Customer Reviews

RollerCoaster Tycoon 2: Wacky Worlds Expansion Pack

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

With this expansion, Roller Coaster Tycoon is getting into questionable territories.

1) The so called "new rides" are actually rides you already have, just with different cars. And the cars is breaking the game away from its realistic nature. For example, you can have "Football" vehicles on your roller coaster. These corny additions are making the game more like Sim Theme Park - unrealistic.

2) Many of the objects, like trees, now take up four squares instead of one. The look and design is different - making it look like a completely different team put together this expansion.

3) The scenarios greatly limit the number of Scenery Themes you can have in your scenario (many only allow ONE). Thus when trying to place a prebuilt coaster, you'll get the message, "scenery Unavailable for this Design" again and again and again.

4) Many of the prebuilt coasters also say that the car design for the coaster is "unavailable" and therefore could affect performance of the ride. Um... hello??? Why put the prebuilt coaster in there if the cars that go with it are unavailable?

5) There are several new bugs that are introduced with this so called "expansion pack". For one, the clear scenery object no longer works on several trees that you must now manually remove before you can place a ride. On some maps, the scrolling feature is [messed]up, making it so that you can't scroll to certain areas of the park.

6) Another new annoyance and limitation is that on the majority of the scenarios, they don't allow you to use the landscape tool at all! They might as well remove it from the game!

Wacky Worlds is a very disappointing Expansion Pack and if it is an indication of things to come, then the Roller Coaster Tycoon franchise is in a lot of trouble as corny cartoony items replace realism and limitations replace fun. I'm almost to the point where I'd like to see Microsoft's Zoo Tycoon team take over this game because the current makers are doing it no justice.

I was seriously looking forward to this add-on, since I thought there was still so much more they could do with Rollercoaster Tycoon 2. However, this is not an add-on worth the same price as the game itself.

* Chris Sawyer seems to still demand you play the game his way. There is no way to use new designs in old save games that I can find. You're extremely limited in the number of items that can be active on any particular map. There is no reason for this.

* Most (like almost ALL) of the new designs are simply different cars for old vehicle designs. For example, one "new" design is a TGV-themed coaster (TGV is the French bullet train). It's simply the LIM-launched coaster with different looking cars--yet it's marketed as a completely new type of rollercoaster.

* The popular mountain-editing tool is still missing from in-game. You can only use it in the scenario editor.

* Some of the new game elements count for multiple objects against your object limitations. The suspension bridge is a pretty poor take-off on the Golden Gate Bridge. It takes 5 separate object elements to use it--which means there are 5 other objects (walls, flowers, or other things) you can't use.

* The "North America" theme really should be called "USA" theme.

* The manual is horribly underwritten. Things are purposely omitted so you can "discover things on your own"...or buy the strategy guide.

OK - the good news is - this seems to be worth =some= money.

This expansion pack (you will need the original Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 to use this) adds a lot of new scenery like the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, the Eiffel Tower, and other scenery to make parks an international experience. There are almost 20 new scenarios, 50 new ride types, and about 250 new game elements, mostly scenery.

OK - the bad news is - I don't think it's worth the current price of admission.

A lot of the "new rides" are just re-designs of old coasters. There's no new stores or other new goodies. Still only the Scenario Editor allows you to use the mountain maker. Many of the new scenery elements take up a lot of slots on the scenario editor. For instance, the "Golden Gate Bridge" needs five (5) slots - thus taking up room that could be used for other park scenery.

With this coming out so soon after RCT2, I can't help but ask if this was just a way to squeeze more dollars out of RCT fans. I would have been much happier if these "extras" had been included with the RCT2 first disc. Sure, we might have had to wait a little longer for RCT2, but we would have gotten a much more developed product. This "extra" pack had to have already either been in development or already totally developed for the short time between RCT2 and the first expansion pack release date.

I'll be watching carefully for any future RCT2 releases within a year - and see if they might include "Wacky Worlds" as an extra feature, just as they did with RCT1's "Loopy Landscapes" (which also included the add-ons from RCT1's "Corkscrew Follies"). Those who want to save money might want to wait till the end of the year, when either a third disc (with this second disc included) might be released, or the prices come down as they do for all video games.

Recommended, but only for Roller Coaster Tycoon purists.

This is just wrong! When the original RollerCoaster Tycoon game came out years ago - THAT was a smash; the new RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 : Wacky Worlds Expansion Pack - ? - that's a bunch of [hooey]!

The new "more than 50 rides" available in this expansion pack are merely different train styles or track substitutions. I think there's five different versions of the same rollercoaster - but they're different only because the cars are different designs. Chris Sawyer and Infogrames Interactive need to understand that taking an old ride, polishing up the cars and slapping a new name on it - does not make it NEW! Now if the box said "50 new car designs" then I would have known beforehand and wouldn't have wasted [money] on this wasted bulk.

And that's not all, the "wacky" themes are pretty bland and not creative at all. Sure, it's clever in some surreal way, but it loses it's appeal five minutes after initial game launch. If I'm sick of it after five minutes, I doubt I'll want to finish off the 17 new scenarios in this expansion pack.

The four things Chris Sawyer does not take into consideration for RollerCoaster Tycoon are. . .

