Ride! Carnival Tycoon Review

Ride! Carnival Tycoon Review

Review by Dylan

Whether you enjoy chowing down on elephant ears and roasted corn, or you like loosing your stomach on rides like the ferris wheel or spinning teacups, this game will have something for you. Ride! Carnival Tycoon is a business simulation game that puts you in control of running a successful weekend long carnival. You will need to hire carnival workers (carnies), build attractions, promote your park, and set ticket prices in order to succeed in this carnival simulation game.

3 Game Modes

Ride! Carnival Tycoon offers you three modes of play. Each is distinct and has multiple difficulty settings, making this game ideal for all users, novice to advanced. The first of the modes is a career. In career you start from humble beginnings and work your way to the top of the carnival food chain, through expanding your park, building rides, and increasing admission. This mode is more limiting to start, as you are only given 10,000 dollars. Also not all the features of the game are unlocked. Your successes will reap greater benefits and unlock the more advanced upgrades.

The second mode is the mission mode. This mode has specific goals for you to achieve before the end of the day. You may have to increase the attendance of children while earning money, or build a certain amount of rides. In mission mode the tasks vary and are short, typically taking place over one full day (day relative to the game).

Sandbox mode is the third option of play. This mode is a great perk and is one of the top features of the game. In sandbox mode you can play on any venue for an unlimited amount of time with an unlimited amount of money. Sandbox mode is the “unlimited” mode because it offers you unlimited resources, thus sparking unlimited creativity. You will be able to make some of the coolest carnivals in this mode because your resources are high and the pressure is non-existent. This is the “stress-free” mode that will have you building things the game developers could not even fathom. This is a free play, high fun mode.

Build Rides, Attractions, and Booths

Despite the differences in objectives and resources between the different modes, the gameplay is essentially the same. You must build rides and attractions, games of chance, food and drink stands, along with essential amenities like trash cans and bathrooms to make the best park you can make. Unlike a lot of other tycoon games this carnival simulation does not have an admission fee. Your main sources of profit is through ticket sales (each ride has different ticket amounts).

Maintaining your carnival is also essential in this game. To do this you must hire carnies and you have to remain aware of the conditions of your rides and attractions. The carnies mostly patrol, picking up trash and what not, however they are also in charge of fixing rides and maintaining your attractions. Fixing rides requires more work in this simulation as compared to others because you physically have to close the ride and send the maintenance crew out to fix it. The computer will not assign repairs automatically. You will have to physically make it happen.

No Tutorial

This game is nice on certain levels like the graphics and interactions with the rides (you actually get to ride the rides you build). However, these positive qualities are sometimes out shined by the negative ones. The first of these flaws is not having a tutorial. A lot of your concerns might be able to be alleviated if there were in fact a tutorial, rather than an in game help screen.

No Control Over Patrons Or Staff

The next and largest of flaws is the lack of interaction you have with the patrons of the park and your staff. You will not be able to get the individual “stats” of your patrons and you will lack control of your carny staff. Your workers may be “sleeping on the job” or wandering while trash needs to be picked up and rides need to be fixed. This is extremely frustrating, especially because of the time conflict. If you could learn more about both your patrons and your staff it would make the game more enjoyable. The final of the drawbacks is with controlling the camera angles. The game is great graphically, but controlling the camera is difficult and becomes annoying.

Conclusion - A Good Idea Hampered By a Few Difficulties

Overall, Ride! Carnival Tycoon is an enjoyable game that is easily satisfying. The game lacks the strategy and interaction other games of this genre offer, however, it remains fun and playable. If you are looking for an easy game that will put you in the heart of Carny City, you might want to give this a shot.