SimCity will always be a classic game in which you can play virtual God with your very own plot of land. The typical gameplay involves creating the city limits, establishing roads, power stations, water, residential, commercial and industrial areas, fire stations, universities and all you need to create a simulated haven. Once you’ve built a happy, content, mini-society standard procedure is too destroy it all by releasing one of many disasters onto your unsuspecting populace. Aliens, tornados, fires; there are plenty of creative ways of feeding our apparent God-complex.
Until you decide to destroy it all, and you will, you are mayor, taxman, police chief, financial advisor, health minister and city planner. For eager business-heads out there you are required to balance the city books, deciding what to fund and what to tax to ensure your people are happy and the city bills are paid. As you begin you are losing money, so taxes must rise to generate income, but as any taxpayer knows, rising taxes never make the people smile.
The game is great and true to the orignal, and anyone familiar with the old PC and Mac games will find all the regular features are there. The gameplay has been cleverly adapted to fit the iPhone’s technology although I did at time wish I was playing on a slightly bigger screen.
As a business aide SimCity will prepare you for the difficult conundrums you will face in the real world. But beware; heavy is the crown and your people will be only to sure to let you know when times are hard. However unlike the real world, you can smite the ungrateful masses with a short, sharp, plague of locusts. Probably best to keep that part make-believe for the time being.
App released 29th July 2010, Produced by ElectronicArtsBV, £1.79.
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