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Loads of fun!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 33 / 36
Date: June 28, 2007
Author: Amazon User

For all of us who have always wanted the ability to build a sprawling metropolis on a handheld gaming system (yeah, I didn't realize I wanted to either!) comes SimCity DS. This game is more or less a port of SimCity 3000 for the PC, so fans of that game will feel right at home with the DS version. While the game experiences some limitations it is, overall, incredibly fun and engaging.

Audience: Obviously Sim fans will enjoy having this game available on the go. But Sim City DS offers something for even the casual or non-gamer--the game is not that difficult to learn to play and successful gameplay relies more on good management and sense than on mastering some complicated control scheme.

Graphics: The graphics aren't great, but they're much more clear than I thought they'd be on such a small screen. There are just natural limitations in trying to fit a whole city, or even parts of it, onto a puny screen. So while it's difficult sometimes to see exactly what you're looking at/for, the graphics are as good as can be reasonably expected.

Gameplay: Build a City mode is the main game mode here, but you can also unlock a "Save the City" mode where you complete some scenario involving rebuilding or otherwise rescuing a distressed city in a certain amount of time. There are also several excellent tutorials and an advisor who, although he or she might annoy you to no end, can aid you in your city building endeavors.

Control: Building is done with the stylus on the touch screen. Again, size constraints are the biggest issue here since you'll sometimes want to build a road or something in an area larger than the screen.

Challenge: Several levels of difficulty, from a city with little water where you start with $100,000 to an island where you get only $10k to start.

This game is insanely fun. I've always loved the SimCity games and being able to play one on my DS was like a dream come true. And despite the game's shortcomings I'd definitely recommend the game for the city building experience alone. The good and the bad:

PROS:

-incredibly fun and engaging

-lots of unlockables and secrets to find

-great tutorials

-great, intuitive controls with an 'undo' type feature for the inevitable misplaced structure

CONS:

-you can only save one city at a time (the biggest flaw in my opinion--would be a dealbreaker for me except this game is so darned fun regardless).

-your city advisor can get incredibly annoying and you may feel like firing her after she chides you for not building a 6th zoo in your city of 25,000 people to please the local promqueen.

-no terrain editor or even a way to mildly alter terrain

As Much Fun As The Original

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 16 / 17
Date: June 22, 2007
Author: Amazon User

If you're a Sim City fanatic, or a simulation game junkie in general, you'll love building a city and watching it grow in Sim City DS.

Similar to the original you start off with funds enough to zone some land and watch citizens begin to move in. All the classic favorites are here. You have to put up a power plant, get electricity to the masses, build roads, put up police and fire stations, and keep track of the wants and needs of your Sim citizens to watch your city prosper. The controls for the game were easy to use thanks to the DS touch pad. Before playing I was concerned the building areas would be too small or hard to use but EA has managed to make them just the right size for the DS.

To help you along in the game, or for those new to Sim City, there are a plentiful amount of tutorials which go through the mechanics of building a city as well as the mechanics of the DS version itself. I found the tutorials to be incredibly informative, even as a long time Sim City player. They helped me learn the controls of the DS version as well as refresh my memory on the specifics of city building. The only downside to these were that it took quite a while to get through them all. Once complete though you feel ready to handle anything your city might throw your way. You can jump right into building your own empire and know exactly how to work the game to its fullest. The adviser you choose to help you in the tutorials continues on with you to help advise you during city building as well. Sim City DS includes a choice of advisers who have a variety of specialties (like environmental background, etc) which also adds a new twist to the game.

Besides regular city building this DS version also includes some mission modes, where you run around the Sim City streets chasing bad guys or saving Sim citizens from danger. So if you're looking for a little action along with your city building, Sim City DS has it.

My one disappointment with this game is lack of WiFi. It would be nice to be able to connect to others and share content. Sim City DS does include a mode to connect with other DS users but it's the kind where they must be near you, and in order to do this you have to unlock the mode first. Still, the original Sim City had no online sharing aspects and it doesn't really make Sim City DS feel lacking, it would have just been a nice addition but doesn't really detract from the game.

The graphics are beautiful, the game play is the same (which for Sim City fans is a good thing!), the addition of missions gives you some action to switch to if you want some variety. This game is a definite must have for all the simulation game lovers out there!

J MON$Y

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: June 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I just bought this game and it is excellent. Takes me back to my childhood of playing simcity on my old pc. The touch screen controls are great and the advisors add a new element to the game. This game is extremely addictive and made my fiance wonder if she was ever going to get her ds back.Simcity ds is also more challenging than the previous installments, which is good for those of us who are experienced players. If you are a beginner you can just change the settings to easy and work your way up. If you are a fan of any type of simulator style games, this is a must have for you.

SimCity hits the DS

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: June 27, 2007
Author: Amazon User

SimCity is as old a game as one can remember, gracing the PC and some consoles over the years and providing some gameplay that ranged from challenging to tedious. Now SimCity has hit the DS, and the end result isn't bad one bit either. As you plan and build your city, you'll find that the same kind of aforementioned challenging gameplay can be found here, and found rather quickly to boot. This is made all the more challenging thanks to your incredibly annoying advisor, who you can't fire or turn off. While this is possibly SimCity DS' greatest flaw, and the core gameplay of SimCity remains the same, this DS version has some flaws. For starters, the graphics look nice but lack the overall detail you would expect from playing the previous versions of the game, and are pretty bland to say the least, while demolishing areas is a chore thanks to a buggy interface that takes out more than you'll desire. Despite all this, SimCity DS still manages to deliver in rendering a replicant of the original game; and it's main attraction, building cities, is still done wonderfully. Managing the city is easier as well thanks to the new data screens, and the uplifting and catchy soundtrack is a nice bonus as well. All in all, SimCity DS is a worthy replication of the classic PC and Mac game from years past that works on Nintendo's smash hit handheld, and for longtime SimCity players that would like a dependable version of the game on the go, look no further.

Good, but can not compare to the PC version

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: August 06, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I am a huge SimCity fan, so I didn't hesitate in my decision to purchase this game the day it came out. While SimCity DS is a fun game, there are a few small parts about the game that frustrated me.

This game is nearly identical to SimCity 3000 for the PC, with only a few minor changes. The graphics look good - nearly identical to the PC version. The music is nice and catchy, and the controls do an excellent job taking advantage of the Nintendo DS's two-screen display and touch screen interface.

Unfortunately, there are a few things about this game that drive me crazy. The biggest problem is that the game requires you to pause your city while making changes (at least as far as I can tell). This setup is very frustrating to me, especially because the time does not change very quickly (there are two speed settings: slow and super slow). Also, in the PC version, you could easily open a box listing all the citizens that want to talk to you, but in this game this same process is much more limited and time consuming.

In this game you don't have to connect your city grid with pipes to implement the water system, which makes things less frustrating. Also, it is simple to create land or water, although all the land in the game is flat (no mountains!).

If you are a fan of SimCity and just have to have your city-planning quick fix on the go, then go ahead and get this game. However, if you are new to the series, or want to spend serious time with a SimCity game, I would recommend passing on this product and getting one of the PC versions such as SimCity 3000 or SimCity 4.

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.

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!

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.

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