I woke up this morning and felt like playing something on my iPad. I skipped over my go-to, Hearthstone, neglected everyone’s favorite mobile game of 2016 (or so it seems), Crashlands, and tapped-open a game I have been playing for sixteen years, Rollercoaster Tycoon.
It’s not the same Rollercoaster Tycoon that I’d boot up on my parent’s Windows 98 Compaq PC after I did all of my homework; the iPad release is a flawless transition from mouse-and-keyboard to touch-screen controls, and integrates elements of both Rollercoaster Tycoon 1 and 2, into one game.
I bought the game ($5.99 on iOS) shortly after it released, earlier in December, once the early reviews started rolling in with positive experiences.
This morning I began playing at around 11:30AM. I had already completed the first scenario (completed park pictured above) so I jumped into the second scenario, the one in the desert with the big, wooden mine-cart-looking rollercoaster. It was obvious to me that I should go with an American Old West theme, so I named all of my rides things like “Gold Rush”, “Dust Devil”, and so forth. Due to the layout of the park, and my limited budget, I had to work around the property’s massive sand dunes. This complicated things as I only had one main artery between the park entrance and the park’s iconic wooden coaster. Where most theme parks are based around a loop design (seriously, think about it!), I had to make due with the fact that I only had one main path in and out of my park. I hired mechanics and janitors and tasked them with specific portions of my growing park. In no time I had completed the scenario and was ready to move on to scenario three.
My completed scenario 2 park. The wooden coaster on the right came installed with the park. I built “Gold Rush” that I aptly painted gold, and I installed a ski-lift-like transportation system that quickly carried guests from near the park’s entrance to the rear of the park, in an effort to bring more visitors to the back corner.
I say, “In no time,” because it felt like hardly an hour had passed.
I looked at the clock…it was just about 2:30PM. I had been playing Rollercoaster Tycoon for three hours. That’s three hours with no breaks, no snacks, no casually watching something on Netflix in the background. No, none of that. I was 100% absorbed into the game.
Rollercoaster Tycoon brings to the table a hearty dose of nostalgia, certainly, but it also goes to show that you don’t need to have the latest, or best-looking, game to have a great time playing. Sure it would be cool to grab Watch Dogs 2 and jump into the social media conversations that I see taking place as so many people experience the game for the first time…or you can dust off a 16-year-old game and spend a handful of hours playing around with it.
As the new year solidifies tonight at midnight, I recommend that you all just play whatever strikes your interest, regardless of relevancy. You make it relevant by playing it, and by talking or writing about it. Happy New Year!
