RollerCoaster Tycoon Heading for 3DS

Here at GLHQ, many of us love our management games, and what better title than that candy floss wrangling, guest drowning amusement park sim, RollerCoaster Tycoon?  Yes, some of the Werthers generation among us still love and play the original, crashing coasters, dropping whinging guests into the lake, and hiking up the prices of umbrellas whenever it rains.  So, we were naturally excited when news rolled in of our fave park sim heading for Ninty’s eye-squinty handheld, the 3DS.

That’s right, Atari are bringing the 12 year old PC franchise kicking and screaming onto the current gen of handhelds, with RollerCoaster Tycoon 3D.  The handheld release promises ‘complete creative freedom with intuitive and streamline controls’, and a deep coaster construction system of the sort that made the original so popular, allowing players to let loose the dogs of imagination with some truly gut-twisting rides.  The DS touchscreen functionality will come into play here, seemingly made for such things, although some of us remain sceptical at how responsive it will be for some of the more complex elements of track building.

Of course, it isn’t all about how many guests you can make puke with your coaster from hell, it is about park managements as much as anything else, from the smaller rides, to the gift shops and concession stands and the 3DS version will allegedly distill this essence into handeld form.  Atari are also promising a Coaster Story mode, whereby the player picks a character and sets off with a pocket full of change to expand their park, unlocking extras and amenities as they go.  However, if you couldn’t give a lollypop stick joke about such things, then the sandbox mode will please you, jumping into the open ended style of gameplay and sparing no expense.

Set for a 2012 release, RollerCoaster Tycoon 3D has great potential on a system, as with its normal predecessor, that is made for management sims, but which sadly  lacks them.

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