"See my first paragraph for my "witty" synopsis."

''This is an alert from central dispatch. Reasonably good game sighted in North-Eastern Quadrant. Old graphics and strong winds may hamper playing operation.''
Sorry for my synopsis being in the actual review, in case you haven't already guessed, it was too long to fit in.

SimCopter is, unsurprisingly, a game where you fly a (Heli)copter. Thankfully, this makes it quite unlike usual flying simulators as you can hover and its a lot simpler to control. And, quite unlike usual Sim games from Maxis, you're
not going to build or design anything! Uhh...whoopee! SimCopter involves you flying around cities (which, incidentally, you can build in SimCity 2000, and then import them into SimCopter) and doing missions, which I will explain about in the Gameplay section. After completing a mission, you get cash and points. Cash lets you buy upgrades for your helicopter, and even new helicopters. To complete a city, you must get a certain amount of points. Time to knuckle down into some real review writing now...

Gameplay 95%
This is where the game shines. You can fly about, what is amazingly, a fully three-dimensional city, that has people moving around, traffic, planes, etc. It's almost like GTA3, except in the sky! The controls are mainly keyboard letters (ie. Q = Gain Altitude; W = Drop Altitude, etc) but after an hour you should have mastered the basics of flying. As you fly around cities, a woman on a radio notifies you of your tasks. There are 10 tasks available, they are Traffic Jam, Transport, Fire, Rooftop Rescue, Boat Rescue, Train Rescue, Riot, Criminal Loose, MedEvac, and Speeder. Your original helicopter comes with a Bambi Bucket (use to put out fires) and a Megaphone (deal with criminals, riots, traffic, etc). You can also buy Tear Gas Launchers (and spare Tear Gas), Harnesses and Water Cannons. More importantly, you can buy faster helicopters that can also carry more people with your hard earned cash. There is a map and mission locator which tells you about the landscape around you, points you in the direction of tasks, and generally stops you from getting lost. Being able to walk around (or fly around) cities without a care in the world is great fun though.

Story ? %
President - ''[enter name here], we have just received news that a nutcase codenamed 'Mr. Geezer' is going to steal the legendary helicopters and fly to the moon in them.''
You - ''What's my mission?''
President - ''Well, due the fact that Mr. Geezer is more of a harm to himself than anyone else, you must fly around cities in the only legendary helicopter we've got and help out the cities whilst earning money to buy the legendary helicopters out from under Mr. Geezer's nose.''
You - ''Uh...you aren't the president, are you?''
President - <sighing> ''....no. I'm just a telegraph pole.''

Nice idea for a story, but there is no story to be found in this game.

Audio/Music 90%
I am unfortunate enough to not be able to hear the hilarious adverts that are on the helicopter's radio, but, judging from what people have said about them, they sound good. The amazing thing is that they put speech into, what I consider, an old game, perfectly clear speech as well. The dispatch woman is the speech in the game, and tells you about tasks you must undertake. Sound effects of other sorts are also included. Helicopter engines whirring, rotor blades uh...rotating, car horns tooting, etc. Everything you'd expect in the busy city. All very nice.

Graphics 75%
This game made a great attempt at 3D! Only problem is, the texture maps of the buildings, etc are VERY pixelated. Everything looks great however, and you can switch from day to night with CTRL + D. Cities look really great at night, with various lights flashing from buildings, etc. The people however, are what some people may call 'Prehistoric-Sims', the kind that run around with clubs and scream ''Ug!''. Wait, I meant prehistoric as in, they are well, old and bad. They look kind of strange close-up, see for yourself. <shudders>

Replay Value 60%
Hmm...doing missions is fun 'n' all, but they soon may get rather boring and/or tedious. Most people will replay this game to be able to fly around cities they have created in SimCity 2000. But, hey, you can take many routes to get to the end of the game, going through different cities, so the game will last longer than you think.

To Buy or Rent?
Neither. For two reasons. 1) It's impossible to rent. 2) Why spend $5 on a game that you can download for free off of Morpheus/KaZaA/Your preferred P2P program?

Pros
- Great fun to fly around cities.
- SimCopter is a flight sim, with a SimTwist™.*
* SimTwist™ = An innovative idea from Maxis.

Cons
- Bad pixelation of those texture maps.
- Sometimes missions can become impossible to complete, caused you to snap CDs in half. (Which, incidentally, can't be used to prop up wobbly table legs. Use a stack of free AOL trial CDs.)

Mean Average Overall Score 80% (8/10)

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/23/02, Updated 04/21/03