Rollercoaster design is an aspect of physics that nearly everyone enjoys. Testing a coaster in anticipation to see if the train has enough momentum to reach the peak of the next hill is very much a case of trial and error for those without good knowledge of how potential and kinetic energies work together. Chris Sawyer's Rollercoaster Tycoon served as a great simulation, both as a management sim and as a fun coaster design programme, and its successor ensures players of the original get thei ... more >>

Rollercoaster design is an aspect of physics that nearly everyone enjoys. Testing a coaster in anticipation to see if the train has enough momentum to reach the peak of the next hill is very much a case of trial and error for those without good knowledge of how potential and kinetic energies work together. Chris Sawyer's Rollercoaster Tycoon served as a great simulation, both as a management sim and as a fun coaster design programme, and its successor ensures players of the original get their annual dosage of virtual adrenaline in Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 for PC.

With coaster design progressing on a day-to-day basis, Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 (RCT2) comes with the latest state-of-the-art coaster designs and elements from the past couple of years. These include Intamin's infamous giga-coaster, Arrow Dynamics' 4D coasters, the best coasters from industry innovators, B & M (manufacturers of Alton Towers' Nemesis, Oblivion and AIR) and the financially-troubled Vekoma.

Creating a monstrous network of steel, your role as park manager is to create something extreme and fun, but also to ensure potential customers aren't intimidated and too frightened to ride any of your designs. If you're not too comfortable designing a coaster yourself, you are free to choose from dozens of default designs.

But all of the above is only possible if you have the funds. A good, sustainable cashflow can only be achieved through keeping existing customers happy and enticing new ones through advertising. This is a management game after all, and keeping the punters content isn't as easy as it might sound. Accommodating their every need, you must provide food and drink outlets, toilets, souvenir shops, umbrella stalls for those rainy days, litter bins, and even benches for those that can't handle the park's twists and turns. You even have to recruit cleaning, security, maintenance and engineering staff to keep your park in working order. The last thing you need is a fatal coaster accident.

There's a great deal of fun to be had in RCT2, which helps its players explore their imagination, creativity and flair for coaster design as well as improving management skills, albeit in a virtual sense. Overall, a worthwhile update to a fantastic game. << less