Rollercoaster Tycoon, published by MicroProse, is an addicting and engrossing "God game" in the same vein as "SimCity", but with a unique twist. Instead of building cities as in the Maxis classic, in "Tycoon" your task is arguably more daunting: design an amusement park using a variety of paths, shrubs, stores, fast food joints, and of course -- rides, set the admission price, throw open the doors, and watch what happens. Of course, maintaining a successful park is certainly easier said than done, and along the way you'll need to deal with everything from funding research and development for new rides, to hiring park personnel and assigning them to specific areas of the park. All of this while at the same time figuring out how to draw more visitors while dealing with dwindling capital and increasing costs.
That's just the tip of the iceberg; indeed, Rollercoaster Tycoon is a complicated simulation (though it's cartoony graphics make it seem otherwise) and definitely not an easy game to master -- while it is a fairly simple task to get a functional park up and running, you'll soon find yourself grasping with problems like broken-down rides and vomit on sidewalks (due to the excessive speed of said rides). Planning ahead is a requirement for success -- most likely it will take a few botched attempts before you get it right. Personally, I kept boxing myself in by placing rides too close together, requiring my visitors to squeeze together on a small path to get to different areas of the park.
With a simulation/strategy game like Rollercoaster Tycoon, nothing can bring down the overall enjoyment like a bad interface. Fortunately, the designers obviously spent some time on this facet of Rollercoaster Tycoon, and as a result, most players will find it simple to perform the tasks that are required during the daily operation of your amusement park. Almost totally icon based, a series of buttons along the top of the screen gives you quick access to all the major park functions. The interface also features pop-up and floating windows that can be opened individually and moved around the screen to give you a "heads-up" on various sections of your park. A status bar along the bottom of the screen lets you know how much money is in the bank, the current temperature, and a center section that displays important statistics about the park and special instructions or tips.
