Theme Park Roller Coaster - PlayStation 2

At its core, this game is an updated version of Sim Theme Park for the PC. In fact, it should become obvious moments after you plug this game into your PS2 that this title has 'PC port' written all over it. For some, this will be heralded as good news, as Theme Park Roller Coaster is unlike nearly any other game ever published for a video game console. The game, using an unnamed mascot, nicely guides you through your very first park. The mascot tells you how to get golden tickets, which you'll use to get into other parks with different themes, such as Halloween, space, and dinosaur ages. The menus are a little convoluted, and the loading time for a park approaches one minute, but once inside you get access to that park's attractions. Once you've set down an attraction's layout, you can then ride on it in first-person 3-D--an experience that is just about as vertigo inducing as its real-life counterpart. There is even variety in the roller coasters available: hanging steel, wood coasters, and even water rides. The name Theme Park Roller Coaster implies that you'll spend most of your time designing and riding these roller coasters. Unfortunately, the game has more insane micromanagement features than SimBureaucrat. Every stage has at least three goals. The first is to stay in business for a specified period of time. The second is to make a certain amount of money within a year. The third is to get a certain amount of people to visit. But if you are a roller coaster buff, or you enjoy the business simulation aspects of games like these, you'll want to add this game to your PS2 collection. --Todd Mowatt Pros: Offers up something different for console gamers Creating and riding your own roller coaster in first-p