I'm 25 years old, and for 22 of the years of my life I've played some game in the SimCity series. To this day, I still play SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition. It all started back around 1996, when I got Sim Town, a now-obscure spinoff of the SimCity series targeted at young children.
Here's a review of SimTown (warning: strong language) and in it the reviewer says that it is limited in scope. He does have a valid point. This is not a game for adults. There's just not enough in it to keep our interest; heck, children today would probably get bored with it. But as a 3-4 year old in the mid-late 1990s, it was A LOT of fun. I'm not sure of how long I played SimTown for.
I largely skipped the first two entries in the main SimCity series, at least initially; however I have played them all at some point. When I got back into SimCity, it was around 2002, I was about 9, and SimCity 3000 was the latest entry in the series, having launched in 1999.
At first I couldn't figure out how to play it; my first "city" was a VERY mountainous plot of land that I plopped a few hospitals and fire stations on and couldn't figure out why my city's population was 0. Then I discovered that I needed to zone. I put it all together, and at 10 years old I was building cities with good stats (education, health, crime, etc) and populations as high as 1.5 million.
One night, in the fall of 2003, I was riding in the back seat of my mom's 2003 Toyota Corolla when my dad handed me SimCity 4: Deluxe Edition. At 10 years old, I found it too complex, so I put it away after a few days and got 3000 back out. Through the next year I kept playing 3000 and rarely played 4. Eventually, around 2006, I largely gave up 3000 and embraced 4. Also around this time I got the original SimCity for the SNES. It was a fun diversion from time to time.
Throughout much of high school I played 4 frequently. I got a new computer on December 15, 2007, ten days before my 15th birthday. With it I got City Life, a city building game made by a different company, and SimCity Societies.
After a couple of years, I gave up Societies; it was unstable and crashed a lot. I also never really got into City Life. Good game, but there's just something there with a good Maxis SimCity that's hard to find elsewhere. I retreated back to 4, and it's been my go-to SimCity ever since. In 2013, I got the new version; I never fired it up after all of the terrible reviews it got. The Alienware I got in '07 broke down in June 2014, I got a Dell XPS laptop and soon installed SimCity 4: Deluxe Edition.
In December 2015, I got my current computer, an Asus Cybertron with Windows 10. Went without SimCity for a couple of years until my most recent bout with SimCity began at 11:30 pm on Friday, May 11, 2018. I'm a senior journalism student at a major university (though I do have a year left), and finals week was killing me. I had been toying with the idea of getting SimCity 4: Deluxe Edition on Steam. I turned in my last assignment of the semester and fired up Steam within seconds, ponied up the 20 bucks and got my copy of SimCity 4: Deluxe Edition.
It's been 15 years and I'm still playing the same exact game, because there's never been a game like it since. There have been other city building games, but SimCity 4 got it perfect with the total flexibility. You can sculpt your region down to the inch, put roads, zones, everything exactly where you want. You make it 100% your own. Despite the game's age, the graphics and sound still hold up today.
Here's my run-down of all of the SimCity games, as they stand in 2018.
SimCity (original) - Very simplistic, but a fun diversion and worth it to play just to see where it all started. Easy to pick up and play and surprisingly detailed for a 1989 game.
Grade: 92% / A-
SimCity 2000 - This was a quantum leap in the SimCity series, but since 3000 is similar in most ways, playing it today will leave you wanting for 3000. A damn fine in its day, though. I dare say that if it were 1995, this would be the best computer game in existence in my opinion.
Grade: 77% / C+
SimCity 3000 - A lot like 2000, but with a lot of little improvements - better graphics and sound and more realism in general. Still holds up today and strikes that perfect balance between ease of play and detail. First-time or younger players may want to start with this one, and even experienced adult SimCity players will find plenty to enjoy. The Unlimited version is recommended.
Grade: Original - 90% / A-, Unlimited: 95% / A
SimCity 4 - Another major change; this time you get even better graphics and a great soundtrack. The game is extremely detailed and intricate, and can be difficult. It's a steep learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, it's AWESOME. If you want to craft the perfect virtual city, there is no better game. There is one caveat: expand your original game with the Rush Hour expansion pack, or get the Deluxe Edition (which integrates the original game and the Rush Hour expansion pack). Without this expansion pack, the game really is too difficult. SimCity 4: Deluxe Edition is one baby step from a perfect game. I can only think of one change that I'd make: allow double-decker freeways!
