Do you know what my most‑played game of 2026 is… and 2025… and, honestly, most years? RollerCoaster Tycoon 2. Yep. A game from 2002 continues to eat my evenings like a hungry queue line. I’ve still got the original trilogy installed, boosted with OpenRCT2 so I can squeeze every last drop of joy out of it. I adore these games. They’re comfort food, they’re nostalgia, they’re engineering therapy. They’re mine.

And now the franchise is back, not as some crappy tappy‑tap mobile knockoff stuffed with bullshit microtransactions, but as an actual, proper, fully‑fledged new entry: RollerCoaster Tycoon Wonderworks.

The trailer already feels like a love letter to the classics. It takes everything that made the originals so damn good, the isometric charm, the crunchy management, the “oh god why is my coaster exploding” chaos, and gives it a modern overhaul without sanding off the personality. It looks, frankly, like the return to form we’ve been waiting for. I’ll let the founder and lead developer at Springloaded sum it up:

James Barnard: “From the beginning, our vision was to imagine what RollerCoaster Tycoon would look like if it were designed today while staying true to the systems that made players fall in love with the original games. That idea guided every decision we made. We wanted to preserve the satisfaction of building thriving parks, designing unforgettable coasters and solving the management challenges that keep everything running, while introducing new systems that create memorable stories every time you play. Whether everything runs perfectly or descends into complete chaos, those moments become part of your park’s story.”

That’s the magic, isn’t it? The stories. The tiny dramas. The guests who get lost for three in‑game days. The coaster that almost works until physics taps you on the shoulder and says “nope”. The parks that start as neat little grids and end as sprawling, beautiful disasters. That’s why I’ve poured thousands of hours into RCT2, because nothing else in the genre has ever matched that blend of creativity, management, humour and absolute carnage. Wonderworks looks like it understands that. Here’s what you can expect:

• Build and Manage Theme Parks: Design sprawling parks from the series’ signature isometric perspective while balancing guest satisfaction, finances, rides and operations … and meeting the expectations of your corporate bosses.
• Design Breathtaking Coasters: An overhauled coaster builder lets players intuitively design, adjust, test, and deploy coasters. But don’t forget to finish the track before turning it live 😉
• Deep, Approachable Simulation: Every guest, employee and operational system works together, creating a living world of meaningful management decisions and surprising outcomes.
• Discover your Inner Engineer: An accurate physics engine drives the behaviour of rides, so each design, upgrade and maintenance decision you make will be put to the test.
• Customize Every Attraction: Personalize rides, scenery, decorations and park layouts to create a one-of-a-kind theme park.
• Embrace the Chaos: Experience unexpected gameplay moments, including ride breakdowns, operational mishaps and coaster catastrophes that transform even well-planned parks into unforgettable stories.

As a long‑time RCT fan, this is absolutely on my radar. RollerCoaster Tycoon Wonderworks enters early access this winter, and if it delivers even half of what it promises, I’ll be losing sleep all over again.