History YMMV / RollerCoasterTycoon

** Boat Hire sometimes gets this reaction for several reasons. For one, it suffers from a GameBreakingBug that sometimes causes boats to get stuck as they try to re-enter the station which would, in turn, get every ''other'' boat trying to get into the station stuck [[note]](most of the time, this occurs if the player adds an incomplete track to try to control an open area for boats to paddle)[[/note]], and causes players to restructure the ride until it works properly. Another reason is because of [[TooDumbToLive guests who occasionally go out too far]] in a vast water area, and can't return to the station which leads to many complaints about not being able to get off the ride. Then there's the fact that so many ride improvements are dedicated to this lousy ride because of the amount of boat types it has, and it gets worse in ''[=RCT2=]'', where they're considered separate rides yet ''still'' need to be researched, taking up valuable research time in the water rides category. [[note]](In ''[=OpenRCT2=]'' the separate rides are brought back together as a single ride, but you still have to research them via the water rides category.)[[/note]]

* TheScrappy:
** Guests that don't pay in "Pay for ride ticket" scenarios. Some players even stalk anyone who thinks of leaving without paying and make them suffer or drown!
** The Park Inspector in [=RCT3=] due to him constantly pestering you about prices being too cheap or expensive and other aspects of your park, which can get ''very'' annoying. Many players stop his thoughts from being displayed in the message centre to prevent his constant nagging.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The second game features five Six Flags Parks as scenarios - three from North America and two from Europe (Six Flags Belgium and Six Flags Holland). However, roughly two years after the game came out, Six Flags sold the European parks, making the game feel dated in comparison.

** With the exception of some smaller maps, like Dinky Park and Haunted Harbour, the Land-for-Sale mechanic is quite underutilized in ''[=RCT1=]''. Almost all the levels can be beaten without the player ever feeling the need to increase the size of the park.

* CheeseStrategy: Micro Park can easily be won by building several Roto-Drops. Once built, run in them in test mode so that they don't age and then just ride out the clock until October Year 3.

** "Micro-coasters", rollercoasters designed with the goal of being as small and cheap as possible, such as a single slope that's too steep for the train to get over, causing it to immediately back up into the station. While they may have lower stats than a "real", full-size coaster, they more than make up for it in efficiency: the space and money needed to add one full coaster can instead be used to add multiple micro-coasters, and combined, they bring much more value, income, and guests to your park. Spamming these tiny designs all over your park can trivialize even the hardest scenarios. The only downside is that using them is extremely BoringButPractical, making your theme park look more like an industrial park, and many players consider them to go against the spirit of the game. Still, if you're stuck on ThatOneLevel, they may be the key to finally succeeding.

** The Suspended Swinging Coaster is not a well-liked coaster type, due to its nasty tendency to get a high nausea rating. Add to that the limited selection of elements to choose from and the inability to have banked turns for a coaster designed to be big (it has a long minimum length requirement) and you have a coaster type that's too difficult to work with for some.

** In-universe, rides and coasters with a lot of spinning (discounting the Spinning Wildmouse and Virginia Reel) or time spent inverted will get a high nausea rating and guests will vomit if their nausea gets too high but First Aid Stands in the second and third game along with benches can help prevent guests from losing their lunch. Commercials for the games even use this as a selling point.

** In ''[=OpenRCT2=]'' 0.4, beating Iceberg Islands was as easy as loading the Iceberg Islands save file used by the AttractMode. Other scenarios cannot be skipped by loading save files used by the title sequence, as they were already beaten by the time the save files were made. Later versions made making/editing title sequences require an external plugin, so players can't easily beat scenarios like this anymore. Furthermore, the title sequence introduced in 0.4.5 doesn't involve scenarios that are almost about to be beaten, making it impossible anyway.

** ''[=RollerCoaster=] Tycoon 3''. The 3D leap caused a few issues with some people, mainly how the coaster designing was still very stiff and restricted despite having no limits with the nature of sprite graphics. What really made this game contested is its performance issues; while most computers can run it fine now, when it was originally released it was known for bringing even high-end computers to their knees, which was a problem when the first two games were known for running ''thousands'' of guests with no slowdown on low-end machines. Also, there were those who disliked how much the scenarios were dumbed down, as they usually had very basic goals with very uninspired parks, and were usually completable in only a few minutes. The thing that stops most people from swearing the game off altogether is the addition of the full sandbox mode. As computers improved enough to reasonably run the game, its reputation gradually leaned more positive, leading to a well-received CreatorDrivenSuccessor with ''VideoGame/PlanetCoaster''. Even today, though, it struggles with stacking up to the second game, which is still has a large and active playerbase to this day.

