"Rollercoaster Tycoon: Wonderworks," Brings the Franchise Into the Modern Age

I'm a longtime fan of the, "Rollercoaster Tycoon," games. There have been some great iterations, some bad ones, and a fantastic remix of sorts over the years. Just recently, it was announced that Springloaded, the folks behind, "Let's Build a Zoo," are making a brand new game in the franchise. It is titled, "Rollercoaster Tycoon: Wonderworks," and looks quite fun! As an article on Polygon discusses, "Players can expect a more intuitive roller coaster design tool, an, 'accurate,' physics engine, and a lot of emergent chaos. That last part is where Springloaded comes in, as the studio will bring the sense of humor it showed off in Let's Build a Zoo to the RollerCoaster Tycoon franchise. You can catch a bit of that in the game's announcement trailer, as rides break down in spectacular fashion and park goers get yeeted off the edge of the map." That rings a bell for me, as a number of my rollercoasters in the games, which I expected to be masterpieces, ended far too often with unplanned mayhem. I'll be watching the development of this with great interest--"Early Access," on PC is coming this winter, with a full release for computers and consoles some time after that.

Flashback Friday: "Rollercoaster Tycoon Classic," is an Example of How to Revisit the Past With Modern Updates

If you've been reading my blog for quite a long time, you may recall how, back in 2011, I wrote about my fondness for, "Rollercoaster Tycoon." All these years later, I still love the series, and I was intrigued to learn about, "Rollercoaster Tycoon Classic." Playable on a computer or iOS back in 2017 and on the Nintendo Switch (and now Switch 2) as of 2024, it combines a variety of elements from, "Rollercoaster Tycoon," and, "Rollercoaster Tycoon 2," to make something that counts as new but is totally familiar and fun.

When I started playing a copy of, "Rollercoaster Tycoon Classic," I got from the library, I found doing certain things came back to me almost like muscle memory despite the many years since I've actually played one of these games. I guess I spent so many hours as a kiddo crafting the perfect rollercoaster routes or best decor for my little self-made food court that some stuff is just ingrained deep in my brain. I still suck at keeping my park's budget balanced (I'm sorry, but a park that can't afford my epic wooden coaster that takes up half the space and costs thousands a month to keep functioning is a park I refuse to associate with), but I love making wild little setups of food kiosks, decorations, rides, and so forth. Even if my monthly income calls for more red ink than black, at least my guests are pleased with how I set up my footpaths and the free restrooms (I've never had the heart to charge folks even ten cents just to pee).

Whether you're an older gamer who remembers the OG, "Rollercoaster Tycoon," or a young'un eager to build a fun park in a retro-ish (and quite fun) game, "Rollercoaster Tycoon Classic," does an expert job of updating things for the present but keeping 100% of the vintage charm.