Before SimCity, my Super Nintendo experience had been limited to colourful platformers and space shooters. Then, suddenly, I was building entire cities with my controller. Complex networks of power lines, roads, railways, and skyscrapers.
It seemed unbelievable at the time that they'd managed to squeeze all this into a tiny 16mb cartridge. Not only could you build your own metropolis, but there were scenarios set in pre-built cities designed to test your skills: a nuclear meltdown in Boston, flooding in Rio de Janeiro, a monster attack in Tokyo.
But it wasn't always so dramatic, which was actually part of the magic. Between moments of stress, SimCity was oddly relaxing. In quiet moments you could plant trees or tidy up your road network, waiting for your buildings to develop.
Danger zone
The calm never lasted, though. While you were busy in one corner of your city, disaster would strike in another. Roads would fall into disrepair, causing massive traffic jams. Citizens would become irate about their increased taxes. Power lines would break, plunging entire blocks into darkness. It was like spinning plates.
SimCity also allowed you to be creative, which was unheard of on consoles at the time. The most efficient cities were built using a grid system, as favoured by American city planners in the real world, but where's the fun in that? I'd always try and give my creations personality, making interesting shapes out of roads and buildings.
What made this version special were the little Nintendo touches. On PC the monster that invaded your cities was a knock-off Godzilla; on SNES it was Bowser. If you managed to grow your population to 500,000, you'd be awarded a Mario statue to place in your city.
SimCity has grown ever more complex over the years, much like its sprawling cities, but the simplicity of the SNES version was appealing. Watching your tiny village grow into a teeming megalopolis was a real thrill. You needed a lot of patience, though. I lost count of how many cities I abandoned because the problems became too numerous to deal with.
I did manage to create one megalopolis, which I'd colourfully named 'Bumtown'. Pollution was high, the roads were thick with traffic, people were unhappy, the police and fire departments were under funded, and entire streets were disintegrating because there was no money to repair them. It was a nightmare, but it was my nightmare, and I was immensely proud of it.
Comments
11 comments so far...
beemoh on 27 Apr '13 said:
>making interesting shapes out of roads and buildings.
"drawing nobs out of roads and buildings"
STE MO on 27 Apr '13 said:
This was one of my favourite SNES games. I played it for hours at a time without realising. It was utterly addictive. Might need to get an emulator to go down memory lane.
Imaduck on 27 Apr '13 said:
Can't see the new version provoking such nostalgia
Sorry, I don't think it can be said enough though.
illage2 on 28 Apr '13 said:
Sim City on the Snes
I remember that you could have Bowser attack your city. Such good memories.
illage2 on 28 Apr '13 said:
Aye thats true.
sulli456 on 28 Apr '13 said:
Agree completely, i have been a fan of the series since sim city 2000, used to be completely hooked, the new one just doesn't do it. There have just been too many game breaking bugs - city not processing, basic functions not correctly working and the farce of launch to sour the game. I have just given up playing it, i really want to play it, but it just doesn't work, and i know that if i do and my good city has finally got round to processing i don't have enough space for what i want my city to be.
They had a nice vision with it and it could have been something great but boy oh boy did they blow it.
discostoo on 28 Apr '13 said:
I adore this version, even bringing my SNES into school in 1992 for a Geography project. I still listen to the soundtrack to this day.
billysastard on 28 Apr '13 said:
no microtransactions, no always online and here we are all these years later still able to play all of the game, what on earth happened to gamers where we allowed (and even encouraged in some cases) what could have been classic games become half complete, unusable trainwrecks that are designed to be thrown away in a couple of years? since when was 100% depreciation considered acceptable?
placid ca5ual on 28 Apr '13 said:
I used to have this on the SNES and it was one of my favourites. After re-buying it on virtual console I've sunk another few hundred hours in and started to play it yet again after i transferred my vrtual console stuff to my wii-u wii menu.
Such a fantastic game and its the definitive version on SNES- the little touches mentioned above really make the dfference.
Laughlyn on 28 Apr '13 said:
I remember having this on my snes. such an amazing game and great relaxing music. much prefer this version to the latest ones, same with civilisation. the original on amiga still brings back so many memories of all-nighters building a space shuttle
Kinslowdian on 30 Apr '13 said:
I spent many hours in 1994 playing this round a friends house, loved the Nintendo touches in the game like the SNES logo on the printer. You knew this game wasn't going to just be a disc to cartridge copy but a perfected Nintendo version. This is begging to be released on the 3DS.