RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures

Genre: Management Simulation

Players: 1

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Review:

RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures began its life as RollerCoaster Tycoon World, released on PC in 2016. It would go on to be adapted for iOS later that year as the free-to-play game RollerCoaster Tycoon Touch, with a port to Android devices in 2017. Then, in 2018, Nintendo Switch owners would receive an adaptation of that version of the game called RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures, with a port to PC in 2019 to bring the porting chain full circle. In 2023, this game was removed from the Nintendo Switch eShop and replaced with an expanded version, RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures Deluxe, which also released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox Series X|S at the same time.

For those unfamiliar with the RollerCoaster Tycoon series, this is a long-running series of Management Simulation games dating back to 1999, where players plot out and manage their own theme park, and as the title suggests, roller coasters are a particular focus of the series. Adventures seems to aim to simplify the formula, to make the game more accessible to wider audiences.

What this means, in practice, is that players have far fewer options than in other entries in the series. They don’t hire staff or control wages nor schedule staff shifts or direct staff to address issues, can’t terraform land, can’t see in real-time when visitors to your park get enthusiastic for a ride and form a line, and apart from how “fresh” or “exciting” a ride is, the rides seem largely interchangeable as far as guests are concerned.

Far be it from me to judge a Management Simulation for being simple – I have repeatedly expressed a fondness for Kairosoft Management Simulation games, after all. However, those games are the fraction of this game’s $40 price, and still manage to provide players with an actual challenge. In RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures, the biggest challenge you’ll likely face is waiting, as your park has no operating expenses, only up-front costs for new installations. So as long as you let the cash flow in, you’ll be sure to earn enough to do what you want sooner or later, regardless of how well or how poorly you manage your park.

Despite this lack of depth or challenge, there’s still some enjoyment to be had here in plotting out your ideal amusement park, and the series’ signature focus on roller coasters does indeed return here, with players potentially able to make the twisty, turny, windy, screamy coaster of their dreams. The controls for doing so are pretty clunky, but they do work if you’re patient enough. I should note that this game does support touchscreen controls in portable mode, but those controls are also unwieldy, with camera movement that is far too sensitive.

There’s another issue here too. RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures is a pretty buggy game – I had it freeze on me a few times, and I got booted out of the game at least once. On top of this, the game chugs at times, particularly when you’re installing a new roller coaster.

Apart from these issues, which aren’t a small problem, the presentation is otherwise good, with some decent detail in the park, and its rides, backed by music that fits the amusement park themes.

Overall, I still like RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures, and think it’s far more playable than RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Complete Edition. However, the overall shallow nature of this game and its lack of challenge, along with clunky controls, performance issues, and bugginess, definitely add up to make this less than an ideal entry in the series, and especially for its $40 price, this should have offered more to players, especially given the wealth of other great games in the genre you can find on Nintendo Switch.

tl;dr – RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures is a simplified take on its series’ Management Simulation gameplay with players still building their own custom theme park, but now with less depth and control. Even if these issues don’t bother you, the lack of challenge, the clunky controls, and the buggy nature of this game should definitely make you consider whether it might be better to get a different game in the genre instead, especially with this game’s bloated $40 price.

Grade: C

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