RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Complete Edition Review

A Classic Theme Park Sim Rides Again

There were many debates growing up where I had no choice but to choose a side. Mario or Sonic? Pokemon or Digimon? Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings?

One of the lower profile battles however was RollerCoaster Tycoon Vs Theme Park World. The latter seemed extremely popular and was more accessible, with RollerCoaster Tycoon offering the ultimate no holds barred simulation experience instead. But it’s exactly for this reason why I fell in love with it, and lost many, many hours in the process.

Nostalgia vs. Innovation

Whilst not my first choice, I’m delighted to see that RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 has finally made it to Xbox, complete with the previously released “Soaked!” and “Wild!” expansions. Not so long ago I took RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures Deluxe for a spin, but finally the undiluted sim experience is at hand.

Design Your Dream Park: Sandbox Mode and Creative Tools

RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Complete Edition contains plenty of scenarios for you to tackle across the three campaigns. As well as this you can jump into the sandbox mode if you want to go your own way, although space is a tad limited. The powerful in-game creator means you can design your own peeps (park guests), roller coasters, amusement parks and more to personalise your experience.

Each scenario throws you into a specific situation, with the opportunity to earn “tycoon” status by ticking off objectives and reaching the top accolade tier. Stats such as your park’s reputation, value, roller coaster excitement ratings, turnover and much more will need to be mastered to hit the gold ranking. Although, it’s fair to say some scenarios are much less challenging than others.

Building and Business

RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Complete Edition gives you full control of your amusement park, requiring you to manage all aspects of running a profitable operation. Building roller coasters, rides, shops, facilities and more is the first step to giving your peeps a great day out. Depending on how creative you are feeling, you can design your own or select from a list of prebuilt crowd pleasers.

However, you’ll also need to hire staff to maintain your park, as well as actively manage the environment to keep it clean, safe and looking pretty. The best way to prevent your park from haemorrhaging money early doors is to closely monitor the peeps’ feedback to your ride prices and adjust them accordingly. Otherwise, using the financial, peeps’ status and other analytical tools will ensure you become a tycoon in no time.

Water and Wildlife

The “Soaked!” expansion puts water rides and slides front and centre of the action. You can also build swimming pools for your peeps, offering welcome relief in warmer climes. The water park is the natural cousin to the theme park and it’s here where you can mix and match these attractions however you please.

Safari enclosures are introduced in the “Wild!” expansion, meaning you can introduce a whole range of exotic animals into your park. Of course, these must be kept and cared for properly otherwise you may find them being removed from your custody for their own safety. There’s options to breed them, have peeps ride them or even sell them if you should wish. 

This third entry in the RollerCoaster Tycoon series adds a few new in-game features too, compared to its predecessors. The camera is much more versatile allowing you to zoom and rotate around your entire park, as well as the day and night cycle affecting peeps’ behaviour. MixMaster brings the party through firework shows but my favourite addition of them all is the CoasterCam. This snaps the camera to the point of view of someone riding the selected attraction, and is especially enjoyable when testing out those big bad roller coasters.

Customisation is also a big focus in such as RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Complete Edition. You can give your rides a paint job, choose outfits for your staff and pick from over 500 scenery pieces to play into the themes of each park.

Controller Conundrums

As with every game born on PC the true test is how the control layout is mapped to a console controller. The answer for RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Complete Edition? Surprisingly well. This is thanks to those magical wheels used to choose from your numerous action options.

These largely take care of building and opening up various information menus, however from there getting around can still be a little disjointed. There’s such a plethora of options that I had to double check how to do certain things from the options menu. After a couple of hours I was into the swing of things however. Although, one thing which annoyed me throughout was the fact that when you build shops you then have to manually open them. I understand this for rides which you may want to test after fiddling with the configuration options, but for shops it makes no sense, and a few remained closed until I remembered to go back and open them.

A Dated But Charming Presentation

On a different note, it’s only when you zoom right out to survey your work that the background music kicks in. Something which I have always thought odd, is the fact that the music fades out as you zoom in, meaning you can hear the chatter of guests and lots of post ride vomiting, but otherwise silence. The rides themselves can play music, but the option to have a constant soundtrack in the background would have been nice.

Visually, I struggle with RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Complete Edition. It is (apparently) presented in 4K Ultra HD but it still looks incredibly dated. The jump to full 3D looked great 20 years ago, but on reflection I actually prefer how RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 looks even if it is graphically inferior. But hey, maybe that’s the nostalgia talking.

This does highlight the lack of further innovation in RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Complete Edition. It’s essentially a straight port with all content included which whilst not strictly a bad thing, feels like a missed opportunity. 

A Timeless Theme Park Sim with a Few Wrinkles

Still, it may have been over 20 years but RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Complete Edition is proof that the excellent game design has stood the test of time. Many challengers have come and gone, such as Park Beyond, but few manage to stand up to the sheer scope and creative possibilities contained here.

Despite original creator Chris Sawyer taking something of a backseat to Frontier Developments for this third outing, it still contains most of what makes the series so special (even if I prefer the first two games myself). 

If you can forgive RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Complete Edition its rough edges, a deep, engrossing game with plenty of content awaits you. 

Your Links

Back to Its Roots? RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Complete Edition Brings Classic Park Sim Action to Xbox and PlayStation – https://www.thexboxhub.com/back-to-its-roots-rollercoaster-tycoon-3-complete-edition-brings-classic-park-sim-action-to-xbox-and-playstation/

Buy RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Complete Edition on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/rollercoaster-tycoon-3-complete-edition/9PJV2XCHZH31