Roller coaster and theme park enthusiasts have some options when it comes to building the parks of their dreams on mobile. RollerCaster Tycoon Classic is a pretty faithful recreation of the first two PC games, complete (for better or worse) with decidedly old school graphics. For a more updated spin, Atari has also released RollerCoaster Tycoon Touch, designed to marry some of the original gameplay with modern systems.
It succeeds for the most part, at least in the sense that you feel like you are building an amusement park and catering to the guests’ desires while watching the bottom line. The graphics got a big kick in the pants, and there’s no question that it is very much “of the moment” in the way that it manages your time and gameplay sessions.
Conclusion - Excellent Modern Version of Rollercoaster Tycoon Overall, this game is simply great. RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 is easy to play and the graphics are phenomenal. The new features like the fireworks show builder as well as the water parks are perfect additions to the original version—not departing too far from what makes the game great. R/RCTTouch: Tips, tricks, and general discussion of Roller Coaster Tycoon Touch. Press J to jump to the feed. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Log in sign up. User account menu. Can’t get the last few percent on Like Ants scenario! (I’ve tried moving epic to front, so much is.
You can be the judge when it comes to the merits of those changes. What we’re here to do is provide some RollerCoaster Tycoon Touch Tips, Cheats and Strategies to help maximize your park-building acumen and make the cryogenically preserved body of Walt Disney blue with envy at your vision (blue instead of green since he’s frozen). Let’s get our tycoon on.
Bigger is Better
Where the original RollerCoaster Tycoon games generally presented you with scenarios that tested your ability to fulfill certain objectives in a specific amount of time, Touch has no such time constraints. Your goal is simply to have the most impressive park possible, zoning regulations be damned, we assume.
That doesn’t mean you can just build willy-nilly. Just like its predecessors left you at the mercy of your research department when it came to what rides or attractions you could construct next, the gods of randomness are present in the form of card packs. Each time you open a pack, you’ll either get a new card, opening up that item for construction, or cards for rides, stores and scenery you already have. Obtain enough duplicates and you can level up that attraction, increasing its usefulness to your park.
BONUS TIP: You can often build several of the same ride or store if desired. Look at the number on the left-hand side of any card and you’ll see how many copies of that structure you currently have in your park and the maximum number allowed — which can be increased at times by leveling up the card.
The park visitors, or Peeps, can also help guide you in the right direction when it comes to what to build next. If you tap on the smiley (hopefully) icon at the top of the main game screen, you’ll get a graph of the Peeps’ average satisfaction that has three bars: Fun, Food and Hygiene. While everything you build affects these scores in some way, a general way to look at them can be expressed pretty simply:
- If your Fun is low, build more rides.
- If your Food is low, build more restaurants.
- If your Hygiene is low, build more bathrooms — and if you’re maxed out on those, you might want to consider leveling up cards specifically to lower their Nausea ratings since that helps keep Hygiene high.
BONUS TIP: While you’re going big, you’re eventually going to run out of space. Starting at level 10, you can purchase park expansions off on the perimeters of your land just by tapping on them and paying the (fairly significant) amount of coins. A new expansion will open up for you every few levels.
Coins are Key
There’s no overstating how important coins are to RollerCoaster Tycoon Touch. Literally everything you want to do requires coins, and you don’t earn them all that quickly in the early stages of the game.
To build a new ride or attraction or lay down a new piece of scenery, you need not only the proper card but also the required number of coins. The same is true when you’re looking to upgrade anything. You’re going to run out of coins and find yourself unable to do anything at times. It’s just the reality of life as a tycoon.
There are some ways you can earn coins faster. Everything in the park, from the front gate to the shops (not bathrooms, though if memory serves you could charge guests to use them in the original RollerCoaster Tycoon games) has an adjustable ticket price for the Peeps. Just tap on an attraction and then tap on the price tag icon and you can use the slider to set the current price. Pay heed to the feedback about whether peeps find it to be too expensive. A good rule of thumb is to set it as high as possible while still falling in the ‘Good Value’ range.
Since this is a free-to-play game, you can also buy coins. Just tap on your coin balance at the top of the screen and you’ll see your options, and as with most F2P titles, it’s probably a smart move to wait for a special offer if you’re going to take the paid plunge.
BONUS TIP: Real life logic applies to what Peeps are willing to pay just to set foot in your theme park masterpiece. As you add more attractions, you’ll find that the Park Entrance price can be adjusted upward without it having a negative effect on guests’ attitudes — and you definitely should whenever possible.
Save Your Tickets
Tickets are the premium currency in RollerCoaster Tycoon Touch, and as such, are pretty valuable. You won’t earn them as often or in the same quantities as coins, and they should be carefully stockpiled as a result.
