Seeing RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic finally make it to the Switch genuinely caught me by surprise. For a game with such a sterling reputation, it’s amazing that it wasn’t mentioned during any Nintendo Directs or given any kind of fanfare. Regardless of how it got there, it’s finally here, and that’s pretty cool on its own.
I’ve mentioned in the past that RollerCoaster Tycoon was one of two games I was allowed to have on my computer back in the early 2000s. Despite being a soft-brained 12-year-old and having almost no capacity for sim games, I always enjoyed its unique gameplay and distinctive charm. I’m not exaggerating when I say I probably haven’t revisited RollerCoaster Tycoon in decades, and the Switch version has definitely left me with mixed feelings.
I won’t spend much time talking about the game because, at its core, it remains the same game that defined an era of PC gaming. Players choose a park—typically starting with at least one coaster—and raise it from nothing to a true wonderland. Players need to set prices for rides and concessions, allocate time and funds to R&D and advertising campaigns, and hire staff to keep their park running smoothly.
There’s an elegant simplicity in the design of RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic that gives the game depth and nuance without being overwhelming. In truth, the most complex aspect of the game is probably designing roller coasters, but even then there is an absolute smorgasbord of different types and styles of rides to fill a park with.
While the fundamental experience of RollerCoaster Tycoon has been left intact, the game has been poorly adapted to the Nintendo Switch. In many ways, it feels like the design philosophy for RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic‘s myriad of menus is taken from mobile design.
Park information like rides, revenue, and employees is relegated to the top left of the screen, but the building menu is tucked away in the bottom left corner. This is made worse by how the game tries to implement mouse controls—evoking the feeling of the original—by having players slowly drag a cursor around the screen with the left stick and pan the camera with the right. I checked the options, and there’s no way to increase scroll speed.
It just feels so drastically at odds with the system it was made for. I genuinely wouldn’t have minded so much if the cursor was controlled with a stick if the game had utilized some of the MULTITUDINOUS buttons on the Switch for quick access to menus. Instead, players can use the X and Y buttons to Instant Transmission the cursor to the top or bottom menus.
“And while the fundamental experience of RollerCoaster Tycoon has been left intact, the game has been so poorly adapted to the Nintendo Switch.”
And I wondered if maybe this was just a thing with the Switch version since, I’ll admit the PC version from 2016 slipped from my memory; but when I booted that up to compare it had the exact same layout and it feels even worse there! The 1999 version was fine! In fact, it would’ve worked better for a handheld system utilizing a stick instead of a mouse to have everything arranged in a convenient line!
Also, and this feels like it is worth mentioning, there are two buttons on the top right of the screen to turn the camera which adds to the incredibly tedious scrolling unless by chance you go to the options menu and check the controls to see that holding LZ or RZ and pressing the right stick left or right pans the camera. But since this is a rerelease of a MS-DOS game—from 2016 mind you—at no point are you instructed on how to use the controls.
And I think that’s why RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic just didn’t really sit right with me. This is a game from 1999, rereleased in 2016 and again in 2024 with almost no notable improvements to enhance the gameplay. I’m not saying it needed to be different—in fact that would be a massive point against it—but it could have implemented some Quality of Life improvements.
And this is particularly egregious with the Switch, which is capable of so many unique things. It’s got a weird mobile game layout but doesn’t utilize the touch screen at all. It’s got mouse controls but doesn’t try to compensate with the gyroscope. It’s got so many menus and sub-functions but doesn’t use 60% of the controller’s buttons.
And while it does contain a lot of parks—even some Six Flags ones that felt… weird—it’s lacking crucial components that would have made it feel much more engaging as a re-release. There’s no free-build, no options for unlimited money, or to start with everything unlocked. Again, it didn’t need to change the entire game, but it could have given players some options to really enjoy this classic in a modernized way.
But the craziest thing is, despite all these issues, at the end of the day RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic is still RollerCoaster Tycoon—one of the best simulation games of all time. Even with the added frustration, once I got used to the controls, I was still enjoying the game because it was, and still is, objectively good. Could this re-release have been better on both the PC and Switch? Unquestionably so. But is RollerCoaster Tycoon still a good game? Without a doubt.
