SimCity™ Review

SimCity is a port of the classic PC game for the iPhone. If you’ve ever played SimCity you’ll know what to expect; creating housing and business districts, mapping out roads, powerlines and expanding the city in general. It’s up to you to create and customise your very own city and maintain it to increase the population and your cash flow.

To control the building of your city, all features can be accessed by tapping the corresponding buttons and dragging them onto the landscape. A small tutorial will help you on the basics of placement and interface, but then it’s up to you to create and customise your very own city. The controls, while simple, can be a bit annoying though and require a lot of adjustment to get the city how you want.

The visuals look great and are incredibly detailed, especially considering the small scale of the game map. Players are unable to use their iPod during gameplay, however the number of sound effects as well as the game’s jazzy soundtrack will be enough to keep you satisfied. The game is single player only and offers one main game mode.

While the SimCity games have earned themselves a reputation as great timewasters, it’s hard to say the same for the iPhone version due to its clumsy control scheme. Even the simplest of building placements needs a lot of adjusting and can take you out of the game. That being said, if you are a diehard fan of the series, then you might be able to forgive the games only major issue and still have some fun.