No classic genre seems to have suffered so much in the free-to-play remake stakes as ‘90s management. Perhaps because Zynga’s most famous work superficially resembles that of Molyneux and Sawyer, Theme Park, Dungeon Keeper and now Rollercoaster Tycoon have all been rejigged lately for phones with Facebook integration and approachable art styles.
A new, numbered Rollercoaster Tycoon game was announced for mobile last week, and didn’t fill our happiness meters with hope. But Atari say its PC version will cater to our taste for “different sorts of things”.
“We can’t share that much, but [PC] will definitely be a completely different game,” Atari marketing man Anthony Chien told Digital Spy.
“There’s a lot of diehard RC fans that want a PC experience, they want all different sorts of things.”
Atari are “trying to deliver as much as we can”. But work on the PC version will go on in relative quiet as the publisher promotes Rollercoaster Tycoon 4’s mobile release – their primary concern.
“First is the mobile version, then it’s the PC experience,” said Chien. “I think a lot of people are vocal about wanting to see the PC version first before the mobile, but our strategy is mobile first.”
Lithuanian developers On5 are reportedly working closely with series creator Chris Sawyer for a “consistent vision”.
In the mobile version of Rollercoaster Tycoon 4, players can bypass the building time for new rides and stalls using in-game currency. It’ll do custom rollercoasters and thought bubbles for park guests, but the campaign structure will be dropped in favour of one, persistent park that goes on in real time.
How much of that will translate to the PC? We don’t know. Which bits would you choose to port, given the chance to cherry pick?