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Product summary
The DS version of the popular city builder uses the original's foundation and builds a sturdy but cramped game on top of it.
Specifications: ESRB: Everyone; Genre: Strategy; Number of players: 1-2 Players See full specs
Price range: $18.99 - $19.99
Gamespot editors' review
- Reviewed on: 06/26/2007
- Released on: 06/19/2007
If you don't think city planning sounds like a good time, you probably haven't played the Sim City series, the simulation devoted not to destruction, but construction. Though it lacks guns and swords, it has never lacked for innovation, playability, or fans. But where Will Wright was able to build the games into an empire on PCs, EA will have to settle for a hamlet with its handheld update, SimCity DS. Even though you can spend several enjoyable hours placing parks, building roads, and crafting a sprawling city, a few structural flaws make this version feel relatively small town.
Small isn't necessarily bad though, especially when it comes to handheld gaming. When you start, the first thing you'll want to do is study the tutorial content. There are 15 distinct lessons, but as you'll quickly discover, these are just the tip of the burg.
In case you've never played SimCity before, here's how it works: The point of the game is to build a city on a big piece of land that's been divided into a grid. Your city should consist of three types of zones: commercial, industrial, and residential. For people to develop your zones, you need to build roads. You also need to make people want to come to your town, so you need to spruce the zones up with things like parks and schools. Once they've arrived, you want them to stay, so you build things like hospitals, police stations, and fire stations to keep them from being driven away by the likes of fire, crime, or death.
But before you jump into all this, you'll take a random personality test to get matched with an advisor. The advisor seems nice enough at first, but then gets way too friendly. But not in a cool, "What are you doin' after work?" sort of way. Rather, he or she will interrupt your labors constantly just because some high school kid thinks the town needs more zoos or a bush caught on fire. Fires are the worst because your advisor screams and then stops time until they're put out, even if the blaze is nowhere near a development. And the worst part? You can't turn him or her off.
Before your advisor gets an opportunity to drive you out of your town--or your mind--you'll need to pick from several pieces of land, each with varying amounts of water, scrub brush, and funding. For example, an easy development would start you off with $100,000 and little water, while a hard one would have lots of water but only $10,000 starting cash. From there, you'll want to build a power plant, some zones, and a few amenities, such as schools and parks.
It sounds easy, but there's a lot of room for error, especially in the early going. Even with your advisor and the tutorial, it's not hard to overextend yourself on your first couple attempts and wind up with an unhappy populace and no money. Unfortunately, the game will take no pity on you, so when your town is in the gutter you have only two options: start over or slowly manipulate the taxes until you have money again. The former option is the best, because the latter option takes forever. What, no social welfare?
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