"It still could be the best SimCity game ever"

Sim City was an excellent and innovative game when it came out. Ever since its release, there have been numerous other similar games, but still Sim City stands as the greatest Sim game of all time. The point of the game was to build your own city from scratch. You had to assign locations for residential, business and industrial purposes. You needed to be wise in choosing the locations though. You couldn't have residential areas too close to industrial areas, as the citizens wouldn't like that. Thus, just randomly assigning locations wouldn't work. You also had to build a power plant with your choice of fuel. Then you needed to hook up everything with power. Soon people would start living in houses and setting up businesses. They would demand stuff and you had to provide them with it. They could ask for more roads, better transport systems, whatever. It was up to you to decide whether to meet their demands. Ultimately, your goal was to have as many people as possible in your city. You needed to control your finances wisely. You could assign your choice of tax rates. Finances and the happiness of the citizens had to be major factors in deciding this. To build a successful city, you needed to be connected to the world. You had to arrange for that too by building airports and ports. You could check your progress in various areas by looking at different graphs. You could also see what percent of the population was happy with you.
Sim City also brought disasters to the table. You had to contend with fires, floods, earthquakes and even monsters. You had to decide what kind of means you would use to keep your city safe. Ultimately, Sim City was a very addictive game and it still is.

Graphics: 6.
The graphics aren't as good compared to the newer Sim games, but this game isn't about graphics.

Sound: 8.
All the actions are brought to life with realistic sound effects.

Gameplay: 9.
The menu driven gameplay offered a lot of choices and provided a lot of fun.

Replay Value: 10.
Even after you build one city, you would feel like building another one. If you do get bored, there are a few disaster-related missions that you could undertake.

Overall: 9.
This is still one of the best games ever made. A true classic.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/17/00, Updated 03/17/00