RollerCoaster Tycoon: Loopy Landscapes

"Simple, yet amazingly addictive"

Roller Coaster Tycoon is a game that lets you make an amusement park and manage it. You will build various coasters, hire and manage staff, and try your very best to make your customers happy (or not).

Loopy Landscapes is the second expansion that includes the first one, Corkscrew Follies. With this expansion, you get more coaster designs, a lot more scenarios, more different decorations and scenery.

Pros
+ Good simple graphics that won't lag your computer
+ Addictive gameplay
+ Many many scenarios for endless replay ability.
+ Very good compatibility with all kinds of computers

Cons
- Sound may lag your computer
- Graphics are sometimes very glitchy

Gameplay - 10/10
Each guest has some money and some stats (hunger, thirst, happiness, etc.). They also have a preferred intensity. This is the range of intensity of a roller coaster they will go on. (Read below)

You can make ads to help you out with your money making. You can research fro new types of rides, coasters, and shops. You can manage your finances and lend or pay back money for loans. You can put up scenery in your park (trees, statues, gardens, etc.) to spruce it up a bit and make people happy as well. Make coasters with tunnels, with loops, with twists, with winding turns and death defying drops. The possibilities are endless...

There are so many complicated elements when designing your own roller coaster in this game. You can opt to build a coaster that's already been designed for you, but the better choice would be to make one yourself. Each coaster has an excitement, intensity, and nausea rating. Excitement will draw your customers to this coaster. Intensity affects who will want to or not want to go on this coaster. Nausea affects how much puke you get in your park. Each rating affects the other two. You have to design a coaster that has a high excitement so there will be more customers, a mediocre intensity so that people will be able to go on it, and a fairly low nausea rating so your park won't be a complete mess. This is a lot more challenging than it sounds. Designing a coaster and seeing the ratings of it, even without all the other stuff about the guests and the park and the money, can be fun just by itself.

Sound - 9/10
The music is nice and very suitable for an amusement park. The people's screams and yips of glee are heard perfectly. However, for some computers, the sound does lag the game and make everythin a bit choppy, but this problem can easily be solved by simply pressing the mute button which is always available in the game.

Graphics - 7/10
The graphics are very simply done, but masterfully done. With just a little bit of three dimensional figures, nice animations, and detail visuals, the graphics will never lag your computer. Very nice. What I hate about the graphics though, is that some sprites are very very glitchy. Some are even invisible.

Replay Ability - 9/10
There are plenty of scenarios for you to complete. With the Loopy Landscapes expansion, there are dozens and dozens of fun and challenging scenarios for you to complete. Once you complete a scenario, you can still continue to develop that park and make more money and better coasters.

Controls - 9/10
This game has a very simple and easy to use system to build coasters, roads, bridges, whatever. Click here and click there, that's it. There are also plenty of hot keys for whenever you want to be lazy.

Overall - 9/10
A terrific game. Simple graphics, and a deep complicated gameplay, and a feeling of triumph when you beat a scenario.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/01/04