At its core, this game is an updated version of Sim Theme Park for the PC. In fact, it should become obvious moments after you plug this game into your PS2 that this title has "PC port" written all over it. For some, this will be heralded as good news, as Theme Park Roller Coaster is unlike nearly any other game ever published for a video game console. The game, using an unnamed mascot, nicely guides you through your very first park. The mascot tells you how to get golden tickets, which you'll use to get into other parks with different themes, such as Halloween, space, and dinosaur ages. The menus are a little convoluted, and the loading time for a park approaches one minute, but once inside you get access to that park's attractions.
Once you've set down an attraction's layout, you can then ride on it in first-person 3-D--an experience that is just about as vertigo inducing as its real-life counterpart. There is even variety in the roller coasters available: hanging steel, wood coasters, and even water rides.