RollerCoaster Tycoon is looking to return to its heydey with RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Complete Edition for Nintendo Switch and PC, due out later this month.
RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Complete Edition comes with both the Soaked! and Wild! expansion packs, which bring water park and wildlife elements to the game. All up, it boasts more than 300 unique coasters and rides, 500 scenery pieces, 60 shops and services, and 20 animals to rear and raise. As in the original game, there’ll be both a career mode with dozens of scenarios, and a sandbox mode where players can build to their hearts’ content without having to worry about financial management.
The Complete Edition also comes with enhanced visuals, including 1080p and widescreen support for PC. The Switch version will also have “intuitive new controls” to fit the console control scheme. Civilization VI proved that complex mouse and keyboard-driven games can work just fine on Switch with the right control setup, so here’s hoping RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 follows suit.
RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 originally came out for PC in 2004, and it’s arguably the last great RollerCoaster Tycoon game. In recent years, publisher Atari has been more interested in middling mobile spin-offs (including a match-three game, for some reason), and the disaster that was RollerCoaster Tycoon World.
Atari actually isn’t involved with RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Complete Edition at all, it seems. It’s being published by Frontier Developments—the original developer—under their new Frontier Foundry label. Atari’s licensing rights for RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 reportedly expired back in 2018, amid a legal dispute between Atari and Frontier over unpaid royalties.
That ugly business aside, it seems the rights to RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 now sit firmly with the original developer, and they’re using this opportunity to return a much-loved franchise to its peak.
RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Complete Edition comes to Nintendo Switch, Steam, and Epic Games Store on September 24.