Build your urban empire in ‘SimCity’ for the iPhone
One of the most anticipated iPhone games has finally arrived in the App Store, SimCity ($9.99).
Everything you loved about the original SimCity can be found in the iPhone version. Normally when games make the leap onto portable platforms, they take a haircut in terms of features, not so with SimCity for the iPhone. Because the iPhone has a large touchscreen, much of the point and click gameplay of the original works perfectly for the iPhone.
Panning around the map is effortless, just drag your finger across the screen. To zoom in or out, just use pinch gestures. Placing buildings or selecting tools is just a matter of tapping on the touchscreen.
Finally, an iPhone game with tons of depth, and with Metal Gear Touch in the works, makes you wonder where iPhone gaming will take us next.
Features
- Intuitive Touch Controls
- Tutorial to ease you into developing your first city
- Starter Cities start you in different types of cities
- Manage all aspects of a thriving city, including budget
- Destroy it all with 5 Disasters – UFO, Fire, Tornado, Earthquake and Toxic Cloud
- Place Parks, Landmarks, public works and various different special buildings
- Public and private transportation with roads and rail
- Public works management: Water, Power, Garbage and Recycling
- Place 6 Zone types
- Enact Ordinances to satisfy petitioners
- Never play the same game twice
- 3 Difficulty Settings
- Small, Medium and Large Cities
- Customizable Procedural Terrain Generation
- Complex simulations that adapt to your every move
Screenshots
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I loved this game when I was younger and still play it once in a while. The iPhone version isn’t really cutting it for me though. Granted, I’ve spent several hours on it by now, but it seems like it’s lacking. The map is too small in my opinion. I run out of room to build anything, including zoning for landfill, within the first 10 years of play. Pollution is out of control because there’s no new technology in that time frame. The other issue that I found is there seems to be no room to build a good rail system. No subways are available so with the lack of room and no bus system is available yet it seems impossible to impress the Sims with this function.
Overall the graphics are very good and it runs smoothly. I am impressed with the effort. It’s more than I’m capable of doing, so I suppose I can’t complain too much.
I’ve been waiting for this game ever since the iPhone came out!
So does this mean EA will finally update SimCity 4 too so it works with Leopard??!! it’s been broken all this time. and then it would be really great to be able to load your saved cities from the Mac to the iPhone …