E3 2018: Hands on with Rollercoaster Tycoon Switch
The Rollercoaster Tycoon series has had a long life,
starting on PC it made a lasting impression with all its mechanics, when it
made the jump to mobile, it removed a lot of elements that people liked and
simplified the series for the mobile games market, now it is back for Switch
and it kinda looks the same as mobile.
But that is to be expected, the studio that developed the
mobile game, is also working on the Switch version, but it is not a port of the
mobile version, it is a newly developed title, but it does share some assets
from the game. Looking past that, the game offers up a few modes, Adventure
mode, which is where you will get to attempt to the top of the theme park food
chain, the Scenario mode, which gives you 16 preset parks, where you have to
meet a series of conditions to win and finally, the one that everyone body
knows, Free Build, where you have no restrictions.
The game offers up a lot that returning fans will know, like
the locations, the alpine was what we got to play with, but there is also a
tropical/desert island type location, a canyon location, perfect for those wild
west parks and finally the lunar, there you will find things like a crashed ufo
and more. Each location has themed decorations that match it, so you won’t have
to have a wild west themed toilet block in your lunar park and such, though you
can if you want. One aspect that purists may find to be a letdown, is that you
are unable to modify the terrain, you can build up on level of dirt, to act as
walls and boundaries, but you are not able to build big hills or valleys.
When it comes time to actually build your park, the game
does a lot of the minor lifting for you, when you draw down a path, you just
need to select where you start and finish and it puts the path down for you,
but it also fills in lights, benches and more, something older games required
you to do manually. When you place down a ride, you now no longer have to draw
a queue, as long as it is attached to a path, at any point, the ride will open
up and begin to operate, same with shops and food places. For those that want
more details about rides or locations, you can go in and view all the details,
see what people think of the ride, any bonuses you have from it and more. The
game is built with a more casual player in mind, letting them jump in a create
a park in a matter of minutes and not having to worry about all those other pesky
little items like trashcan placement.
Of course, there is still a lot for traditional players to
find, research is still a massive thing and you will need to undertake research,
if you want to build more advanced entertainment options for your park, how
deep it goes though, it is hard to say at this stage. Of course, given that the
game is called Rollercoaster Tycoon, there are a number of coasters to select
from, in fact there are seven types of coaster (Wooden, Steel, Winged, Hyper,
Inverted, Dive, and Accelerator), each with a handful of premade rides and then
a builder, should you desire to craft your own. All of the tides, coasters
included, can be painted in a variety of ways, meaning that you could have
multiple of the same ride next to each other, but all with different colour
schemes.
For those with a love of tech specs, the game is going to
run at 1080p and 30fps when docked and will scale down to 720p when you go
handheld and when you take it from the dock, you can play the entire game with
the touchscreen, if that is your preference.
Rollercoaster Tycoon for Switch does not seem to be
attempting to bring the complete PC experience to the platform but merging that
with the mobile version and so far, I am ok with that. How much the game has to
offer in the long run, is something only time will show, but I am optimistic and
as someone who loves their RCT, I am on board.
Luke Henderson