Coaster Works

Written by Ryan Smotherman  on July 17, 2001

Review: All: Monorail!!!!! Monorail!!!!! Monorail!!!!!!!!!! Art: Mono-doh!

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Before playing Coaster Works I really didn't know what to expect. First off, it's a simulation, and whenever I see the word УsimulationФ, the thought of a confusingly intricate game pops in my head, and I for one hate playing confusing games, they just aren't fun to me. Thankfully though, Coaster Works isn't too overcomplicated, actually it's quite simple. But what surprised me the most about the title is it's high fun-factor, I never dreamed that building a roller coaster could provide so many hours of entertainment.

You're a roller coaster architect, you're job: design and build the most kick ass, sick, and twisted roller coaster you can dream up. This task may seem a bit daunting at first; fortunately, the developers hooked you up with a nice little tutorial mode that walks you through the entire process of piecing together your coaster. And once you spend a little time in the building mode, construction of your coaster is a breeze. The creation process itself is what you'd expect.

Basically, you construct the coaster by laying sections of it down piece by piece. You're able to bend and twist the rails just about anyway you want to make corkscrews, loop de loops, and some insane vertical free falls. However, you must proceed with caution. Coaster Works' physics are based off the real life world. So don't expect to take any sharp turns as your racing down a hill at 70 mph, needless to say, your cart will go flying off the track and through the air. And usually when you go back to fix the flawed area it puts the rest of your work in disarray, but with a little playtime you'll soon learn the do's and don'ts of building your roller coaster. This is the point where the game becomes extremely addictive; heed my warning.

Of course, Coaster Works isn't all fun and games; you do have goals. Each of the five levels has a certain criteria that you must meet in order complete the level. These include such things as maximum g-force, maximum mph, the thrill of the ride, and the all-important safety meter (we don't want to kill anyone, right?). And as you progress through each level the difficulty bar is raised somewhat. Lucky for you, you are given new components, such as the loop de loop and corkscrew, to aid you in completing the tasks at hand, not to mention that they up the gameplay and fun-factor immensely. To be honest though, Coaster Works doesn't offer much of a challenge.

Graphically, Coaster Works doesn't disappoint, but then again it doesn't really impress much either. The beef of the visuals is without a doubt in the test mode, where you get to see your hard work realized in full 3-D. The building-mode is just your regular old run of the mill blue-print visuals, just some lines and blocks, but everything is nice and smooth at least. Until too many pieces get on the screen that is, this fault really bothered me a lot. When your about to reach your maximum component number, the graphics tend to slow down and lag a great deal, which becomes very frustrating seeing as you're on the verge of finishing your coaster. And this is certainly not acceptable on a system with the power of the Dreamcast.

Once you're taking your coaster for a test drive though, you'll soon forget all about these few little flaws. You are given a first-person perspective from the front car on the roller coaster, so you the full impact on just how intense a coaster you've designed. Probably the best part of Coaster Works graphically is the actual sense on speed you are given, it's a good thing too, cause without it the game's excitement would probably be non-existent. I think Arthur put it best when he said, УI feel like I'm going to throw-up just watching it.Ф The backgrounds contain a variety of different amusement park attractions that you'd expect to find, such as bumper cars, a Ferris wheel, a carousel, and many more. Overall, the graphics are nice, but they don't push the Dreamcast by any means.

I found the sound in Coaster Works to be rather disappointing. The lounge music that's played throughout the game will about put you to sleep. Plus, the sound effects are mediocre at best. Especially the shrieking screams of terror from your life-like test dummy (I had to turn the volume down after a good dose of that). Strangely, the best sound in the game comes when you fail your objectives; it plays this really cool RPG type death music that I really enjoy. The sound isn't that great, but what do you expect in a roller coaster building simulator?

If you think about it, Coaster Works has just about unlimited replay value. There may be only five levels (plus one special stage), but the ability to create any coaster you can imagine makes the game last a long time. Although, more features and options in Coaster Works would have been a nice addition.