At launch, tickets can be used right away for two purposes: completing missions instantly and buying more packs of cards. The first use is really only something to consider if you desperately need experience points to level up or coins in a hurry, depending on the mission reward in question. More often, you should be saving your tickets for card packs.
Spending 10 tickets on a Folder of Cards is tempting since you can earn that many tickets quickly by turning in missions or knocking out achievements. It’s just that the Binder of Cards is a better value: 38 cards for 35 tickets. That’s the way to go whenever possible.
One extra way to earn tickets is by tapping on the ‘Offers’ button in the store and checking out what Tapjoy has in store. You’ve probably encountered Tapjoy while playing other mobile games, but just in case, it often asks you to spend money on products or services to get some in-game currency in return, so be forewarned.
BONUS TIP: After you’ve played for a while, you’ll unlock the ability to promote your park, driving in more Peeps using the bullhorn icon in the bottom-right corner. For 25 tickets, you can get a 15 percent attendance boost for 12 hours, which isn’t that bad. However, you can also get a 5 percent boost for three hours simply by watching a video. That seems like the better play in most circumstances.
Design Your Own Thrills
One of the cooler features of RollerCoaster Tycoon Touch, even in a relatively limited form, is the ability to design your own roller coasters. It’s not quite as intuitive as constructing and placing everything else in your park, but it does offer you an impressive amount of control given the overall simplicity of the game.
To build a coaster, you’ll first need one of all four kinds of basic cards: station, train, tracks and chain lift. There are seven types of coasters in all, each with their own additional feature cards, but they all share the four basics.
Construction begins by placing the station and making sure you have plenty of room to lay out the track. You can manage the elevation of different parts of the track so that it goes over existing attractions, but until you get the hang of it, the easiest thing to do is to build near the back of your land or in a freshly opened expansion.
Inside the build menu, you lay out track by simply dragging out your finger from the station or the last node. At each node, you have the following options:
- Slide the track around on the X and Y axes.
- Change the elevation of the track, moving it up or down.
- Tilting the track left or right, as you would to bank the turns.
Any or all of those options can be performed at each node. Then you simply build out to the next one. If applicable, you can also tap the ‘Add Special’ icon to throw in a loop, spiral or other fancy track section, though there might be some prerequisites to doing so. For example, you can’t add the ‘Wooden Helix Down’ special card to the wooden coaster unless your track is already high enough off the ground at that node to accommodate it.
Special elements are great for raising the Intensity and Excitement ratings of a coaster, so don’t hesitate to use them when possible. Also, keep in mind that each basic and special card in a coaster can be leveled up separately, giving you some options on how to boost its performance and desirability to the Peeps.
BONUS TIP: Want to build a longer coaster with more nodes and elements? You’ll want to level up the tracks card, as that will give you a length bonus and allow you to add more.
Business doesn’t always have to be serious. Business can be fun. Also, business usually has a tight set of rules and revolves around resource allocation. So in a way, business in the real world already is a sort of game. But if you want to play that game, it’s actually much easier to just turn on your PC and play one of the many great business tycoon simulations out there.
Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 Scenarios
There is a special flavor for everyone. Historical business simulation? Done. Present day urban planning? Got it. Science fiction space station businesses? Yeah why not.
This is a very PC eccentric genre, there are few ports on consoles that are above anything but “passable”. Interestingly enough though, it seems mobile touch devices see the most innovative new entries here, leading to a small renaissance of a genre that was in a steady decline into obscurity for years now.
Honorable Mention
Satisfactory
- Developer: Coffee Stain
- Publisher: Coffee Stain
- Platforms: PC
- Release: Early Access March 2019
Currently available through early access at the time of writing this, Satisfactory is a unique look at factory building tycoon. Players are dropped into an alien planet and with just a few tools. Your job is simple, go around the planet, craft resources and construct a complex factory for your employer. As you gather more resources, you’ll be able to upgrade and build up your factory, but you’ll have to deal with the hostile aliens that inhabit the world. The game has already become a hit and it’s yet to fully launch.
Despite being in early access, there are updates going into the game with the latest tossing in new locomotive transportation units to even the addition of nuclear power sources. Outside of content, the developers have also been working on the actual environment locations as well such as tweaking the biomes to make it fleshed out in comparison to the other parts of the in-game world. Once this game does come out of early access, the developers plan to feature even more machines, resources, landmarks, creatures, mod support, and even a full narrative. So if you’re feeling that the game is lacking at the moment in any particular area, it should be rather full upon its release. Since this game is not fully out yet, we won’t rank it officially on this list, but instead make it an honorable mention.
