Most of us can remember the days past when we played some of our favorite classic games for hours on end without any interruption from the outside world. SimCity was one of those games for me, so when I heard it was being made for the iPhone/iPod Touch, I just had to try it. The best part about games being brought back from the days of old is that it brings back all of those great feelings that we can associate with playing them. The worst part is sometimes the developers butcher your most beloved games and ruin the entire experience, past and present. SimCity is a fantastic recreation of the superb original with a few technical issues that just won’t stop getting in the way of pure city building bliss.
SimCity for the iPhone/iPod Touch is basically a port of SimCity 3000 with modified controls and menu systems. Somehow, EA was able to cram the entire package into a portable device. You are able to choose three difficulty settings upon starting your city along with the usual terrain editor. The terrain editor allows modest customization before you start your city. It includes a series of sliders to adjust the topography of your landscape. A map indicator allows you to select the sides you want bordered by oceans, rivers, and lakes. The part that is missing from the editor is the ability to do all of this free hand. No bulldozers or exact placement of forests, it’s all automatically populated by the sliders. There are also custom cities loaded to start from, New Jack City and New Amsterdam if you so please.
I personally started out with a large map on medium to get a feel for the game once again. It is a tad more difficult than I remember to get started, but that just might be the rust that has built up. Since this is in essence SimCity 3000, there are advisers to help you out when there is trouble along with a very informative tutorial. I actually skipped the tutorial at first but had to go back to understand the menu system. It’s not that it’s confusing, it’s just that it’s not the way I remember it. Don’t be arrogant like me, go through the tutorial. It is worth your time.
Placing items is as simple and flexible as you could have possibly made in a mobile version. You are able to drag and move items around before permanently placing them. Even if you missed that road connection by a single square grid, you can simply tap and drag the item before placing it. It is sometimes difficult to get it right in the beginning, but before you know it, you will be placing roads and railways without much of a problem.
The menu system and HUD at first glance can look daunting, that is why we have tutorials. You can toggle the menu system on and off to have more screen real estate, but most of the time your screen will be filled with tons of options. It is a hierarchical system of sorts. Tap the zoning button and from left to right you will get types of zones. Tap residential and another menu pops up showing the types of zones such as light, medium, and dense. Once you get acquainted with the system, you won’t have to dig through menus to find out where each and everything is, but it does take some time.
The graphics and sounds are just as I remember them. You can double tap to zoom in and out or use the pinch and pull method. The zoom gets right into the action and everything looks and operates just like the original. It truly brings back some great memories.
Some of the load times can be long. When you first load your city, there will be a white screen for some time, but be patient. The menu system allows for you to load and save cities with ease. If you don’t like your city, you can easily delete it through the menus to save space. EA really nailed the menu systems in this game, everything works as it should.
Now comes the most revolting part of the game, crashing. I was beyond disappointed with the ridiculous crashing issues I have had. The first few hours were an absolute joy to play. Everyone I talked to about the game asked about the rumored crashing issues and I stood up for it. At that point I was unaware of the problems I was about to encounter. Right around the time my city reached 200,000 population on the large sized map, the game started to crash. At this point I am unable to play anymore due to the game crashing within minutes of loading my half finished city. I have tried everything to remedy the problem outside of uninstalling the game, which I refuse to do because of all of the hard work I have put into creating my city. I am not sure at this point if it’s the size of the city or some sort of memory issue, but I have no solution.
SimCity for the iPhone/iPod Touch is a fantastic game, but how do you look past such a glaring issue like not being able to finish a game due to crashing? Hopefully, in the near future, the game will receive a fix and I can go on and finish what I have started. I just hope that it is only effecting a small number of players so the rest of you can fully enjoy a classic. The game must be scored based on all of these factors, so without the atrocious amount of crashing the game would be nearly perfect, but it’s not, so purchase with caution.
Overall: 7 out of 10
Such a shame that so many iphone games are marred by crashes.
Ahh well that explains it. Tried a couple different citys and the game always crashes just when I get going. Both are in the 200k pop area (never made the connection before).
@Lhm – I am not absolutely positive that is the reason it is crashing but it seems to be the case. It might have something to do with the way the iPhone uses memory but I still would have to blame the developers. The 1.3 update didn’t fix a single thing for me.
I just want to play SimCity to the end, is that too much to ask for?
Great game, just drains the battery big-time! Haven’t reached the same city size as you did…but no crashes so far.
@Shaun – I love the game too, my favorite app until recently. The problem is that I defended this game when everyone asked, “does it crash like everyone says it does?” At that point I assumed it just didn’t crash and everyone was crazy. Like I said before, I am not certain the city size is what makes the game crash but I can’t attribute it to anything else. The game was fine up until that point.
My half finished city has a pop of around 150k. I have been playing on it for ages to get it up to there. It crashes on the same date every time… Sep 13 2026. Just wanted to check whether anyone elses crashes on this date. It is the only time mine has crashed, and I have been playing on it for 2 days!
@martyn – Mine crashes sometime in 2056 so it’s not the date that causes it. It does crash consistently though in 2056 for me. Odd.
Soooo frustrating! Do you think it is likely they will ever fix it?
Crashes every time I play (my city is about 350k.) How can a gaming company as big as EA take so long to fix this major bug/flaw in a $10 game???
About 300k, May 7, 2006, like clockwork. From everything I’ve read, it seems like this problem is almost universal, though the time of onset seems to vary within certain parameters. If this doesn’t get fixed soon, how can I ever buy an EA game for my iPod ever again?
@Richard – EA doesn’t seem to have an answer either. They have released updates stating that “crashing issues” have been resolved but to no avail. There are a few other big name games at the App Store that are poorly programmed and just aren’t worth a dime. It’s sad really, the smaller developers seem to be doing a better job.
of course the smaller app designers do better becoz they dnt make large apps like SimCity. I love simcity on PC but Im worried to purchase it for my iPod. Of ur wondering I wrote this on my iPod lol
i need to know how to get residents on a tutorial city i hav an awsome city
I just dont get how you get money to build the city . and how you knock the whole city over to start again coz i stuffed mine up . oh gossh . its to hard !