(1) Scenario Editor. When using the scenario editor you are limited to the number of objects you can select - that needs to go. You should be able to use ALL of the objects and have a completely dynamic palette for constructing your park and not worry about skipping some options and hope not to regret it when you can't find the tool upon creation of your park. There is no limit to creativity, so don't limit our options. Simple as that.

(2) Map size. It's understandable that some people play this game just to pass the scenarios and feel like they accomplished something with their day, but I like to create my own parks - and sometimes the map size constraints don't make it too easy. Trust me, guys, in some cases, size DOES matter.

(3) Design. RollerCoaster Tycoon has come a long way since its original release years ago, but the element of design in the rollercoasters isn't exactly realistic. Game-wise it's okay to obtain context-sensitive "ratings" on your rollercoasters - but come on! - some of them are so unrealistic that sometimes you can't help but wonder if you should build a rollercoaster with one hill and the station brakes just to get people to attempt riding it. How many people go to a park and say "Rollercoaster 1 looks too intense for me!"? I know I don't. There should be an option to turn ride ratings OFF.

(4) Rollercoaster Design. If you've ever played NoLimits Rollercoaster Simulator for the PC, you'll know what I'm talking about. Now THAT'S rollercoaster design. If you guys just implemented some of the design capabilities from that program into RCT, there'd be one less problem. Rollercoasters curve - and are most often free-form - they aren't rigid and boring in appearance - there is a continuous smooth curve to them. That needs to be touched up.

Sometimes it just feels like we are restricted to play this game a certain way - and no other way for that matter. I don't want to feel like a prisoner - creative freedom is much more liberating.

Expansion packs are supposed to make the game BETTER. Add all the car designs you want; add 50 more themes; it doesn't make a difference. You can't mask these elements from the game by marketing new installments just to cover up the above things you fail to direct your attention to.

To wrap it up. . .don't waste your money. . .consider P2P.

RollerCoaster Tycoon is probably the best amusement park simulator game out there. The add-ons, Corkscrew Follies and Loopy Landscapes were great additions to the game. Then came the sequal, RollerCoaster Tycoon 2. It was between good and bad, but for the most part, good. Now, RollerCoaster Tycoon 2: Wacky Worlds. I hope none of you waste your time and money on this piece of [garbage]. It is by far the worst add-on for the RollerCoaster Tycoon series. Everyone wanted newer flat-rides, and they gave them to us, but they were just the same ride with different theming on it, like tea cups and cars and such. There were no new roller coasters or any new rides. They were all just modified from the oens in the original first two games. The worst part though would have to be the scenery objects... Some of them could be useful at times. I really think that the new scenery pieces look horrible and don't look anything like the original game's scenery. You can tell that the creator of the game, Chris Sawyer, had no part in this game... Hopefully, he will in the Time Twisters Expansion Pack. That game sounds un-[romising too...

So, I advise anyone not to buy this game, but go and buy RollerCoaster Tycoon 1 and 2 with the add-on packs, Corkscrew Follies and Loopy Landscapes.

First of all, this does not work or play like the RCT 1 expansion packs. All it does is fill your RCT2 directories with new stuff, and you use your original RCT2 disc to play it.

Secondly, of all of the "new" roller coasters, I have yet to find one that is not simply an old roller coaster type with new cars or scenery for that Scenario, and if you want to use the Asian roller coasters (for example) in ANY OTHER PARK, forget it; the game doesn't let you mix and match.

Thirdly, of all of the "new" (slightly revamped) coasters available, none of them come with pre-designed tracks that I have found. I don't enjoy building my own tracks, but if I want to use any of these new coasters I am forced to build my own.

Finally, of all of the neat things that they could have done to enhance the Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 experience that we all enjoy, this falls very very short for the money that they are asking for it. (When are those of us with expensive graphics cards ever going to be able to ride our rides?)

I bought this expansion thinking that it would be great. I was somewhat wrong, but somethings I thouight were quite nice. The scenery is beautific in this game, but there are no "new" rides. They're just recreations of older rides with new cars. Some of the new cars were in my imagination, like the "bullet" coaster, or the "TGV". However, some of them I thought were pretty rediculous. The sloth, gorlilla, koala, etc... I say are pretty dumb. I mean, who wants any of those in a street racing park like mine? Not me. Also, I'd like one new coaster: A strata-launch coaster. I uninstalled it yeseterday, probably because some the new rides don't fit my street racing park. My advice: try at a friend's house first, and see if you like it.

The expansion is nothign but a collection of very very poor scenery items. Nearly all of the items are not to scale with the game and they do not fit with the artistic style. There are no new rides, contrary to what they say, there are only new cars for your existing rides. And while that may sound good, only a few are actually enjoyable. This expansion is the worst of the worst. Avoid it at all costs unless you hate having an extra ($)

This is without a doubt the worst RC Tycoon installment, I was happy with the scenery but the stupid and idiotice new rides, and the ride trains, you take the arrow suspended, a nice decent coaster, and turn the trains into swinging monkeys! What the... I am into tycoon to build parks for realism not ignorance, I guess the creators must have had some debt to pay off or else Chris Sawyer wouldnt have let this ... get released!

MY FINAL WARNING!!! DO NOT BUY THIS GAME!!!

This game screwed up my roller coaster tycoon 2 and I can no longer play the game that I just love. It was a sweet game until I installed wacky worlds.