Release Date: August 23, 1991
Developer: Maxis Software, Inc.
Publisher: Nintendo of America, Inc.
The Super Nintendo officially launched on August 23, 1991 in North America. It launched with a measly five games, but the games were noteworthy. Super Mario World was, of course, the heavy hitter and a pack-in title. F-Zero and Pilotwings were the system’s tech mules, showing off the SNES’s “Mode 7” hardware rotation and scaling. Gradius III was the latest entry in a venerable shoot-em-up series. The fifth title was a bit odd in that it was a city-building simulation game. Actually, it was THE city-building simulation game: SimCity.
Maxis game designer and co-founder – and gaming god – Will Wright came up with the idea while designing another game, Raid on Bungeling Bay. He realized that he enjoyed playing with the level editor more than actually coding the game. He began to design more intricate level editors and messing with them more. To that he added his growing interest in urban planning, added a bit of his magic, and whipped up his final vision: Micropolis! That was the working title for the game that would eventually be released as SimCity.
The game was released in February 1989 for the IBM PC, Commodore 64, Amiga, and Apple Macintosh. It was a smash hit, vacuuming up awards and accolades left and right. It was eventually ported to just about any machine with a keyboard attached to it and has become synonymous with the city-building simulation genre.
A console port of such a menu-driven game like SimCity seems odd, but they were up to the challenge. Maxis actually worked on a version of SimCity for the NES in 1991, but decided against releasing it because Nintendo’s 16-bit successor had already released in Japan and was about to be released in the U.S. The SNES port was finished in time for the North American launch.
I am a fan of simulation games, and the idea of building my own city was interesting to 1992 me. I picked the game up at the local Blockbuster, returned home, and played it for a few hours. I then retuned the game, drove to the Toys ‘R Us nearby, and bought it. Three weeks later, my then-wife was thumbing through the Yellow Pages looking for divorce lawyers.
The main objective in SimCity is to design, build, and maintain a city. You can plop yourself on an empty plot of land with no end goal, or you could choose a scenario that has specific goals to achieve. Either way, you have to produce a working city. To do so, you zone land as commercial, industrial, or residential; you provide power and transportation systems to the zones; and you erect municipal structures that make life in your city-to-be pleasant for your citizens. These citizens, or Sims, will start to move into your city and go about their business. As your population reaches certain milestones, the game rewards you with special buildings, like a casino, expo, or even a giant Mario statue.
The rewards were added to the SNES port as a new feature. Also added was Dr. Wright, a character modeled after Will Wright himself. He acts as the city adviser, letting you know when Sims are complaining or when certain things in your city are awry. You have to manage the city’s crime rate, as well as any possible pollution sources. You also have to maintain the city’s budget, which means maintaining the tax rate so that it’s profitable without upsetting the citizenry.
Occasionally, your city experiences problems. Fires can break out throughout the city and will carve it up if you haven’t placed fire stations nearby. Worse are natural disasters like flooding and tornadoes; mechanical disasters like an airplane crash and nuclear meltdown; and, of course, a monster attack. In the original game, the city was attacked by Godzilla; the SNES version replaces the kaiju with Bowser.
Playing SimCity with a console controller may take a little getting used to, but it’s pretty easy to get around. Once you get into it, the game is almost mesmerizing. I popped it in my SNES for a quick run prior to writing this article and ended up playing for hours. The atmospheric music is soothing, the graphics simple but colorful and with nice detail. and the urge to just build a few more residential zones to reach the next population milestone is constant.
Does it still hold up? I think so. Obviously, people looking for action won’t groove to this game. The use of a controller may turn off some people as well. The game has aged relatively well, though the simple visuals aren’t much to look at.
In 2008, the original SimCity source code was released as open source under the original name Micropolis. That means anyone can play this game freely. The SNES version, however, has some unique content that Micropolis does not have. If you want to play with that extra content, or you prefer to try this game with a controller, you have a couple of options. There was a port of the game for the Game Boy Advance, and it is available in the Wii Virtual Console.
The SNES went on to have several more simulation games. A few were from Maxis (SimCity 2000, SimAnt), but other companies soon jumped in. Leading the pack was Koei, a company that is now merged with Tecmo. Their titles ran the gamut from historical simulations set in imperial China (Nobunaga’s Ambition, Romance of the Three Kingdoms) and the Middle Ages (Gemfire), military sims set in the Pacific Theater of World War II (P.T.O.), and even in the cutthroat airline business (AeroBiz). I have them all, and they’re all a blast.
For people that find the same enjoyment in sim games like I do, SimCity is perfect. It was a great launch title that helped balance out the SNES’s initial library.
Good: Engrossing simulation gaming; simple to pick up; soundtrack and visuals don’t get in the way of experience
Bad: Controller can be clunky at first; narrow audience; slightly dated visuals
Final score: 8.5/10