Zoo Tycoon Series
- Developer: Blue Fang Games, Frontier Developments, Behaviour Interactive
- Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
- Platforms: PC, X360, XBO
- Release: 2001-2017
Main Games
- Zoo Tycoon
- Zoo Tycoon 2
- Zoo Tycoon (2013)
- Zoo Tycoon: Ultimate Animal Collection
The Zoo Tycoon series has a number of installments available across a variety of platforms. Initially, the game came into fruition in 2001 by development studio Blue Fang Games. Players are given the lead position when it comes to a functioning zoo. This means that players are constructing the design of the zoo, what animals are on display, businesses available within the zoo location along with other entertainment for its guests.
Throughout the game players are juggling maintenance of the zoo along with turning a profit which may mean listening to guests interests at the zoo and their dislikes. Over the years, the game series has exchanged different development studios but the games continued to follow the same overall groundwork that Blue Fang Games laid with the first installment.
As it stands right now, Frontier Developments released the last main installment to the series, with Zoo Tycoon, a reboot of the original video game title. This title released in 2013 for the Xbox One and Xbox 360 platforms and while both held the same overall mechanics that fans of the series is familiar with, there was a campaign mode that offered players a variety of challenges.
With that said if you’re looking to enjoy the classic main Zoo Tycoon titles and their various expansion packs then you’ll want to look at Zoo Tycoon: Ultimate Animal Collection which launched in 2017 for the Xbox One and PC platforms. This collection included the first two Zoo Tycoon games along with their expansion packs while also including a few new animals and HDR 4K resolution.
#15 Jurassic World Evolution
- Developer: Frontier Developments
- Publisher: Frontier Developments
- Platforms: PC, PS4, XBO
- Release: June 12, 2018
If you enjoy building up parks and attractions while managing the business side of things then you’ll want to check out Jurassic World Evolution. The video game was also developed by Frontier Developments who had worked on other beloved tycoon franchises such as RollerCoaster Tycoon and Zoo Tycoon.
With this release, players are put in control of building their own Jurassic Park where you’ll manage the design while managing the business when it comes to bringing guests back to the Jurassic age.
Likewise, there will be a section based around developing new creatures, similar to the story of Jurassic World. Unfortunately, if you enjoy the more in-depth city building and managing titles put out into the market then you might find this game to be a bit disappointing but on the flip side, if you find some of the more popular city builder and simulation games to be too overwhelming then we suggest giving this game a try.
#14 Tropico 6
- Developer: Limbic Entertainment
- Publisher: Kalypso Media
- Platforms: PC, PS4, XBO
- Release: March 29, 2019
Tropico received a new installment in 2019 and if you played past installments then you’ll be rather familiar with Tropico 6. This is a series where players take on the role of a leader, known as El Presidente, who is in control of a Caribbean island. Being the leader you’ll have control over a variety of aspects that range from political situations, laws, and overall management to the island itself. Now as done previously, gamers will be taking control of the island over a course of four eras, but depending on how you handle various situations will determine if your island flourishes or if you’ll end up dealing with a revolt.
#13 Surviving Mars
- Developer: Haemimont Games
- Publisher: Paradox Interactive
- Platforms: PC, PS4, XBO
- Release: March 15, 2018
Within Surviving Mars players will be on the cold red planet where their sole goal is to manage and oversee the colonization of the new world. Of course, there will be some challenges that will come up giving players some tough obstacles to pass through.
This is a city-builder type game as well where players will have to build up their colony and gather resources to maintain their colonization. As a result, the game will have a bit of a strategy element to the gameplay.
#12 RollerCoaster Tycoon Series
- Developer: Chris Sawyer Productions, Frontier Developments, n-Space, On5, Nvizzio Creations
- Publisher: Hasbro Interactive, Infogames, Atari
- Platforms: PC, Xbox, iOS
- Release: 1999 – 2016
Main Games
- RollerCoaster Tycoon
- RollerCoaster Tycoon 2
- RollerCoaster Tycoon 3
- RollerCoaster Tycoon World
The RollerCoaster Tycoon series plays out much like Zoo Tycoon. Players are in control of a theme park where they must design the layout, hire employees, bring in businesses and maintain the various rides. Essentially, instead of animals like Zoo Tycoon, you’re swapping them out for amusement park rides while still maintaining the behind-the-scenes ventures that goes into managing a business and keeping operations running smoothly.
RollerCoaster Tycoon also was an IP that exchanged hands across a few different development studios where it originated by Christ Sawyer Productions back in 1999 but even with the games being tossed around different development studios, the overall goal and mechanics are intact. For instance, the latest main video game release, RollerCoaster Tycoon World launched in 2016 where again players are building up rides, shops and managing the par while tweaking the visuals for the latest PC platform components.
This franchise is not slowing down as Atari made note of other installments that is currently in the works such as RollerCoaster Tycoon for the Nintendo Switch.
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