RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic Review (Jakapoa)
A direct port of the mobile game with zero thought to changing the UI for PC.
This game was built specifically for mobile touch-screen devices, with every aspect the same between the two. I even have this on my phone* (big asterisk there) and it's 1:1. The problem with this is that the UI was specifically designed for touch screen devices, with features being streamlined to specifically work better on those platforms.
For example:
You can't select a ride's operating status from a menu anymore. You can only toggle it between Closed, Testing, and Open, in that exact order. That means every time you close and then open a ride it will be forced into testing mode. You also can't fully close a ride anymore by double-clicking the closed icon with the new UI.
The new menu buttons are all stupidly tiny and directly on the edge of the screen. There are no options to resize, move, or change them in any way. This is a huge problem since the screen will scroll anytime your mouse reaches the edge of the screen. This means you will always end up moving the screen anytime you go to open any of the menus.
Because it was designed for smaller screens, the text can often be scrunched, blurry, and hard to read.
Why remove the recent announcements button? There's no way to view recent announcements anymore.
The view options that are incredibly useful for building rides are tucked away IN THE PAUSE MENU. WHY?! That should be one of the buttons always available. Is it because you couldn't design a proper menu for mobile devices?
No render options. How the heck does a game from 1999 have fullscreen and windowed options while this 2017 "remaster" can't do either? (It also lets me change the sound devices and options, which this game also can't do.)
Despite using the Steam Cloud to backup your scenario records, your saves are NOT stored on the cloud.
There are also a handful of "scenario/balance changes" that feel like it was meant to dumb down the experience for mobile platforms.
Removed scenarios that couldn't fit into the new mobile style.
If you're playing this on the Steam Deck it's the best way to play. Otherwise you can buy RCT 1 & 2 for less than this and use OpenRCT2 for the best PC experience.
*So it turns out in 2019 Atari """accidentally""" deleted RCT Classic off the Google Play store. While they did reupload the game, they made it a new app and didn't refund anyone who bought the game. They have never updated the original version since, and now force people who originally bought the "oops" version to repurchase it to receive critical updates. Absolute clowns.