RollerCoaster Tycoon World finds itself in the unenviable position of launching on Steam Early Access after a string of exceptionally poor Atari releases, all resurrected and once beloved franchises, like Alone in the Dark, that don’t remotely stack up to their originals. And one of the worst offenders was the mobile version of this very game: a mess of an app, heavy with microtransactions, and best avoided.
If you're on the lookout for more management sims, check out our list of the best strategy games on PC.
RollerCoaster Tycoon World is a very different beast, however, and the only similarities between this and the mobile game is the name. This is a fully-fledged PC title with a great deal of customisation, zero microtransactions, and is worlds away from the cynical cash-in that the RollerCoaster Tycoon Mobile proved to be. Yet there remains a lot of room for improvement.
If you spent the late ‘90s and early 2000s in a joyless, coaster-less nightmare, here’s the skinny: the RollerCoaster Tycoon series, originally developed by Chris Sawyer and MicroProse until the reins were handed to Frontier Developments of Elite: Dangerous fame (they’re now working on the competition, Planet Coaster), gives you control over an entire theme park. Mess around with the budget, provide services for customers, build new attractions and, most importantly, construct elaborate rollercoasters.