** The Figure-8 Loop from the ''[=RCT3=]'' version of the Hypercoaster is an absurd looking roller-coaster element, but it does exist...in concept only. To summarize, a German showman pitched this coaster element to several ride manufacturers, but all of them rejected it due to concerns of excessive lateral g-forces when going through the element. It didn't help that the showman wanted to be paid a licensing fee for anyone wanting to include this element. As a result, no roller coasters has ever included this element.

* CriticalDissonance: ''[=RollerCoaster=] Tycoon 2'' was criticized by critics for [[MissionPackSequel looking and playing the same as the predecessor.]] However, fans really liked it due to introduction of numerous quality-of-life effects such as improved AI, fixes to the interface, in-game editor, and numerous new objects, rides, and scenarios. Not to mention, improvements toward optimization allows for larger plot of land.

* FirstInstallmentWins: Not to say the second and third games don't have their fans, but the first one is generally the most liked and most remembered, for the vast amount of scenarios that need to be unlocked, the ability to charge for both entry to the park and rides (''[=OpenRCT2=]'' brings back this option, but also modified the calculations for the price guests are willing to pay for a ride in such a way that they will refuse to pay for flat rides if you charge a park entry fee), and water rides re-use the roller coaster screams, in contrast to 2's single shriek.

* FanonDiscontinuity: As far as most fans are concerned, all of the games released past ''[=RCT3=]'' and its expansions (with the exception of ''RCT Classic'') don't exist. Some purists don't count ''[=RCT3=]'' (for changing the mechanic so drastically) or even ''[=RCT2=]''[='s=] expansions (as almost every single "new ride" is just a reskin and a lot of the visuals clash with everything else). Many find ''VideoGame/{{Parkitect}}'' and ''VideoGame/PlanetCoaster'' to be [[CreatorDrivenSuccessor far more worthy successors.]] It helps that the latter was made by the exact same development team behind ''[=RCT3=]'', while splitting it into its own series that doesn't have to coexist with the originals.

** In scenarios where money is the main concern, it's always most efficient to make admission free and charge per ride, and most players swear by it as a result.

* ToughActToFollow: ''[=RCT2=]'' is still considered the peak of the series to this day, as the popularity of ''[=OpenRCT2=]'' attests, and any later installments are going to be stacked up against it. ''[=RCT3=]'' in particular got hit hard by completely changing the mechanics from its predecessor's 2D grid-based mechanics, and the negative reception to those changes (among other factors) led to the series going dormant for several years.

--> WebVideo/MarcelVos: "What exactly did the Heartline Coaster do to Chris Sawyer to deserve its stats to be this terrible?"

* StopHavingFunGuys: Chris Sawyer, creator of the ''[=RollerCoaster Tycoon=]'' games, has gone on the record as saying that the "entire point" of ''[=RollerCoaster Tycoon=]'' is the scenarios, and '''''only''''' the scenarios, stating that the casual sandbox-players (that is, those who just wanted to build a simulated theme park and who didn't really care about playing the scenarios) are "doing it wrong, and need to get serious and do it right", especially when they used a fan-produced "key" program to open the game up for sandbox play. He disliked sandbox play so much that when he wrote the expansions and the sequel, he continually added code that would wreck the game if the player attempted to use any sort of "sandbox key". Fans fought back with the [=RCTPatch=] (commonly known as the "Drexler patch"), which defeated the anti-cheat programming in ''[=RCT1=]''. About the only reason the third game even included a full-on sandbox mode was because Sawyer's involvement in that game was limited to a consultant role. [[note]]Interestingly, a publisher demanded scenarios be included in ''VideoGame/SimCity'' because they felt no one would ever do a free-form game. Of course, few gamers played the scenarios.[[/note]]

** ''[=RollerCoaster=] Tycoon 3''. The 3D leap caused a few issues with some people, mainly how the coaster designing was still very stiff and restricted despite having no limits with the nature of sprite graphics. What really made this game contested is its performance issues; while most computers can run it fine now, when it was originally released it was known for bringing even high-end computers to their knees, which was a problem when the first two games were known for running ''thousands'' of guests with no slowdown on low-end machines. Also, there were those who disliked how much the scenarios were dumbed down, as they usually had very basic goals with very uninspired parks, and were usually completable in only a few minutes. The thing that stops most people from swearing the game off altogether is the addition of the full sandbox mode. As computers improved enough to reasonably run the game, the game's reputation gradually leaned more positive, leading to a well-received CreatorDrivenSuccessor with ''VideoGame/PlanetCoaster''. Even today, though, it struggles with stacking up to the second game, which is still has a large and active playerbase to this day.

** If the player can design a relatively cheap, compact, high excitement roller coaster it is very tempting to build it in every scenario where the coaster type is available. The Steel Corkscrew, Stand-up and Wild Mouse coasters are especially good for this, as is the 'shuttle-loop' type design mentioned on the main page.

