No-one wanted to love last year’s RollerCoaster Tycoon 4 Mobile more than I did. And no-one was therefore more crushed when the “game” turned out to be the soulless, cash-demanding corpse of a once-great franchise-turned-freemium nightmare.
If you join me in that opinion, you can rest easy since RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 just hit the App Store — bringing iOS gamers the straight-up port of the PC classic they deserve, complete with touch controls and not an in-app purchase in sight.
To put this in theme park terms, the difference between RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 and RollerCoaster Tycoon 4 Mobile is roughly the difference between reliving the best bits of your childhood, and queuing for hours to get on an overpriced ride — only to have the sugared-up kid next to you vomit in your lap.
Yes, really.
Features of RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 include the ability to:
- Create your ultimate theme park in stunning 3D!
- Let your imagination run free in Sandbox mode.
- Play through all 18 scenarios from the original PC game.
- Watch your guests react to your park as you try to make them happy.
- Happy guests earn you more in-game money to build out your parks even more.
- Design your parks using 5 fun themes: Generic, Spooky, Western, Adventure and Sci-fi.
- See every spine tingling detail with fully controllable cameras.
- Grab a front seat for the ride of your life with the jaw-dropping Coaster Cam.
- Cope with challenging objectives, changing weather patterns and enjoy beautiful vistas, sunsets, moonlight, and more.
Another difference between the two titles is, of course, the price. While RollerCoaster Tycoon 4 Mobile was freemium, today’s new title will set you back $4.99.
If you even remotely care about sending the message that fans want quality titles rather than cheap cash-ins, though, it’s worth it for that alone.
Not to mention that the game itself is pretty darn great.
Source: iTunes
Via: Touch Arcade
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
4 responses to “Hold on tight! RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 lands on iOS”
This is great news! However I would still love to see Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 as well. To me it’s the best title in the franchise.
Not in the US yet
It is available in the U.S. It is just way down the page after all the free garbage games.
Great news, thanks to sharing…