SimCity was one of the early hits on home computers. I never had a chance to play this title, but even as a child I knew what it was about and yearned to give it a spin. Unfortunately my family didn’t have a computer, and so I was left wanting. SimCity had an air of mystery about it, and it seemed to almost transcend mere video games. Then something interesting happened. When Nintendo launched their 16-bit Super Nintendo console a home port of SimCity rounded out their initial line-up. This version was actually ported by Nintendo themselves, and they applied their usual polish to the release making it one of the most renowned editions of the game. I had long forgotten about SimCity until my teenage years when I randomly spotted this title for rent at my local video store. I snagged it for the weekend, and I barely left my room during this period. I was absolutely hooked on the game, but alas I never saw it for sale. Years later this was one title I had to have in my collection if not just for nostalgia sake. This last weekend I took it for a spin, and it hooked me in almost as thoroughly as it did in my youth. This classic version is still viable.
There’s not a lot of story here. You play the role of mayor over a town that you’re tasked with building. You need to manage tax rates and deal with problems such as crime, pollution, traffic and more as they become real issues. You’re not completely on your own however; you’re given advice by a cartoony caricature of Will Wright (called Dr. Wright here). This is a great exclusive feature in my opinion. When you begin you’re given a vast array of options. There’s a practice mode that teaches you the ins and outs to get you started. This is completed when you reach a population of thirty thousand citizens. Next up we have the scenario mode. This plays out several historical events (some fictional) and even two futuristic events. There’s the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906 which is my favorite of the bunch. Next there’s the traffic issues of Bern Switzerland from 1965. The most hilarious of the bunch is a monster attack in Tokyo from 1961 (obviously based on Godzilla). Then there’s a crime wave in Detroit during 1972 which I have no idea if it’s based on a real historical event. The future events include a nuclear meltdown in Boston 2010, and coastal flooding in Rio De Janeiro in 2047. These scenarios are well designed and fun to play.
These two bonus modes are fun (with heavy emphasis on the scenario mode being awesome) but most people are going to go straight for the ‘Start New City’ option. You’re immediately given a choice of terrain on which to build. You can cycle through the different layouts, but good luck with checking all of them out considering you have nine hundred and ninety nine different ones! It’s astounding, but they only differ in layouts of water and land with alternate layouts for trees and other natural terrain. Unfortunately the game suffers from noticeable loading times while you cycle through each of these and therefore you’re going to want to write down your favorites on numbers. Once you make your selection you’re given an overhead view of the terrain and can get right to building. You have three basic structures to build qualified as ‘zones.’ These are residential, commercial, and industrial. The first allows more people to live in your town, and the second/third choices give jobs to the citizens. After this you need to build roads for travel, and can also opt for railroad tracks for trains. Then you have to manage crime and fire outbreaks by building police stations and fire stations. These only affect the area in which they’re placed oddly enough, and so you’re going to need a lot of them to ensure your citizens are safe. This game requires a lot of management, but Dr. Wright will let you know when you need more of any one thing. You can always demolish and replace structures. Of course you’ll also need power to the city, and have access to numerous power plants and power lines that must be connected to each structure. As your city grows you will need more and more of these.
As your city becomes more desirable people will move to it. As your population grows it changes classifications from a village, town, city, and so forth. When you reach specific milestones you’re given the option to add entertainment institutions such as parks, sports stadiums, statues, and more. You only have so much budget though, and that’s why you need to manage taxes. In addition you’re also given a chart displaying hot sports for crime and pollution, and must act accordingly to keep your citizens happy. The biggest detriment to your job as mayor however is the natural disasters. Fires can start and spread rapidly to adjacent structures. You also have tornadoes which destroy everything in their path, and floods which do the same but nothing can be rebuilt into the water recedes. Earthquakes start fires and destroy structures, and there’s also a monster which walks around and wreaks havoc on your town. In a nod to the Mario franchise godzilla is replaced with Bowser. It’s a really cool reference in my opinion.
The graphics are downright pleasant. Nintendo realized that not everyone would be able to tell what everything was, and therefore they used big letters to signify the difference between them. They’re also color coded, but for those of us who have trouble with that it’s very thoughtful that they lettered each one. The terrain is a little drab looking to be honest. It’s just shades of dirt and trees with occasional water. The high point of the graphics however is watching your city build up and expand. Nintendo paid heavy attention to detail; you can see trains riding along the railway tracks and even tiny little black dots that represent cars driving the streets. These can be useful visual aids to show where you have the most traffic congestion and what not. Other than that I really liked the design Nintendo incorporated for Will Wright. It’s an awesome reference, and cool exclusive feature to this version. The soundtrack is also very well done. The music changes based on your city’s classification (village, town, city, etc.) and each theme is highly enjoyable. The music is all highly iconic, and some of the best in any ‘Sim’ game I’ve ever played.
SimCity on the Super Nintendo is kind of a hard sell to be honest. No matter what I say everyone reading this is probably stuck on the fact that you’re controlling a cursor around the screen with a directional pad. This title was released well before Nintendo pushed the mouse peripheral to the market, and I’ll be honest the controls are a little clunky. If you can get past this you’re going to find that this is an incredible version of the original SimCity. It might just be the best one thanks to Nintendo’s signature polish and the charm they bring to it. Unfortunately this release was overshadowed a bit at launch by the big hitters but it’s awesome.
