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SimTown not SimCity

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 30, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Well maybe not quite, this mini version plays like the SimCities of old but gets very annoying when people keep "barging into the mayor's office" to complain about this and that. Its almost every 10 minutes. Else this game plays like the full scale version (with a few bizzare and pointless mini-games)

Themepark is better!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 10, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I played Themepark before, and I love it very much. So, kind of disappointed about this game. Anyway, this is the game that I play while on bed, very relaxing.

sim city

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: October 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Fast delivery. The game itself is really great. The graphics are so much more bubbly and fun then the old sim cities.

blah

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 4
Date: March 09, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I didn't think the game was much fun at all. In fact, I tried to return it the next day and ended up having to take a cheap trade-in on it because I wanted to get rid of it so badly. The back of the case made it sound exciting ("save your city from fire!" turned out to mean, "rebuild the city afterwards" etc) and i was really disappointed. I also had a lot of trouble figuring out how to do anything. I guess i was expecting it to be more like other games I'd played in the past, such as Sim Hospital and Sim Theme Park.

Good Simcity game on DS but with few problems

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: July 22, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Few problems this game has are:

Constant visits by town folks
-They keep coming and never stop
-You'll end up bankrupt if you said yes to every one of them
-Some of the requests doesn't make any sense for your city
-This can't be turned off
-It can't be ignored either because of occasional Prof Simtown visits

-Renewing garbage contract EVERY 5 years

Game manual and in-game tutorial are inadequate for new Simcity players. For example new players won't know how far away to build next hospitals and schools from previous ones. What's their coverage area? Even I'm not sure with this game as Simcity veteran. Manual fails to explain things like game option called "Action Events". Games like this need a thick manual but EA foolishly decided to use the 2nd half of it for French.

If you can forgive this problems you'll have fun playing this game. Rating of 4 for past Simcity players but 3 for new players.

Not that impressed

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 11
Date: June 25, 2007
Author: Amazon User

My daughter and I were so excited to get this game on the DS. We play Sims City 4 all the time on our PC. Unfortunately, we were really disappointed with the DS version, probably since we are so used to the interface and features of SC 4. I understand this is more like playing Sim City 3000, which I didn't play.

We found it hard to make the city and the city is hard to see on the screen. You can't cut through the zones to make new roads - at least I haven't figured out how. I also don't like that you can only make one city at a time. You have to erase the city to start a different one. We are used to making 5 or more cities at one time on the SC4 - I guess we got spoiled. But if you are trying to share the game with another person, you would really need 2 games since you would probably each want your own city. At least that is what I was hoping for. I know the DS limits the options, but I was really disappointed with this game.

If you have a lot of time on your hands...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: June 22, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Play this game! It's hard at first, but iwth careful budgeting you can make a huge, custom city. I liked SimCity on the SNES, but this one is soooo much better!

Nearly Perfect

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: August 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

SimCity is a fantastic game that's been around forever, and it works in the DS format nearly perfectly. It's great to have a little city in your pocket that you can pull out and play with when you have a few minutes. This is a straightforward implementation of the old standby, and lots of fun to play.

It's based on the older versions of SimCity, so it doesn't have the latest features of the desktop versions. I don't miss them - they add more complexity than I'd want in a DS game. But this is more like the original Sim City (with better graphics, advisors and the 'ticker' from newer SinCity versions) than it is like SimCity 3000, etc.

The biggest problem with SimCity DS is that you can only save one game. This is a problem because SimCity is fundamentally a game of experimentation, where you try different strategies for building cities in different environments, which means that you very naturally accumulate lots of different cities, each of which you've invested a lot of time in and want to keep. In SimCity DS, if you want to try a different terrain, you can only do that by wiping out your current city, which, to be blunt, sucks. Aside from my not being able to play multiple cities, it means that I can't give SimCity DS to my kids to play their own games. Does EA expect me to buy a bunch of copies of the game, just to save multiple cities? Not for $30 a copy!

A minor annoyance: you have to be careful dragging zones, etc., because all actions complete with raising the stylus, and the only way to cancel actions is to make them invalid, such as by dragging a building over a road, or dragging a road off the edge of the map. This is particularly annoying with the bulldozer. It would be better if there were a button to cancel the action.

There are some added DS "features":
- Some of the disasters have DS interaction, such as a monster smashing through the city that you can subdue with tranquilizer darts.
- There are other events, such as Santa Clause dropping gifts, and a Fireworks Gala, that are unique to the DS. They're fun, and are a nice "hand-eye coordination" change of pace from the rest of the game, which is more intellectual.
- There are 'advisors' (similar to the aids in SimCity 3000+) that help you out a bit. They're less helpful than the old 'newspapers' but do point out basic issues (e.g. "you need more schools") that you can't otherwise tell in the simplified displays.

Old School SimCity!!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: August 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I used to play SimCity on the computer back in 7th and 8th grade at school, and I didn't think I would ever find the old school game again, what with The Sims, and all the other Sim stuff out these days, not to mention the bigger and better game consoles. But this game really reminds me of the old computer game! It is pretty fun, but I would recommend playing the tutorial thing, or else you may get highly frustrated, as happened to me! I can't quite figure out a decent balance between taxing my people low enough so they won't move out of town, but high enough to not have a deficit! I guess that is why I don't REALLY run a city! Lots of fun and entertainment for hours! Oh, and the visitors to the mayor's office can be annoying, but I just ignore their visit and send them on their way a lot of the time!

Fun and entertaining for hours at a time!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: December 08, 2007
Author: Amazon User

SimCity DS brings out all of the fun of the original computer game in a portable Nintendo DS format! While SimCiy DS is not a prefect game it is highly addictive and fun.

Pros-

- To completely build your city you will have to spend hours and hours playing.
- The game is pretty intuitive and easy to play from the begining
- The "Simulation" of the game is interesting from a master planning and economics stand-point. By raising taxes you will drive some of your residents out.

Cons-

- You must use the stylus for determining what and where you are going to build. At times it can be difficult controlling the stylus precisely enough to build in exactly the right spots. This becomes especially true while building roads.
- The game does get a bit repetitive at times - and it does seem silly that you need 8 hospitals for a town of 50,000 people.
- You can only save one city at a time. This turns the game into a one person at a time game... and since it may take a month to build a complete city this becomes an annoyance if someone else wants to play!

FInal Verdict - SimCity is a fun way to pass a plane, car, or train ride - I fully recommend the game without any hesitation despite some minor flaws.

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