RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Complete Edition - Review

I am a sucker for theme park management games (even more so when it involves Dinosaurs). While Theme Park was my first game, RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 is the one I enjoyed most. The RollerCoaster Tycoon franchise has had a bumpy ride, with a less well-received game already out on the Switch. The original developer Frontier Developments are now re-releasing one of the best games in the franchise, and not just the base game but it’s bringing along both the expansions! Theme Parks might be closed around the world right now, so maybe it’s the perfect time to build your own.  

RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 (RCT3) lets you build and manage your own amusement/theme park, if the name didn’t give it away. You can alter the land, build rides and attractions, and keep the place looking nice. On top of that you need to actually maintain it by keeping the park clean, and more importantly keeping the peeps entertained. If you want to really make your park a big hit you’re going to need to micromanage your prices, your staff and keep a close eye on what the peeps are thinking. As your park grows, bigger and better rides can be researched and built. When you have the cash you can build your own custom ultimate rollercoaster. With the amount of themes, rides and attractions there is no shortage of choices for making your park how you want it.

There are two main modes in RollerCoaster Tycoon; Career and Sandbox. Career gives you lots of scenarios to tackle, with the goal being to make it successful. Here is where you have limited resources and you have to put your management skills to good use. To access all of the scenarios you’ll need to unlock them through completing the available parks. I understand making people work to progress through the game, so don’t come to the game expecting to be able to jump right into the tougher parks. The goals for completing the scenario at its easiest level set the bar low enough to make steady progress if you aren’t interested in a park. If you just want to build a park with unlimited resources and access to all of the rides and buildings then the Sandbox mode is for you. If you don’t want to take your time building up a park, having to research rides and all the fiddly management stuff, here you can let your imagination run wild! 

Both modes are enjoyable in their own ways. I found Sandbox mode great to try out new ideas and see what I want to be working towards in the Career mode. Especially when even after all these years I still found the amount of data and statistics to manage could feel a tad overwhelming. The opportunity to muck around with the Sandbox mode helped me to reacquaint myself with this classic game.

The iOS port included a Tutorial mode. Sure, it was just a link to several videos (that you can only access through the iOS game), but they helped to get you on the right path. These videos aren’t present here, but there are tutorial popups and a help option to find out more about the game mechanics. If you’re new to the franchise it can still feel a little daunting, there are plenty of videos online helping to go over the mechanics.

Being the complete edition, RCT3 contains both expansions ‘Soaked’ and ‘Wild’ which bring more rides and add water parks, aquariums, safari rides and zoos to your theme park. When RCT3 was ported to iOS back in 2015, the two expansions didn’t make the leap over. It’s great to see them back so we can have the full experience. These two expansions also contain their own career levels to keep you managing parks for quite some time.

Being on a console/handheld of course means you don’t have the same mouse and keyboard set up like the PC version. It also doesn’t use the touch controls from the iOS version either, although with so much happening on the screen that is probably for the best. For the Switch version you’ll be using your controller/Joy Cons to manage your park. In place of the mouse and cursor, there are radial menus to help minimise clutter on the screen. While they make it easier to use on the Switch, they do take some getting used to. It’s not the first time managment/simulator games have had to make do with controllers, Two Point Hospital handled it well and RCT3 follows suit.  

Performance on the Switch mostly handled well. I did find scrolling sluggish when trying to place a ride/building. Overall the park seems to run nicely, which is great when there can be a lot of rides with lots of moving parts. The game does look nicer than when it came out 16 years ago, but it still retains a lot of the look from back then. It’s not bad by any stretch, just don’t come in expecting Planet Coaster. I’m more than happy with how the game runs and that we get to play it on the Switch. After playing RCT3 on an iPhone before they had bigger screens, it wasn’t the most ideal way to play the game. The park can be busy and you need to be able to see everything clearly. It’s perfectly manageable in handheld mode. The text could be a little bigger, but it’s not on the unreadable side either. 

If you have fond memories of RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, then you’ll be happy to know that everything is here. You can play it anywhere you take your Switch. If you never played the original and enjoy a solid management/simulation game, then RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 will keep you busy for some time. With Jurassic World Evolution: Complete Edition on the way in November, Two Point Hospital earlier this year, and RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Complete Edition out now, 2020 is the year for some excellent management games. After all these years RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 is still one of the best of its kind.

The Score

8

Review code provided by Frontier

The Pros

+RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 is still a classic theme park builder

+The two expansions add so much to the game

The Cons

+Controls can take some getting used to

+Micromanaging can feel overwhelming