clearly make things too easy and definitely become too much for a new player. So instead a great system is used where you’ll need to research rides, scenery, buildings etc... in order for them to become available. Even then the better rides aren’t introduced until later in the game which I think is a great way at keeping you playing. You’ll want to unlock later levels just to see what amazing rides they show you next.

Things start off fairly simple with you having a nice open area to build upon and a fairly decent amount of cash (Forest Frontiers)  to use to your heart’s content but later on it becomes a lot more difficult and you soon become required to think economically and need to spend your money more wisely.

Now the rides themselves. This is where the fun is to be had. The list is massive and ranges from kiddy rides like Merry Go Rounds to thrill rides like Log Flumes. It couldn’t be simpler to build these and can often be added at the click of a button. As well as entertainment structures you will also need to build necessity buildings like toilets, drink dispensers and a tourist information booth.

But as the name suggests, the best ride is the rollercoaster. Here you are free to design your own tracks and implement interesting features and environments for them creating the ultimate ride. Whatsmore you’ll find many types available to use such as wooden, suspended and even a bobsleigh design and you’ll want to test them all out seeing which is the more popular with the crowd. It becomes a game in itself just trying to come up with the best design and it’s easy to forget all about the objectives themselves. Of course if you wish you can use the game’s layouts but that is nowhere near as fun!

Rides are marked on three things; nausea, excitement and fear. It’s important to balance these things out perfectly if you want the lines to start forming around your ride so practice indeed makes perfect here. It’s fun to experiment and see what works best for the guests. While you have main objectives for the park itself it’s cool that even in building rides you have criteria to meet too.

Visually everything looks nice and clear, but also quite detailed too. While it isn’t true 3D but rather an isometric view it’s still decent looking. Rides move realistically, loads of guests walk around and do their own things and the only problem really is when it gets too busy things can chug along a little. But even then you won’t care as you marvel at your wonderful creations.

Sound wise things are also good. The music in the main menu is nice and catchy and definitely has a carnival/theme park feel to it. However that is the only music to be found. In game, things are silent as you open with a bare piece of land, but build upon it and you’ll hear visitors screaming and laughing, coasters running along and the odd ride tunes playing in the background. It’s good as the silence gives you time to concentrate which is essential given the time constraints you have to complete some objectives.

Rollercoaster Tycoon rewards imagination and creativity. It’s one of those games where I can take my ideas and show them off. I absolutely love this game and often find myself starting new projects such as real life theme park recreations or just mess around with the rollercoaster creator. One of my favourite PC games and one I shall not ever get rid of.