RollerCoaster Tycoon 2

In RollerCoaster Tycoon 2, players manage amusement parks and attempt to meet various goals to complete assigned scenarios. The game retains the isometric perspective of its predecessor, allowing for high compatibility with amusement parks made in the previous game. Various attractions, including transport rides, gentle rides, thrill rides, roller coasters, water rides, and shops or stalls, can be added to the parks as well as landscaping and decorations. The player satisfies park visitors' needs by building facilities and services such as food stalls, bathrooms, souvenir shops, ATMs, and information kiosks, as well as by hiring staff. The player must simultaneously balance the park's expenses and income.

One notable difference from RollerCoaster Tycoon is a more robust system for building structures, in which one can lay each piece of wall and roof individually. The game provides greater flexibility by allowing pieces of scenery, rides, and other structures to be placed at varying heights above and below ground. The mechanics in the predecessor made custom building construction less efficient, and rides and shops previously could not be built at varying elevations; in that game, only rides that had tracks could be built underground, since the first section of any ride had to be placed above ground. Many of the rides from the original RollerCoaster Tycoon have been modified and/or renamed. Some old ride designs have been merged with others.

RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 was developed by Chris Sawyer, who designed and programmed the game entirely by himself in x86 assembly language. Some parts of the game were based on efforts to develop a new version of Transport Tycoon, which Sawyer had been working on as early as 1996. The game was published by Infogrames and released on October 15, 2002.

Dan Adams of IGN gave Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 an 8/10, praising the game for the addition of the scenario and ride editor, as well as worth in value. Brett Todd of GameSpot gave it a 7/10, praising the game's for the "more depth" audio and its new editors, but criticized the game for not addressing many of the issues of the first game. Greg Bemis of TechTV's X-Play praised the game for its improvements in customization but criticized the game for a lack of a sandbox mode. Martin Taylor of Eurogamer praised the game for its inclusion of scenarios based on actual Six Flags parks but criticized the game's outdated graphics, contrasting it to SimCity 4. Taylor also criticized the scenario editor for its outdated tools, preferring that it would have been given away for free for the first game.

A major criticism for RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 at the time of its release was that the game engine and interface were almost identical to the first game, with minor improvements in graphics, such as more images for coaster cars, allowing for smoother animations. Dana Jongewaard of Computer Gaming World suggested that the game needed "consistent back buttons for the interface" that would "save a lot of time that's spent closing and reopening windows" and stated that "a shift from 2D to 3D would have been a great way to showcase these new coasters."

RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 has been called the best game in the series by several publications.

Several user-created rollercoasters received media attention after footage of them were posted on various imageboards and social media.