N-Philes

SimCity DS

Posted September 2nd 2007 by Terry Harjanto.

The SimCity games have been enjoyed by PC and console gamers for quite some time now but the DS' touch-screen stylus controls allows gamers to take the city-building experience on the go.

SimCity DS does an excellent job of recreating the city building and managing experience. The core of the game involves laying down zones on a grid. Simply laying zones down randomly, however, won't guarantee that the Sim-people will actually move into your city. The Sims have specific needs: industrial zones provides them with jobs, residential zones gives them a place to live, and commercial zones offers them shopping and entertainment. Which of these zones are in demand and should be built is indicated in a simple bar that is always on display.

Obviously there's more to a city than just zoning regulations. The game also offers a satisfying level of micromanagement in its attention to detail. As city mayor you will have to deal with problems that can affect your Sims. For example, you will need to build police and fire stations to counter crime and fire hazards. Properly managing traffic congestion with the layout of your roads and railways will make the lives of your Sims easier. And no Sim will want to stay in your city if there are no education or health services such as schools and hospitals available.

There are some events in the game that takes you away from developing your city. Landmark population increases are accompanied by a simple game where you ignite fireworks by touching them. Santa Claus will fly across the screen every Christmas and you have to rapidly tap him to drop presents. These diversions are shallow but can be easily turned off with a touch of a button.

The only really unavoidable annoyance within the game is the Sims themselves. Your citizens will ask you to build things such as marinas or hospitals. The problem is that these Sims are slow to get to the point. Granny Agnes doesn't just ask you to build a hospital, she complains about how old and decrepit she is. Fireman Phil doesn't just ask for a ballpark stadium, he goes on about how tough being a fireman is and how expensive stadiums are specifically the kind of release they need. These irritating requests are made worse by the fact that they have no affect on gameplay. There's no reward for building a hospital or stadium when asked. Even worse, there are no negative consequences if you don't follow through on a Sim's request. Once you realize this, you'll simply start to ignore the Sims and their requests so that you can focus on building your city.

The game also suffers from poor performance issues but this affects the game less than the slow-to-the-point Sims. When there are a lot of objects on the screen, the game will slow down. The interface will become sluggish and the game will take one or two seconds to respond to your stylus. This is a problem that only slightly strains one's patience, however, because the straight forward stylus controls are still accurate and simple to grasp. Though the game may slow down at times it doesn't become unresponsive. It isn't something that will cause the player to lose control or stop them from enjoying the game.

SimCity DS allows you to build large cities, but not a very pretty ones The buildings look decent when the view is zoomed in, but once it zooms out the entire city looks like a mess of pixels. The larger field of view will also allow you to realize just how frequently the buildings are repeated. Just as ugly as the city are the Sims that inhabit it: the cartoon Sims have a simple but amateur-ish quality look to them. Though trying to make the art appeal to children is understandable, having them look as if they were drawn by children isn't.

Sound in SimCity DS fares much better than the graphics. The sound effects are clear and distinct while the generally calm and soothing music allows you to plan and build in peace. Most of the music and sound effects are reminiscent of the older SimCity games and fits into the overall atmosphere of the game that will evoke a sense of pleasant nostalgia for those who played some of the earlier games.

Slight Pulse - Think of this as the "Detroit" of city sims.

Managing a city in SimCity DS is an engaging experience simply because it gives you so much to do. The quality of your city and the happiness of your Sims are recorded on a graph and this not only instills a sense of pride in you when the numbers climb to tall peaks, but it also makes it so much easier to set goals and objectives as the city mayor. Unfortunately, once you've completely built a city there's nothing left to do but to... build another one. Most people will likely find the game to be repetitive, but SimCity fans will still enjoy it. SimCity DS doesn't offer anything new or groundbreaking in the series, but like other games within the series it encourages the fans of the series to keep on playing through a sense of self-satisfaction that one can take on the go.

Posted in: Reviews

Comments (0) | Permalink | Digg | Reddit