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| From: Electronic Arts
Category: Video Games
List Price: $19.99
Buy New: $17.90
You Save: $2.09 (10%)
New (21) Used (11) from $12.25
Avg. Customer Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 981
Platform: Nintendo Ds
ESRB: Everyone
Media: Video Game
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Age: 5 - 20 years
Operating System: Nintendo DS
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3
Dimensions (in): 0.1 x 0 x 0
MPN: 15759
Model: 15759
UPC: 014633157598
EAN: 0014633157598
ASIN: B000O5VJRY
Release Date: June 19, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
sim city October 10, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Fast delivery. The game itself is really great. The graphics are so much more bubbly and fun then the old sim cities.
Old School SimCity!! August 23, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I used to play SimCity on the computer back in 7th and 8th grade at school, and I didn't think I would ever find the old school game again, what with The Sims, and all the other Sim stuff out these days, not to mention the bigger and better game consoles. But this game really reminds me of the old computer game! It is pretty fun, but I would recommend playing the tutorial thing, or else you may get highly frustrated, as happened to me! I can't quite figure out a decent balance between taxing my people low enough so they won't move out of town, but high enough to not have a deficit! I guess that is why I don't REALLY run a city! Lots of fun and entertainment for hours! Oh, and the visitors to the mayor's office can be annoying, but I just ignore their visit and send them on their way a lot of the time!
Nearly Perfect August 18, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
SimCity is a fantastic game that's been around forever, and it works in the DS format nearly perfectly. It's great to have a little city in your pocket that you can pull out and play with when you have a few minutes. This is a straightforward implementation of the old standby, and lots of fun to play.
It's based on the older versions of SimCity, so it doesn't have the latest features of the desktop versions. I don't miss them - they add more complexity than I'd want in a DS game. But this is more like the original Sim City (with better graphics, advisors and the 'ticker' from newer SinCity versions) than it is like SimCity 3000, etc.
The biggest problem with SimCity DS is that you can only save one game. This is a problem because SimCity is fundamentally a game of experimentation, where you try different strategies for building cities in different environments, which means that you very naturally accumulate lots of different cities, each of which you've invested a lot of time in and want to keep. In SimCity DS, if you want to try a different terrain, you can only do that by wiping out your current city, which, to be blunt, sucks. Aside from my not being able to play multiple cities, it means that I can't give SimCity DS to my kids to play their own games. Does EA expect me to buy a bunch of copies of the game, just to save multiple cities? Not for $30 a copy!
A minor annoyance: you have to be careful dragging zones, etc., because all actions complete with raising the stylus, and the only way to cancel actions is to make them invalid, such as by dragging a building over a road, or dragging a road off the edge of the map. This is particularly annoying with the bulldozer. It would be better if there were a button to cancel the action.
There are some added DS "features":
- Some of the disasters have DS interaction, such as a monster smashing through the city that you can subdue with tranquilizer darts.
- There are other events, such as Santa Clause dropping gifts, and a Fireworks Gala, that are unique to the DS. They're fun, and are a nice "hand-eye coordination" change of pace from the rest of the game, which is more intellectual.
- There are 'advisors' (similar to the aids in SimCity 3000+) that help you out a bit. They're less helpful than the old 'newspapers' but do point out basic issues (e.g. "you need more schools") that you can't otherwise tell in the simplified displays.
 Good, but can not compare to the PC version August 6, 2007
I am a huge SimCity fan, so I didn't hesitate in my decision to purchase this game the day it came out. While SimCity DS is a fun game, there are a few small parts about the game that frustrated me.
This game is nearly identical to SimCity 3000 for the PC, with only a few minor changes. The graphics look good - nearly identical to the PC version. The music is nice and catchy, and the controls do an excellent job taking advantage of the Nintendo DS's two-screen display and touch screen interface.
Unfortunately, there are a few things about this game that drive me crazy. The biggest problem is that the game requires you to pause your city while making changes (at least as far as I can tell). This setup is very frustrating to me, especially because the time does not change very quickly (there are two speed settings: slow and super slow). Also, in the PC version, you could easily open a box listing all the citizens that want to talk to you, but in this game this same process is much more limited and time consuming.
In this game you don't have to connect your city grid with pipes to implement the water system, which makes things less frustrating. Also, it is simple to create land or water, although all the land in the game is flat (no mountains!).
If you are a fan of SimCity and just have to have your city-planning quick fix on the go, then go ahead and get this game. However, if you are new to the series, or want to spend serious time with a SimCity game, I would recommend passing on this product and getting one of the PC versions such as SimCity 3000 or SimCity 4.
Loads of fun! June 28, 2007
33 out of 35 found this review helpful
For all of us who have always wanted the ability to build a sprawling metropolis on a handheld gaming system (yeah, I didn't realize I wanted to either!) comes SimCity DS. This game is more or less a port of SimCity 3000 for the PC, so fans of that game will feel right at home with the DS version. While the game experiences some limitations it is, overall, incredibly fun and engaging.
Audience: Obviously Sim fans will enjoy having this game available on the go. But Sim City DS offers something for even the casual or non-gamer--the game is not that difficult to learn to play and successful gameplay relies more on good management and sense than on mastering some complicated control scheme.
Graphics: The graphics aren't great, but they're much more clear than I thought they'd be on such a small screen. There are just natural limitations in trying to fit a whole city, or even parts of it, onto a puny screen. So while it's difficult sometimes to see exactly what you're looking at/for, the graphics are as good as can be reasonably expected.
Gameplay: Build a City mode is the main game mode here, but you can also unlock a "Save the City" mode where you complete some scenario involving rebuilding or otherwise rescuing a distressed city in a certain amount of time. There are also several excellent tutorials and an advisor who, although he or she might annoy you to no end, can aid you in your city building endeavors.
Control: Building is done with the stylus on the touch screen. Again, size constraints are the biggest issue here since you'll sometimes want to build a road or something in an area larger than the screen.
Challenge: Several levels of difficulty, from a city with little water where you start with $100,000 to an island where you get only $10k to start.
This game is insanely fun. I've always loved the SimCity games and being able to play one on my DS was like a dream come true. And despite the game's shortcomings I'd definitely recommend the game for the city building experience alone. The good and the bad:
PROS:
-incredibly fun and engaging
-lots of unlockables and secrets to find
-great tutorials
-great, intuitive controls with an 'undo' type feature for the inevitable misplaced structure
CONS:
-you can only save one city at a time (the biggest flaw in my opinion--would be a dealbreaker for me except this game is so darned fun regardless).
-your city advisor can get incredibly annoying and you may feel like firing her after she chides you for not building a 6th zoo in your city of 25,000 people to please the local promqueen.
-no terrain editor or even a way to mildly alter terrain
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