SimCity Creator

By Sam Prescott

This is a franchise that doesn’t need a whole lot of hoopla by way of introduction. It’s SimCity and you’re bound to have heard of it. If not – then you’re on the wrong site, friend. You shouldn’t be poking around a gaming site when you know so little. Go look up Food in a Minute recipes or something.

On the Wii, the game stands out, as do almost all of the titles for this machine, in terms of its controls. Unique? Naturally. The Wii allows you to ‘draw’ linear infrastructure – roads, power lines, zoning and of course makes use of its point-to-place ability. Putting together your city has never been easier. In terms of content, it doesn’t seem there’s going to be vast gulfs that separate this game out from its previous versions, but I don’t think I’m alone in going to a ‘Sims’ game hoping for more of the same.

Disasters, one of the fundamental joys of SimCity games (destruction is a form of creation, after all; Donnie Darko says so), can also be controlled with the remote. Swing it down as though you’re calling down a meteor strike, and that’s what happens. Swirl that little sucker around and summon a tornado. And watch your city burn.

We can all identify with the pain of losing parts of our city to decay and the deep pang of regret when we need to bulldoze and start afresh, correct? Well, SimCity Creator is going to ensure we feel that all the more keenly, here, with the lack of thought the developers have put into animating the destruction process. That is, none. They cite lack of graphical oomph as the reason… but that’s more of an excuse from my perspective.

Of course, I’ll forgive them that. Unlockable content through building your city’s population, the first ever curved roads in a SimCity game (yes, actually, that is a big deal), new architectural styles and other goodies are going to have me seeking this one out. Maybe you should too.

And keep your eyes peeled for a DS version. There’s less goss around about this one, and speculating is always dangerous, but international chatter has pundits pretty excited about SimCity Creator for the Wii so there’s no reason the DS one should slip.

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Posted by BlackRetina on 20 August 2008, 08:10AM

cool