Grade: Original - 85% / B, Deluxe Edition: 98% / A+
Here's a review of SimTown (warning: strong language) and in it the reviewer says that it is limited in scope. He does have a valid point. This is not a game for adults. There's just not enough in it to keep our interest; heck, children today would probably get bored with it. But as a 3-4 year old in the mid-late 1990s, it was A LOT of fun. I'm not sure of how long I played SimTown for.
I largely skipped the first two entries in the main SimCity series, at least initially; however I have played them all at some point. When I got back into SimCity, it was around 2002, I was about 9, and SimCity 3000 was the latest entry in the series, having launched in 1999.
At first I couldn't figure out how to play it; my first "city" was a VERY mountainous plot of land that I plopped a few hospitals and fire stations on and couldn't figure out why my city's population was 0. Then I discovered that I needed to zone. I put it all together, and at 10 years old I was building cities with good stats (education, health, crime, etc) and populations as high as 1.5 million.
One night, in the fall of 2003, I was riding in the back seat of my mom's 2003 Toyota Corolla when my dad handed me SimCity 4: Deluxe Edition. At 10 years old, I found it too complex, so I put it away after a few days and got 3000 back out. Through the next year I kept playing 3000 and rarely played 4. Eventually, around 2006, I largely gave up 3000 and embraced 4. Also around this time I got the original SimCity for the SNES. It was a fun diversion from time to time.
Throughout much of high school I played 4 frequently. I got a new computer on December 15, 2007, ten days before my 15th birthday. With it I got City Life, a city building game made by a different company, and SimCity Societies.
After a couple of years, I gave up Societies; it was unstable and crashed a lot. I also never really got into City Life. Good game, but there's just something there with a good Maxis SimCity that's hard to find elsewhere. I retreated back to 4, and it's been my go-to SimCity ever since. In 2013, I got the new version; I never fired it up after all of the terrible reviews it got. The Alienware I got in '07 broke down in June 2014, I got a Dell XPS laptop and soon installed SimCity 4: Deluxe Edition.
In December 2015, I got my current computer, an Asus Cybertron with Windows 10. Went without SimCity for a couple of years until my most recent bout with SimCity began at 11:30 pm on Friday, May 11, 2018. I'm a senior journalism student at a major university (though I do have a year left), and finals week was killing me. I had been toying with the idea of getting SimCity 4: Deluxe Edition on Steam. I turned in my last assignment of the semester and fired up Steam within seconds, ponied up the 20 bucks and got my copy of SimCity 4: Deluxe Edition.
It's been 15 years and I'm still playing the same exact game, because there's never been a game like it since. There have been other city building games, but SimCity 4 got it perfect with the total flexibility. You can sculpt your region down to the inch, put roads, zones, everything exactly where you want. You make it 100% your own. Despite the game's age, the graphics and sound still hold up today.
Here's my run-down of all of the SimCity games, as they stand in 2018.
SimCity (original) - Very simplistic, but a fun diversion and worth it to play just to see where it all started. Easy to pick up and play and surprisingly detailed for a 1989 game.
Grade: 92% / A-
SimCity 2000 - This was a quantum leap in the SimCity series, but since 3000 is similar in most ways, playing it today will leave you wanting for 3000. A damn fine in its day, though. I dare say that if it were 1995, this would be the best computer game in existence in my opinion.
Grade: 77% / C+
SimCity 3000 - A lot like 2000, but with a lot of little improvements - better graphics and sound and more realism in general. Still holds up today and strikes that perfect balance between ease of play and detail. First-time or younger players may want to start with this one, and even experienced adult SimCity players will find plenty to enjoy. The Unlimited version is recommended.
Grade: Original - 90% / A-, Unlimited: 95% / A
SimCity 4 - Another major change; this time you get even better graphics and a great soundtrack. The game is extremely detailed and intricate, and can be difficult. It's a steep learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, it's AWESOME. If you want to craft the perfect virtual city, there is no better game. There is one caveat: expand your original game with the Rush Hour expansion pack, or get the Deluxe Edition (which integrates the original game and the Rush Hour expansion pack). Without this expansion pack, the game really is too difficult. SimCity 4: Deluxe Edition is one baby step from a perfect game. I can only think of one change that I'd make: allow double-decker freeways!
Grade: Original - 85% / B, Deluxe Edition: 98% / A+
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