Ride Carnival Tycoon is a simulation game that features carnival rides. Players can choose the type of park they want to set their rides, and create the perfect fair. Of course, running a fair costs money, so players will have to ensure their income is more than their outgo. Be successful, and you, too, can be a carnival tycoon.

Players can choose from either the Sandbox or Career modes. Sandbox allows players to play with unlimited money and building options. Here, players can choose from any of the buildings without unlocking them, and play with no money penalty. Career mode is more restricted in that players begin with only a few unlocked buildings (although the others are visible), and can only choose the locked items after earning enough money to advance in rank.

The buildings that are available are rides, utilities, games and refreshment stands. The utilities and refreshments are not very exciting and are plainly designed in appearance. The rides, though, all look pretty cool. And, they can be ridden! This is actually pretty fun, although it can cause motion sickness in those of us who are susceptible.  The box description makes it sound like players can design the food stands, but this isn’t the case. Everything is preset in appearance. The game stands can’t be played, either.

The rides are primarily the type that go around in circles and are typical of rides found at most fairs. They are attractively drawn and fun to watch. The people are also fairly well drawn, but the environments are less so. There is some blurring around the edges of parts of the landscapes.

The career mode is very simple, and basically is just a way to advance to different parks by making money. The goals don’t change and there aren’t any scenarios. The interface is simple, with icons for the menus at the top of the screen. Minimal information is presented about the state of the park. The people walking around will display icons above their heads, signifying their destinations. Players can right-click on them for more information, but even this little blurb doesn’t tell much, just a short sentence about what they’re thinking about. Most of the these comments are always the same.

This game is exactly what it advertises itself to be, a carnival building simulation game. However, although the rides are pretty thrilling, the game isn’t. While the Ride Carnival Tycoon isn’t a bad game, per se, it just isn’t much fun, and begs the question of why would someone get this game when they could play RollerCoaster Tycoon 3. In RCT, there is more of everything, more design options, more rides, more food, and more control over the running of the park.

While this game offers a small amount of initial amusement for the family, it will soon become boring because of the lack of content.

Gameplay: 5
While the game looks cute and fun at first, it soon becomes apparent there isn’t much to the content. Besides slapping several rides and other buildings around an empty lot, there isn’t really anything else to do once the park is built. Some games can require too much micro-management, true, but players need something to do.

Graphics: 7.5
The graphics are nice overall, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Sound: 6
The sound effects are good but minimal. The music is decent.

Difficulty: Easy
The difficulty level is easy even on the hardest level.

Concept: 5
There is absolutely nothing new or innovative here, and the presentation is bland and minimalistic.

Overall: 5.5
A game that looks cute, but lacks any substance. I don’t require a whole lot of fancy graphics in my games, but I do want something to do. This game doesn’t have much in the way of strategy or planning, and the park will basically run itself after the initial set-up. Players interested in amusement park type games should get RollerCoaster Tycoon, instead.