Atari's crowdfunded RollerCoaster Tycoon for Switch launches in two weeks
Loopy.
Once-beloved theme park management series RollerCoaster Tycoon will launch for Nintendo Switch on 29th November, in the guise of RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures.
(North American friends, for some reason this is 13th December for you.)
Cast your mind back to January this year and you'll remember RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures as the controversial Switch project Atari took crowdfunding money to develop.
Atari's decision to ask fans for cash (and a lot of it - $250 minimum in return for some of the game's possible eventual profit) went down like a lead balloon. Why did big publisher Atari need the money? Why was the game's development being led by mobile game developer Nvizzio? Why did Atari say it might use some of the funds for other things?
Today's announcement answers none of those things, and after re-reading our story from earlier in the year I noticed the game's crowdfunding page and pitch video have now been pulled from the internet. Hmm!
Anyway, here's the trailer:
Originally created in 1999 by Chris Sawyer, the first couple of RollerCoaster Tycoon games still rank as some of the best sims ever made. But, more recently, the series' good name has been dragged through the dirt.
Atari's 2014 RollerCoaster Tycoon 4 Mobile earned a historic 1/10 back when Eurogamer still doled out review scores, while its 2016 PC followup RollerCoaster Tycoon World earned an Avoid warning. The more recent mobile game RollerCoaster Tycoon Touch - also developed by Nvizzio - is supposed to be slightly better. "Easily the best RollerCoaster Tycoon experience since RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 was released back in 2004," one reviewer quoted on the game's App Store listing notes, which is faint praise indeed. Here's hoping RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures turns out better.