SimCity has been a “thing” for a very long time. Pretty sure I got pulled in on the second game – SimCity 2000. And that was all she wrote. I’ve been hooked on this genre ever since. Even though the newest iteration wasn’t received all that positively, and was buggy as all heck on release, I still loved it. Being that the latest SimCity game was 2013, this borders on being “nostalgic”, but somehow still ended up being a “current” game, simply because it’s the latest game. This is also the one I’ll be playing on stream, because, somehow, it’s still my favorite of the series. (Although SimCity 4 is a close second.)

Game Info:

SimCity is (obviously) a city-building game, made by Maxis, published by EA. The first game was independently developed by the amazing Will Wright, and came out in 1989. As I said, it was the second game that got my attention, SimCity 2000 (which, ironically, came out in 1993, nowhere close to Y2K). In fact, by the time we got to the year 2000, they were on to SimCity 3000. The series has been well-received (at least, until the last one) basically from the beginning, getting review scores typically above 70 out of 100. (Again, the last one was the anomaly, only getting a 63). Above all, however, this is the game that has inspired budding city planners, transport officials, and local government figures from nearly day one. This was the game that got the genre really started, and it deserves recognition as such. There were a few city-builders before SimCity originally came out, but they didn’t catch on like Will Wright’s version did.

As a side note, SimCity 4 was the high point of the series, getting a 85 on aggregate review scores, and had some really awesome features. One of my favorite things was that you could take a city built in SimCity 4, and open that file in the create a world tool for Sims 3. It was released in 2003, and gave a lot of new features to the series, including day-night cycle, pedestrian roaming, individual cars, and 3D graphics. It also started the “regions”, or districts gameplay trend, as well as changing the zoning system to include wealth levels.

After SimCity 4, The developer went a little sideways, and the next game, SimCity Societies (2007), also holds a place in my heart. Very few people probably remember this spin-off, but it spawned many a late-night gaming session for me. Ultimately, it had a completely different play style, focusing more on social engineering than on city planning. There was no zoning, and your city would grow according to the types of buildings you included, which meant you could have several different types of city (and they all looked different). It wasn’t well-received, however, and, after attempting to give it a DLC (that also was mediocre on reviews), the Societies spin-off was abandoned in favor of other ideas.

The version I’ll be playing, the 2013 game was designed as a “reboot” to the franchise, and Maxis expected great things from it. Had it released without the bugs, network failures (it was marketed as being multiplayer), and lack of single-player mode, it might have done better. In fact, I am sure it would have, because the game really is a nice game. (Once they fixed it.) The expansion, Cities of Tomorrow, had a nice concept to it, and really made things interesting. It, also, received mixed reviews, however, and pretty much put the last coffin nails into the box SimCity had gotten buried in. Unfortunately, it seems that the 2013 game was the end of the SimCity franchise, despite the fact that the rest of the series was so influential. (Maxis Emeryville that made SimCity 2013 closed for good in 2015.)

My Editorial:

Ultimately, I could have pulled this one off my list, and it really is just sort of dangling on at the low end, because, let’s be fair, there are better city-building games out there currently that I would rather play. However, the game is still fun to play, and I’m looking forward to playing it now, after I’ve put so many hours into Cities: Skylines (which was green-lit after the “failure” of the 2013 SimCity “reboot”). It’ll be interesting to take another look at a game that, despite critical reception, I still loved… and give recognition to the hours upon hours I have put into the entire series. I felt I couldn’t have a “my favorite games” list without at least including one of the SimCities games. Depending on how I feel after Monday, I may very well try to get the older SimCity Societies to work, and show that one off on Tuesday.

Stay Tuned for afterthoughts!*

*(coming next week when I publish the VODs from this week’s playthroughs on Youtube)