In 1998 my Father-in-Law died and my husband, son, and I moved from my hometown to be closer to his mom. This was back in the era of dial-up internet, and I didn’t know anyone in our new town, so I was pretty lonely. PC gaming became my outlet, and while I enjoyed a wide variety of genres, simulations were my favorite.

When Rollercoaster Tycoon was released in 1999, I fell hard. Here was a sim game that wasn’t just a simulation. I wasn’t only supposed to build a theme park, I was supposed to manage it, and make it successful. This required strategy, money management, time management, space management, and more. It made me think and pay attention to small details. It was complicated, and I was in love.

I still love business-sim games, so I was super excited to find out that Rollercoaster Tycoon Adventures was coming to my favorite console, the Nintendo Switch. Is it in the same league as its predecessors? Was it everything I hoped it would be? Not really, and no, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

Rollercoaster Tycoon Adventures has a lot going for it. There are 4 modes: Tutorial, Adventure, Scenario, and Sandbox. The Tutorial mode contains 2 tutorials. The first tutorial is Christy’s Fun Fair, which teaches you the basics.

It covers the UI, the controls, building rides, utilities, and stands, as well as how to customize them. It also teaches you about altering the terrain. The second tutorial, Make Them Scream, teaches you how to build your own coasters. The tutorials were great and explained how everything worked really well.

Adventure mode gives you a set amount of money and a piece of land to build your own park. There are 4 biomes for you to choose from: Forest, Island, The Moon, or Canyon, making it really hard to get bored with the environment. This is where I spent the most time, and I had a ball building my own park on the moon.

The Scenario mode contains 16 pre-built parks, each with a set of goals you must complete within a time limit. These goals are easily completed within the time limit and none of the challenges are super difficult. Scenario mode is perfect for players who enjoy task or goal-based gameplay.

Finally, we have Sandbox mode. Sandbox mode gives you 2 more ways to play: Creative and Career. Creative sets you free. There are no goals, no budgetary restrictions, and no distractions. You can build the park of your dreams, your way. All of the rides and items are unlocked, so you can go as crazy as you want, without waiting for the research to complete. Career lets you build your park at your own pace, while still requiring you to research and stay within a budget.

Rollercoaster Tycoon Adventures does a lot of things right. The controls are super smooth and very intuitive. I often forget what button does what, and RTA helpfully has most of them on screen. The UI is clean and easy to understand. The graphics are cute and fairly detailed for a sim game. The goals and progression were easy to access and understand.

Coaster building was also very, very well done. I always had a hard time building coasters in the original 3 Rollercoaster Tycoon games, but building your own coaster in Adventures is easy and fun. After completing the Make Them Scream tutorial, I was able to build several coasters that my park visitors loved. I even built one that was so intense, that no one would ride it.

Sadly, what I loved most about Rollercoaster Tycoon, the management, is largely missing. Money management is mostly nonexistent. While you do have to make sure money is coming in so you can buy rides and pay for research, that’s basically all there is to it. Sure, you can increase the ticket price for your park and each ride or stand, but you can’t take out loans or run advertising campaigns.

Staff management is completely gone as well. Instead of hiring individual janitors or maintenance men, you buy and place a janitor or maintenance building. Whether they do their job or not is completely out of your hands. I had one ride that was next to a maintenance building break down, and stay broken for 2 whole in-game days. The days of grabbing a maintenance man and dropping him on a broken ride or grabbing a janitor and dropping them on a pile of vomit are gone.

For me, these missing management features are a huge problem. I spent a lot of time sitting around, waiting for research to finish, so I could build something new. In the original trilogy, that time would have been spent setting up ad campaigns or looking for piles of vomit for my janitors to clean up. Now, there’s nothing for me to do.

Rollercoaster Tycoon Adventures, even with the missing management features, has a lot going for it. I think it’s a great way to ease yourself into the simulation genre. It’d be great for teaching kids ages 10 and up how to manage money, without it seeming like a lesson. It’s fun, and with the Switch’s portability, you can take that fun anywhere. It’s easy for anyone of any age to dive into.

Nonetheless, if you are a diehard Simulation fan who likes to get into the details of managing things, you will probably be disappointed. I enjoyed my time with Rollercoaster Tycoon Adventures, and I’m sure you will too. It could have been so much more though.

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Rollercoaster Tycoon Adventures

$49.99

7.5

Score

7.5/10

Pros

• Great Tutorials
• Beautiful Visuals
• Fun and Engaging
• Smooth, Easy to Learn Controls

Cons

• Missing Management Aspect
• Not Enough to Do