Rollercoaster Tycoon Classic Switch 2 Edition Review

Rollercoaster Tycoon Classic Switch 2 Edition Review
Version Reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2

Let’s wind the clock back to December 2024, when I first got to experience RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic on Nintendo Switch. I remember opening that review by talking about how we could barely keep RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 on the shelves during my time at EB Games. After finally spending time with the collection myself, I completely understood why it had become such a beloved classic. Fast forward to today, and RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic has received a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition. For the sake of newcomers, and to see how much the new features improve the experience, it’s time to revisit this classic collection with a fresh review. Do I still enjoy the thrills of building the ultimate theme park, or is it finally time to get off the ride? What’s it like? Purchase your ticket, stock up on junk food, and you need to be this tall to ride as we review RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic for Nintendo Switch 2.

RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic combines RollerCoaster Tycoon and RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 into a single package, offering countless hours of theme park management. It should be noted that some of the real-world parks from the original releases are absent, most likely due to licensing restrictions. Thankfully, the range of Six Flags parks remains intact. Across dozens of scenarios, you’re tasked with building, developing, and most importantly, turning a profit while managing a theme park. That means constructing rides, hiring and managing staff, setting prices for food and merchandise, and carefully planning almost every aspect of your park. Despite the game’s age, you’re really only limited by your imagination, with an incredibly robust toolkit that lets you create all manner of rides and roller coasters.

Park management is so much more than slapping a few rides down and calling it a day. You’ll need to balance profitability with guest happiness by maintaining a safe and clean park, while also carefully considering the placement of bins, benches, restrooms, and other facilities to keep visitors happy and reduce the workload on your staff. On top of that, you’ll manage a research budget to unlock new attractions, giving guests more reasons to visit and helping your park continue to grow. Of course, no RollerCoaster Tycoon would be complete without designing your own coasters, and this is where the game truly shines. The construction toolkit gives you an incredible amount of freedom to create everything from gentle family attractions to terrifying thrill rides packed with loops, corkscrews, and steep drops. Every design is judged on its Excitement, Intensity, and Nausea ratings, so creating the ultimate coaster is about much more than making it as fast or as extreme as possible. Finding that perfect balance is immensely satisfying, and seeing guests line up for a ride you’ve built from the ground up never loses its appeal.

This is where the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition’s standout feature comes into play: Joy-Con 2 mouse controls. The original Switch version featured an impressively well-optimised controller scheme, but mouse support brings the experience much closer to the PC version. Building paths, placing scenery, adjusting terrain, and fine-tuning roller coasters all feel faster and far more precise. After shaking the cobwebs off my park-building skills, I was constructing parks at nearly three times the speed simply because the controls felt so much more natural. In my opinion, mouse support alone is worth the modest upgrade price. Mouse controls also transform the management side of the game. Assigning staff, placing rides, navigating menus, and working through the game’s many spreadsheets is now effortless. It elevates what was already an enjoyable management simulator into an even better experience, making one of the greatest theme park games ever created feel right at home on Nintendo Switch 2.

If designing a roller coaster from scratch sounds a little daunting, RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic has you covered there as well. The game includes a huge selection of pre-built rides and coasters, many complete with themed scenery, allowing you to quickly fill out your park without sacrificing style. As long as you have the space and the budget, you’re only a few clicks away from adding another crowd-pleasing attraction. I think that’s what I love most about RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic. It caters to two very different types of players. If you’re all about maximising profits and completing scenarios as efficiently as possible, there’s plenty here to keep you occupied. On the other hand, if you’re a perfectionist who wants to meticulously craft every corner of your dream park, the creative tools offer almost limitless possibilities. From extensive scenery options and custom signs to placing televisions in queue lines to keep guests entertained while they wait, there are countless little touches that let you make each park feel uniquely your own.

The other Nintendo Switch 2 enhancement is improved resolution. Given the game’s age, the difference is most noticeable in the menus and interface, where text appears sharper and easier to read. The parks themselves also look a little cleaner, although this is very much a minor enhancement rather than a complete visual overhaul. While RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic certainly shows its age by modern standards, the charm of Chris Sawyer’s original vision still shines through. Watching your park in motion is almost like observing a busy ant farm. Guests swarm towards your latest coaster, others are feeling sick after one too many loops, some accidentally let go of their balloons and watch them drift into the sky, while plenty are more than happy to complain about the rubbish you’ve forgotten to clean up. It gives the park a wonderful sense of life, making it feel like a real place rather than just a collection of rides. Players can rotate the camera and zoom in or out to get a better view of the action, making it easy to manage even sprawling parks within the game’s iconic isometric perspective. It’s a visual style that has stood the test of time and would go on to inspire countless management games, including the excellent Two Point series. Despite its age, there’s still something incredibly satisfying about watching your miniature world come to life.

For my theme park moguls looking into accessibility, there aren’t any dedicated accessibility options to speak of. As always, I recommend doing further research to determine whether the game suits your individual accessibility needs.

Now for the real question: is RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic worth the asking price on Nintendo Switch 2? If you already own the original Switch version, the upgrade is fairly modest. Enhanced resolution is a nice bonus, but Joy-Con 2 mouse controls are unquestionably the star of the show. Asking players to pay $7.50 AUD for what is essentially mouse support feels a little cheeky, but after spending time with it, I have to admit it’s worth it. The difference it makes to building parks, designing roller coasters, and navigating the game’s menus is significant enough that I’d happily pay the upgrade price. For newcomers, the value proposition is even stronger. At $45 AUD, you’re getting hundreds of hours of gameplay where the only real limit is your imagination. Whether you’re chasing profits, designing the ultimate thrill ride, or meticulously decorating every corner of your park, there’s an incredible amount of content packed into this collection. Sure, the visuals show their age, but they never get in the way of what remains one of the finest management games ever created.

As I said in my original review, I now understand why we could never keep RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 on the shelves during my time at EB Games. Revisiting this collection on Nintendo Switch 2 has only reinforced that feeling, as great game design doesn’t have an expiry date. Like any great theme park, RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic keeps you coming back for one more ride. The Nintendo Switch 2 Edition doesn’t reinvent the experience, but it smooths out the biggest bump in the track, making Rollercoaster Tycoon Classic even better. If you’ve never stepped through the park gates before, there’s never been a better time to buy a ticket.

So, What’s it Like? Rollercoaster Tycoon Classic is like Theme Park, now with mouse controls.

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