The graphics are terrific. The opening sequence has some animations where your new boss gives you a vision of his ideal theme park. From there, you are whisked off into an adventure where you can begin to build your theme park. The rides are fairly detailed and the variation of colours in the crowd makes for a fairly nice display. The general graphics speed is fast and smooth, with exception of the painfully slow load up screen. Each ride has its own charming animation whether it's pumping balloons, or whisking people round and round.

When you're building the park you can zoom in and out, and rotate your map, which makes designing your park so much easier. Theme park games have never really been rated on their ability to blow us away with a good sound engine. Having said that though, Sim Coaster does provide some quality sound to the game. The effects are kept mostly in the background, but will vary depending on how close you are to an object. Makes for a nice effect when zooming in and out all the time.

Sim Coaster's game play is very similar to other theme park games such as Roller Coaster Tycoon. There are 3 themes to explore around in SC, which are: Arabian Nights, Polar Zone and the World of Invention. These 3 themes are broken down into separate sections, much like an island, and the goal is obviously to get to the next theme and better rides. What sets this game apart is that you must jump back in forth between different themes to progress in the game. You start off in the theme World of Invention and progress your way into the Polar Zone. Only after you've completed certain tasks such as expansion, obtaining new rides and other sub tasks, can you advance forward to the final theme, Arabian Nights.

Sim Coaster is a welcome addition to the Theme Park series of games. EA and Bullfrog have released another excellent Theme Park title. It boasts some very intelligent design concepts and the game was definitely well tested before it hit the stores. SC has an excellent replay value and anyone that likes theme park games should go out and buy it. It's well worth it. The Joystick is way up on this one.

Rivals: Roller Coaster Tycoon, Theme Park series.

Star Rating: HHIII

Producer: Microsoft

Required Spec:

Windows 95/98/ME

233 MHz Intel Pentium or AMD K6 processor

32 MB RAM

4X CD-ROM

415 MB HD Space

4MB video card with a DX7 compatible driver; 3D accelerated mode requires a 16MB Direct3D capable video card

DX7 compatible sound card

Keyboard and mouse