Amazon.com Review
SimCoaster may seem to be a brand-new game trying to cash in on the wild popularity of amusement-park simulators, but it is actually the latest version of Bullfrog's successful Sim Theme Park series being served up under a new name. The 3-D graphics have been touched up a bit and heaps of new features have been added, but it retains the basic Theme Park premise of letting players design and manage their own amusement parks. Everything from the packaging to the playful visuals would make one think SimCoaster is a lighthearted software toy, but this time around the game is all business.

Although it is possible to design roller coasters, log flumes, and other amusement-park favorites, the game focuses more on strict park management than creativity. As in similar games, players must hire staff such as gardeners, repairmen, and engineers, but SimCoaster also makes players worry about training these human resources, setting their wages, and even giving them a place to rest. It's not enough to strategically place restrooms throughout the park, but players must remember to build both male and female lavatories. It all adds up to a frustrating level of micromanagement.

If a detailed amusement-business-management sim was exactly what you were looking for, SimCoaster has plenty of other aspects that should help keep your attention. The graphics are good with particularly excellent animation, and it's possible to zoom from an overhead view of the park all the way down to sidewalk level so you can see exactly what the visitors are seeing. You can even ride your coasters in a first-person view. Unfortunately, the sound effects are sorely lacking and the game's music is uninspiring, but the actors who voiced the other park managers you work with and the interactive advisor did an outstanding job. Fans of Sim Theme Park (and the older Theme Park series) will love this update, but those looking to spend more time building rides and simply watching their park work without having to constantly answer to management will be disappointed.--T. Byrl Baker

Pros:

• Colorful, well-animated graphics
• Can ride your own coasters
• Detailed business simulation
• Excellent in-game help and tutorial

• Micromanagement will be a turnoff for Roller Coaster Tycoon fans
• It's difficult to find an ideal camera angle for viewing the park

Amazon.com Product Description
Remain seated and keep your hands on the keyboard at all times--you're about to experience the most gut-wrenching, face-twisting, pulse-pounding roller coasters of all time. That's because you build and ride them in SimCoaster, the ultimate sequel to Sim Theme Park. In SimCoaster you'll create the theme park of your dreams with 200 rides, roller coasters, sideshows, and shops in three distinct themes. Along the way, you'll research new rides, hire a staff, avoid bankruptcy, and progress through 15 challenging levels of play. An easy-to-use interface and stunning 3-D graphics make it fun to create and enjoy the most outrageously exciting rides that anyone has ever seen. There's a new thrill around every corner!

• CD-ROM (January 31, 2023)
• ASIN: B000056KDV
• Average Customer Review: Based on 45 reviews.
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: 5781

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

It's Okay, Apr 30, 2023
Simcoaster is pretty much the same as Sim Theme Park, but I don't think it's as good. It seems like you have to worry about stinkbombs, fire lightings, and many behavior problems. This game focuses too much on all the business elements of running a theme park. It doesn't really have to do as much with creating a beatiful theme park that you want to design. It's not like Roller Coaster Tycoon where you mainly focus on building rides and creating a park. It gets overwhelming. You open up new areas of the park and while you try and build new things you have to worry about the old areas of your park, behavior, and staff wages/happiness. At least you get the camcorder view, that's pretty cool, and you have adults and old people who don't enjoy the exciting rides as much, but plants and less exciting things. I'd still play this game, but it's just too overwhelming with all the focus on the less exciting parts of the game. I do like that you have to move up a business ladder and have tasks to accomplish to earn promotions and open up new parks, but alot of them are business-like things.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

SIM COSTER, Feb 4, 2023
I THINK THIS IS A VERY GOOD GAME. THIS TEACHES YOU TO HANDLE MONEY WISELY. RATED E FOR EVERYONE TOO. VERY AWESOME! EXCELLENT PLAYING RULES. I LOVED THIS GAME TOO! I COULD NOT LEAVE IT ALONE. VERY ENTERTAINING. YOU WILL LOVE IT TOO!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Great Game, Jan 2, 2023
some older kids might not like it but if ur like 10 or younger this is a perfect game for you

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

NOT FOR XP, Aug 26, 2023
all the other sim games have been great. but this one is difficult (impossable) to run on windows XP it only works on 95 and 99. very dissapointing.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

no manual and no fun, Jul 19, 2023
bought this, and come not in the originality pack of it, so it depends on who you buy from i guess, because the one i got the case is not the original case and broke, eventhough it said new, anyway, the password just come in the piece of paper rather than original casing in the back of it, very dissapointed the way they handle it, not pro, and after you got it, takes along time before it open, i guess because i have older version computer, than they said read manual, which i couldn't find it anywhere, so that's almost the story of it, besides it totally not like roller coaster it just like cartoon, not real.

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