** ''[=RollerCoaster=] Tycoon 3''. The 3D leap caused a few issues with some people, mainly how the coaster designing was still very stiff and restricted despite having no limits with the nature of sprite graphics. What really makes this game contested is its performance issues, as it really loves bringing even modern gaming rigs at the time to their knees as opposed to the previous two games, which ran at full speed when you had full-blown parks containing thousands of guests. Also, there were those who disliked how much the scenarios were dumbed down, as they usually had very basic goals with very uninspired parks, and were usually completable in only a few minutes. The thing that stops most people from swearing the game off altogether is the addition of the full sandbox mode.

* FanonDiscontinuity: As far as most fans are concerned, all of the games released past ''[=RCT3=]'' and its expansions (with the exception of ''RCT Classic'') don't exist. Many find ''VideoGame/{{Parkitect}}'' and ''VideoGame/PlanetCoaster'' to be [[CreatorDrivenSuccessor far more worthy successors.]] It helps that the latter was made by the exact same development team behind ''[=RCT3=]''.
** In some ways, some fans of the second game go out to even exclude Wacky Worlds and Time Twister, as almost every single "new ride" is just a reskin and a lot of the visuals clash with everything else.

** In ''[=OpenRCT2=]'' 0.4, beating Iceberg Islands is as easy as loading the Iceberg Islands save file used by the AttractMode. Other scenarios cannot be skipped by loading save files used by the title sequence, as they were already beat by the time the save files were made.

** ''2'' has Dusty Greens, a monthly profit park with such a low goal ($5,000) that it's entirely possible to hit said goal before running out of land, and a lack of land is this park's only problem.

** The Park Inspector in RCT3 due to him constantly pestering you about prices being too cheap or expensive and other aspects of your park, which can get ''very'' annoying. Many players stop his thoughts from being displayed in the message centre to prevent his constant nagging.

* TheScrappy: Guests that don't pay in "Pay for ride ticket" scenarios. Some players even stalk anyone who thinks of leaving without paying and make them suffer or drown!

** The Xbox port. It's the same game, only with bad controls. Not as bad as other disasters, but somewhat notable.

** The Figure-8 Loop from the ''[=RCT3=]'' version of the Hypercoaster is an absurd looking roller-coaster element, but it does exist...in concept only. To summarize, a German showman pitched this coaster element to several ride manufacturers, but all of them rejected it due to concerns of excessive lateral g-forces when going through the element. It didn't help that the showman wanted to be paid a licensing for anyone wanting to include this element. As a result, no roller coasters has ever included this element.

** The Mini Suspended Roller Coaster is undoubtedly the worst roller coaster in the game. It has one of the lowest support limits, doesn't have a lot of design elements, and the cars are really light, meaning designing a track will be extremely unreliable compared to designing other rides (as they'll lose speed). The single railed roller coasters fare a bit better (the cars are heavier, the stat turnout is slightly higher, and the cars - horses and bikes - look cool), but there's a lot of better options to choose from.

** Neither of the single-rail roller coasters are exactly great either; they have terrible capacity as roller coasters go (tied with the Wooden Crazy Rodent coaster and only beating out the Air-Powered Vertical and Reverse Freefall coasters), they don't have banked turns or steep slopes (so there's no real way to make them compact), and they are very difficult to build to a high excitement rating. The Mini Suspended Coaster in particular is perhaps the worst of the two, as the ride can't be built as high compared to others and there isn't really a high excitement rating output.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: To Americans, the ability to make guests pay for toilets. Pay toilets were outlawed across most of the US during the '70s [[https://psmag.com/economics/dont-pay-toilets-america-bathroom-restroom-free-market-90683 thanks to the runaway success of a campaign that started as a joke]], but are still common in much of the world, including the UK where the series originated.

** The Mini Suspended Roller Coaster is undoubtably the worst roller coaster in the game. It has one of the lowest support limits, doesn't have a lot of design elements, and the cars are really light, meaning designing a track will be extremely unreliable compared to designing other rides (as they'll lose speed). The single railed roller coasters fare a bit better (the cars are heavier, the stat turnout iss slightly higher, and the cars - horses and bikes - look cool), but there's a lot of better options to choose from.

** The multi-dimension roller coaster is a very gimmicky ride that is incredibly hard to construct properly. The cost is absurdly high, the rotations are hard to figure out and don't even affect the ratings at all, and the ride will generally have far higher intensity and nausea than its excitement rating. The wiki outright states that you should only bother constructing one if you're doing a sandbox park or in the ride designer, as even figuring one out can be time-consuming.

** The mobile versions of ''Classic'' are considered great, but the Steam version of ''Classic'' is rather odd, especially on Mac computers. A lot of the menus are a bit buggy and it's actually impossible to exit ''Classic'' through conventional means (you have to hit Cmd + Q). The instructions on how to import scenarios is way too vague (it still uses the mobile version's instructions). You actually have to manually import them, and even then, the game will constantly warn you to reinstall the game, even though there's no actual harm done.