Retro Review: SimCity - SNES - 1991

I'm not opposed to online gaming, but I don't like being forced into it.  I do get scared that someday that online will be the only way I'm going to be able to play anything new. I can understand big MMO adventure games being exclusively online, but I don't understand why they are extending to games that are outstanding as single player games.  To me there is a lot of risk involved with making games online exclusive.  I always prefer when a game has a viable single player option to keep me occupied.  Even the games of the Call of Duty series has single player modes.  And I also fear the day where I can no longer play a game that I spent money on.  And if you haven't heard the online only version of SimCity was released on March 5th, and on March 30th EA will be looking for a new CEO.

The simple fact is that on the release date SimCity didn't work.  Many people bought the game, only few could play.  It was an absolute nightmare for them. I don't know if it was the sole reason that the CEO is stepping down, but it seems to be the straw that broke the camel's back.   It got so ugly that even their forums were using the filter usually used to block people from swearing, to censor their customer support number.  The fact is that the once proud SimCity franchise is now at the mercy of EA's overworked servers, and Adam DeVine's underpants.

It appears that EA fixed the problem relatively quickly, and others figured out a work around in the event that something like this happens again.  The whole ugly episode makes me ask why did this need to be a problem in the first place?  Is the temptation to put all games out on an online format really that great that now even strategy games must be done   I can assure you that many of us would have been very happy with a more traditional update to the series.  With that being said I decided that if I really wanted to play SimCity I would go to one that I knew I could count on working.

Cover art for SimCity for the SNES

That is where my Super Nintendo came in handy.  Back in 1991 long before online gaming was a viable option came a SimCity that worked straight out of the box.  SimCity was really a triumph for the time.  In a time where console games were much more about platforming, action, adventure, and sports games, a good strategy game was rare.  Most good strategy games found their way to the PC. What made the SNES SimCity such a rare game at the time was the fact it was a playable console version of a game that was generally played with a keyboard and mouse.  For me it really introduced me to an entire different gaming experience than I was used to as a kid, and grew to love as an adult.  

In the main sandbox version of the game you are the mayor of a bare piece of land.  From there you need to build a power plant and then off you go.  As mayor your first objective is zoning.  Your population needs places to live, work, and shop.  You need to carefully plot your zones among various public services and means of transportation.  Secondly you are in charge of the finances.  You decide how your government funding is dispersed, and the tax rates on your citizens.

A very neat birds eye view of a well made SimCity

It is a beautifully addicting game, and a horribly frustrating game all wrapped into one.  You get sucked into watching your fluctuation of population as time passes by.  After you get a town built and your population grows you will begin to get bombarded with issues.  And no matter what you can never seem to keep your people quiet about their issues.  If you make an effort to solve an issue, it generally creates another issue.  If your people demand an airport, they complain about the pollution.  If your people want a stadium, they bitch about the traffic around it.  They don't want to pay taxes, yet can't handle budget cuts to your worthless police force and fire department.  And it goes on and on.

If you become convinced of the fact your people will never be happy you can also choose to destroy them in the worst ways possible.  You can cause a random fire to break out somewhere, have a tornado rip though town, or even unleash Bowser upon your town in an effort to steal Godzilla's thunder with a Nintendo plug.

The green haired fellow is Dr. Wright.  He generally pops up when your people are mad about something.  But occasionally he will show up with some good news.

If genocide isn't your idea of a good time, the ultimate goal is to have a population of over 500,000 people.  Even with cheat codes this is a very difficult task to complete.  To achieve 500,000 you need to use every single pixel of land that you have access to.  It also helps to utilize the gifts that are given out throughout the game properly, and also make it a police state.  If you can keep the people happy enough, and you constantly tweak your under performing areas you will be ultimately rewarded with a statue of Mario to commemorate your achievement.  

The second mode was called the scenario mode.  It featured different pre-built SimCities that represented real cities around the world.  In each scenario you need to save the day for a city.  In San Francisco you need to save the city from the 1906 earthquake.  There is flooding in Rio, a nuclear meltdown in Boston, crime in Detroit, pollution in Bern, and a Bowser attack in Japan.  And there are bonuses to unlock if all of those are beaten as well.

The SNES version was incredibly similar to the original PC version of SimCity shown here

The SNES SimCity is revered by many fans of the series.  It made good use of the controller to create a computer game experience fun and easy on our consoles for one of the first times ever.  Many PC titles struggle on this even to this day.  It also allowed the series itself to continue branching out to different platforms of gaming.  The Nintendo DS, Wii, iPad , Android, and Blackberry Playbook all have SimCity games available to them.

Until next time, build yourself a city.