Atari announced in June that RollerCoaster Tycoon 4 Mobile would be making its way to Android this winter. The game company has finally delivered today as they announced the titles availability in a free-to-play fashion. The mobile experience version looks and feels much like its original variants that made their first appearance in 1999. The title is a simulation that gives you the ability to build and create a running theme park. The really fun part about the title is the ability to construct and design your own roller coasters, hence the game’s name. Although, I spent many hours on previous PC versions without ever building my own custom coaster.
RollerCoaster Tycoon 4 is free, but that also means they added in some in-app purchases for Coins and Tickets. Tickets get your rides built faster and as well as allow you to buy specialty coasters, parts, decorations and other various items that can’t be bought with coins. Coins are your more traditional currency for building and expanding. You can earn those through completing objectives and from your various rides and concessions stands earnings.
The good news though is that you can link your park to other devices. This is either done through Google Play Games, if you choose to use it, or through a verification code that you can prompt for through the settings screen. While I enjoy the title, any hardcore work or major expansion is quite a bit easier, at least for me, on a tablet screen. Being linked though, I can make changes and collect funds while I am on the go. This does bring up another issue though. RCT4 is heavily reliant on a data connection to properly play the title. If you have no data connection you are limited to editing coasters and re-organizing where things are placed. They will sync up when you get back in service. This also means you can’t collect any profits while in offline mode either.
RCT4 will be a grinder sim for those that don’t care to spend real cash on in-game currency. While it is still playable, and I think rather enjoyable in short bursts, others who need to be able to play offline and not have to check back in ever few hours to complete something, might find it a bit irritating. It is worth a look if you are a theme park junkie, sim fanatic, or just remember playing the originals and want to take a trip back in your life on your mobile device. Hit the link below to go pick it up.
