While it’s true that your average theme park rollercoaster might leave you wishing you’d brought along a spare pair of underpants, these fearsome contraptions are in reality incredibly safe and rigorously tested.
This doesn’t always apply to the crazy coasters you construct in Rollercoaster Builder, though. Armed with a trusty blowtorch and various sections of track, you’re faced with the arduous task of creating a ride that's both functional and thrilling. Forget that anyone stepping into the carriage is effectively a guinea pig.
The game is divided into five different worlds each comprised of five levels. In each there are starting and a finish points. With the default track selected, you can draw the route your coaster will take with your finger. When you’re happy with the proposed layout, tapping the ‘start’ button will begin the ride.
Unsurprisingly, it rarely goes that smoothly. First off, any collisions or crashes result in failure and you having to start over.
Early levels feature thin air between you and your goal, but later stages have obstacles that you need to avoid. These range from giant dinosaur statues to floating hot-air balloons.
Just getting your adrenaline-junkie passengers from A to B isn’t enough to successfully pass the level. You need to collect special star tokens dotted around each stage as well. Only by running your coaster through the stars can you pick them up. While you don’t need to bag them all, each level usually has a minimum number for which you need to aim.
To successfully ensnare some of these stars you need to create track designs that become ever more outlandish and complex as the difficulty of each mission advances.
In addition to the standard tracks (of which you can lay an unlimited amount) you’re also given loops and escalators (these allow your coaster to climb vertically without the need for momentum, and descend slowly to avoid a horrendous crash when the carriage reaches the bottom).
The catch is that you’re only given a limited supply of these unique sections of track, so you need to utilise them effectively if you're to have any chance of collecting the number of stars required to finish the stage. Cue much head-scratching and experimentation as you attempt to crack each level.
It's a short-lived frustration, since even the clumsiest of prospective track designers will have this game licked within the space of a day or so. It’s a real shame that some kind of level designer isn't included. At the very least, the ability to upload high scores is a welcome one and helps to extend the longevity of the title to a certain degree.
Another area where Rollercoaster Builder suffers is presentation. While it’s not the ugliest game around, it does look a little rough around the edges. You can’t help but feel it betrays its humble roots in this respect (it’s based on a free Flash-based PC game).
Ultimately, Rollercoaster Builder will provide you with a moderate amount of entertainment, and the ability to brag online about your best scores is a bonus, but the drab aesthetics and brevity of the experience limit its long term appeal.
Rollercoaster Builder Review
While Rollercoaster Builder is engaging fun for a short while, it falls slightly short of providing the intense thrills and spills of the fairground attraction that forms its subject matter
Damien McFerran
Damien's mum hoped he would grow out of playing silly video games and gain respectable employment. Perhaps become a teacher or a scientist, that kind of thing. Needless to say she now weeps openly whenever anyone asks how her son's getting on these days.