
SNES Sim City is a Fun Civics Lesson!
4 of 6 people found this review helpful.
The game SIM CITY was released for the Super Nintendo gaming System back in 1992. The concept of Sim City was not a new one, having been released a few years previously but for other gaming systems.
Sim City is a game that can neither be won nor lost. It has a very simple objective...take a chunk of land, develop it and build a thriving mega city. Sounds easy? Well...it's not *quite* that simple.
In the game, you have to deal with many problems that a real city would have. As you build your dream city, people move in and the city grows, But then you get issues such as having a to set a yearly budget, watching out for pollution, crime, housing costs, employment issues, taxes, etc.
You can adjust how fast "time flies" in the game...from very slow to relatively fast. (I love the see the change of seasons!) Sometimes you have an unexpected natural disaster occur and you have to clea up the mess! You have to keep an eye on what is happening and try to head off problems before they become too big.
I first started playing this game when I was 15. My 2 brothers were aged 12 and 6 at the time. We ALL loved this game...yes, even the 6 year old! And we all learned a lot as well, about city planning and how things work. I never thought that I would learn anything from this video game, but sure enough, the lessons did come in handy to me later in life (civics classes and political discussions).
The game has WAY too many land masses to choose from (1000) but you can name your city and save up to 2 games. If you choose, you can play the practice mode, to get a hang of how things work. Or, you can take on a simulation mode where you have to try to solve certain problems (such as pollution, aftermath of an earthquake or excessive crime).
ONe thing I learned about this game is that there is a lovely "cheat" code...it was a little tricky to pull off at first but completely worth it, as you end up with $9,999,999 in your fiscal budget! I won't explain it here, but just search for it on the internet and I am sure you will find it. (If you can't, email me and I'll tell you about it...just visit my ebay store LITTLE TOYS FOR BIG KIDS and you can contact me from there)
This game won a ton of different awards when it came out...from "best simulation game" to "most educational game" to "game of the year". The music is soothing, and the game strangely addictive. The controls are relatively easy to use and you get a great sense of accomplishment when the city you built from scratch is doing well.
Maybe too well.
Maybe (to make things a bit more exciting) you feel like requesting a Godzilla attack...so that you can clean up the mess. Yes...you can do this!
Review ID: 10000000003648468

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