A Christmas miracle: RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic arrives on iOS

By

Rollercoastertycoon
Well, that's the Christmas break taken care of!
Photo: Atari

Just in time for the holidays, RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic has arrived in the App Store — giving would-be theme park designers the perfect $5.99 early Christmas gift to themselves.

Combining features from the acclaimed RollerCoaster Tycoon and RollerCoaster Tycoon 2, this title offers a touch-optimized take on the classic management sims which swallowed up so many, many hours of my teenage years.

In case you’ve never played before, your goal in RollerCoaster Tycoon is to build the ultimate theme park, complete with your own designs for roller coasters and rides. In addition, you’ll be landscaping ground, and managing staff and finances with the end goal of keeping guests flooding through their gates.

While I haven’t yet had the chance to properly dive into this game, perhaps the best thing about it from a fan perspective is that it eschews in-app micropayments in favor of a one-off payment that’ll get you the whole title to play.

That might not sound like a revolutionary idea, but it’s one that is certainly going to be welcome to anyone who suffered through the previous RollerCoaster Tycoon 4 Mobile. As I noted in my review for that game (way back in the heady, innocent days of 2014), it was loaded to the gunwales with requests for money — unless you wanted to suffer through ridiculously lengthy wait times as your rollercoasters were built.

Fortunately, it seems that the developers have learned from the mistakes of the past and, by combining two of the best games in the RollerCoaster Tycoon franchise, it looks like the results may be the winner we’ve held out hope for.

About time, too!

Source: iTunes

 

Newsletters

Daily round-ups or a weekly refresher, straight from Cult of Mac to your inbox.

  • The Weekender

    The week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.