SimCity (SNES) review "I usually always rate games based on how it was when they came out, but since newer versions of this game have come out which are far better, I may be a little mean to it. Don't get me wrong, its a great game, but after playing 2000, its hard to play it and like it as much. "

I usually always rate games based on how it was when they came out, but since newer versions of this game have come out which are far better, I may be a little mean to it. Don't get me wrong, its a great game, but after playing 2000, its hard to play it and like it as much.

Graphics: 7/10
Good graphics for when it came out. Every type of building usually had a variety of different sprites, and all of them have their own explosions when they blow up. They look a little pixellated, but it was an early PC game, so I'll cut it some slack. For the most part it looks really good.

Story: 7/10
You have been elected as Mayor of the town, so you must first build it then manage it. You can get more people to come if the town likes you and you deal with its problems. If you are able to get every problem to less than 10% and 75% of the people think you're doing a good job, you're in good shape.

Gameplay: 9/10
The gameplay was like nothing ever seen before. You built the roads. You built the police station and fire department. You chose where they would go. And you built the areas for people to move in or create commercial buildings. It was very innovative. In fact, Sim City is one of the most innovative games of all time. Basically, you have a budget. You use the money to build the city. Rather than actually building a house like most simulation games you just built the area for the people to build houses and move into. You also had to make areas for commercial buildings for people to spend their money and industrial areas for employment. Of course, to make it realistic you need to build a power plant then build power lines to flow to the other buildings. The majorady of the time you spend just sitting there watching things develop and looking at the problems, improving them, building more roads, and so fourth. It is very fun and extremely addictive. The only real problem with the gameplay is that its quite difficult to actually make any money (I still only have one city that actually made a profit), and no matter what you do there's always something wrong. For instance, I collected $16 from taxes even though I abolished them, thus giving them the ability to complain that taxes are too high. Also, people will complain the industry causes too much pollution, so if u delete them there is suddenly a huge problem with unemployment. Other than that, the gameplay is pretty much perfect for this category of simulation, and could only be made better by adding more (and by making it easier).

Sound/Music: 7/10
The sound and music is good. The music is sort of catchy even though you can't hear it very well, and the sounds all sound very realistic.

Replay Value: 10/10
This game has tons of replay value. I mean, you're building cities. Practically all you do is make cities then make new ones, since the game can't be beaten. It's nothing but replay value. It is very addictive making one city and trying to make it as large and profitable as possible, then after you can't make it any larger, starting a new one all over again and experimenting with what works. You also often compete with your friends over who has the best city, and its all very fun.

Overall: 8/10
This was a revolutionary game for its time and remains one of the most innovative games ever. Its gameplay is near perfect and could only be improved by adding new features and making it less challenging (or more depending on what you thought of this one). This is why I suggest instead getting Sim City 2000 or 3000 because they improve this game a great deal. This game invented the formula, and the others improved it and perfected it.

Pros:
Amazing gameplay
lots of replay value

Cons:
difficult to make a profit

Community review by aganar (Date unavailable) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.