1. Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 Reviews
2. Roller Coaster Tycoon 3

Another resurrected classic.

Mar 06, 2005  ROLLERCOASTER TYCOON 3 gives youngsters and their parents the opportunity to design and manage the amusement park of their dreams. But the third installment in this popular franchise also lets kids ride the coasters they've created and enjoy all the fun of their virtual amusement parks up close and personal from the viewpoint of a visitor.

In its day, RollerCoaster Tycoon was a pretty awesome game. Of course, the “Tycoon” game field was not saturated yet, and Railroad Tycoon II was still king. But even when its sequel came and went, and the field was pretty darn soggy, there was just something addictive about the series. All of the expansions and deluxe editions enjoyed long runs on the bestseller lists, and were highly endorsed by all of the “family friendly” organizations that boycott stuff like Grand Theft Auto.

If or when you heard about Roller Coaster Tycoon 3, the first thing you probably thought was, “Oh. Just more of the same, only in 3D.” Well, you’d be partially right, as the main concept hasn’t really changed, but added features and enhancements help it continue to shine, and its still-superb gameplay model might convince you that thinking about the original “In its day…” may not give it enough credit.

The first thing to notice, besides all the 3D eye candy, is that they’ve overhauled the interface and installed a task-specific hub — a much cleaner and simpler approach. There are hundreds of different small guests, or “peeps,” with over 50 different facial expressions, in all shapes and sizes, and all bigger than the previous ones that seemed about eight-pixels-high. Looking like bright animated Colorforms, the peeps roam through the park, some with really silly-looking, hand-waving, run animations, some with immense blue or green afros, and some teenagers doing their stuff. With all of the detail the camera zoom-control affords, it’s almost like being there.

Of course there’s a sandbox mode, as well as an extensive campaign with three objective-based difficulty levels per scenario — Apprentice, Entrepreneur, and Tycoon. They’ve also added dynamic speed control (the lack of which has been very frustrating in the past) and eliminated most time limits. You won’t be forced to make an inefficient park just to meet some objective, but there will be ‘intermediate objectives’ you’ll have to contend with, in both random and non-random situations. An example of a random situation would be a heat wave, which would necessitate things like extra liquid-refreshment stands, more shaded areas, aerosol deodorant in the vending machines; and a non-random one might be something like preparing for a high-school graduation night, where you’d want to make everything very student-friendly.

You’ll still build with the traditional grid system, but several new tools will really facilitate the process. There’s an “averaging” tool, which takes your grid placement and extrapolates its position over topographically variant terrain. In other words, it’s easier to build on hills. There’s also “auto-complete,” which connects various design points without your having to worry about making them actually “meet.” The biggest new feature in RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, of course, is the ability to view your coaster rides via first-person – a feature that was asked for since the first game appeared.

Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 Reviews

You can expect all of the old standby coaster types, including hanging coasters, as well as some newer ones, such as huge, monster, mega-tacular “giga-coasters,” and specialties like racing roller coasters, or “dueling” coasters that share the same grid (but not the same track) where cars meet one another as though in a joust. In addition to the looping, twisting, corkscrewing, death-on-stilts coaster rides, there are many other kinds of rides and attractions like Giant Concentrically Spinning Teacups, Ferris Wheels, Water Flumes, Hyperslides, and Laser Tag facilities.

Roller Coaster Tycoon 3

Explore RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 for long enough, you’ll find a brilliantly simple design that’s also jam-packed with intricate gameplay for the build/business sim enthusiast.

System Requirements: Pentium III 700 MHz, 128 MB RAM, 1.24 GB HDD, WinXP

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RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 has been removed from digital stores.

The popular sim was removed from the likes of GOG and Steam without explanation from publisher Atari (we've asked Atari for comment).

A spokesperson for GOG told Eurogamer it pulled the game 'due to expiring licensing rights', and stressed it'll talk with 'new distribution rights holders' to bring the game back as soon as possible.

Here's the GOG statement in full:

'Due to expiring licensing rights, we were asked to remove the product from our catalog for the time being. We'll be in talks with new distribution rights holders to hopefully bring the game back as soon as possible.'

So, why would Atari's licensing rights to RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 expire? It may have something to do with a lawsuit between Atari and RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 developer Frontier, which we reported on back in January 2017.

Frontier claimed it was owed $2.2m in royalties by Atari over RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, which came out in 2004. Frontier said it amended its contract for RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 after Atari went bankrupt in 2013, and 'another website', perhaps SteamSpy, revealed higher sales figures than previously thought. So, Frontier worked out it should have received $3.37m in royalties from Atari, but got only $1.17m. And, Frontier said, Atari delayed when it was asked for an audit of its sales report.

In a statement to Eurogamer issued in January 2017, Frontier confirmed the action.

'We can confirm Frontier is currently pursuing a complaint against Atari,' chief operating officer David Walsh said.

'We have attempted to resolve this issue without legal action since April 2016. We have so far been denied our contractual right to audit by Atari, and we are unfortunately left with no other way to resolve our concerns. We are unable to offer any further comment while the matter is subject to due legal process.'

Frontier declined to comment when contacted by Eurogamer this morning, but the wording of GOG's statement, which mentions 'new distribution rights holders', is worth a closer look. Could Frontier have wrestled control of RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 from Atari as part of a settlement? If so, perhaps it intends to re-launch the game itself - even though it clashes somewhat with Frontier's own - and excellent - Planet Coaster.

The RollerCoaster Tycoon franchise is not owned by Atari, but by designer Chris Sawyer, who created the first two much-loved games in the series (check out our big interview with Chris Sawyer for more). Sawyer owns the RollerCoaster Tycoon IP and trademarks, and licenses to Atari the rights to create and market new RollerCoaster Tycoon games.

Back in 2007, Atari and Sawyer were embroiled in a lawsuit that involved Frontier. It was said that Frontier had developed an enhanced version of RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, which it intended to license to a third-party purchaser. Atari claimed Sawyer was in breach of contract by assisting Frontier in this, and sued Sawyer for damages. The dispute ended with an out of court settlement.