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Sim City DS: Reviews

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Game Score: 10/10

Surfing the official Sim City website, I spot an add off to the side. "Sim City coming to the DS!" it says. Needless to say, my bottom jaw hurt for a few days after its collision with the floor! Now, that I've finally got a copy of it nestled comfortably in my M3 DS Simply, I feel obliged to review it.

**Graphics**
The building graphics are amazing! I've read that they are comparable to the graphics of Sim City 3; I can't verify this (my knowledge is limited to SC2000 and SC4 Deluxe) but I can say that the graphics are darn good! In each zone (industrial, residential, and commercial) there are about 10 or more different buildings and each looks completely different from the other, so there will be reduced amount of repetitive buildings.

**Gameplay**
The gameplay is the norm for Sim City games: start small and work your way up to a bustling metropolis without pissing off your Sims. If you've played a Sim City game before, there will be nothing new here but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. After you start the game and choose your adviser (more on that later), you can choose one of two ways to play: Build-a-City and Save the City. Build-a-City is like your normal Sim City game; in it, you build a city. In Save the City, you are given a scenario and a time frame to complete. If you ever played Sim City 2000, this is just like scenarios in Sim City 2000. There aren't as many scenarios as SC2000, but there enough to keep your busy for a while.

**Building your city**
When you first choose Build-a-City, you choose the city's name and the Mayor's name. These aren't changeable so, while being kind of humorous, "Buttville" might not be to your taste next week so choose carefully... After that, you are shown a map (much like the regions in Sim City 4) that is divided into grids. Each grid is a different difficulty and starts with a different amount of Simoleans, so be careful when you are choosing a location.

Just like other games in the series, you can build power plants, fire stations, marinas, and a plethora of other buildings. There are also rewards (Mayor's Manor, Museum, etc) that are unlocked at certain population milestones. The transportation options, however, are more limited. You can build a road, a highway, a train station, and rail tracks. Gone are the avenues, one-way streets, and substations from previous titles.

**Problems**
No game, sadly, is perfect. There are a few problems I have with the game, but they are fairly minor.

For one, the bottom screen was a bit off. When ever I'd touch the place that I wanted to put my police station, the building would be one or two squares off. After a calibration it was less severe, but the inaccuracy was still there. This is horribly bad, you just have to learn to adjust your stylusing (new word!).

There are a lot of menus. This is nothing new to Sim City fans, but it can be a bit overwhelming. A simple way around this is to go through the tutorial that is available on the main screen. It will take about 15 minutes of your life, but it will save you from a headache in the future.

My last problem is the adviser. When you start the game for the first time, you are asked some questions and a city adviser is assigned to you based on your answers (mine is the robot dude). This adviser plays a pretty big part of the game. In other SC games, you could ignore the advisers, but in this game the adviser is constantly pestering you how to "better" your city. If you follow their advice, you'll be fine but it will become bothersome if you run amok with your city building.

**Overall**
Overall, this game is amazing! Sim City that can fit in my pocket! The graphics are great, and the gameplay won't disappoint Sim City veterans. While there are a few minor problems that I have with the game, I fell it deserves a 10 out of 10.