"Sim City for the wee ones"

Sim Town is exactly what it sounds like. Sim City for the children in this world, or for our inner child. It is pretty much a warm up for Sim City. There is no money involved in this game. But resources are used up, creating a challenge, just not the same one. Your goal is to make your town have a perfect balance between commercial and residential areas. You want the little teeter-totter, see-saw, whatever you want to call it, level, not tilting to one side.

GRAPHICS--8
The graphics are 3D, even without the use of polygons. Everything is detailed, and yet does not look realistic, which seems to be the designers intention. It looks realistic when they want it too, but unrealistic when they do not. The resource screen does an excellent job of presenting you with all of the necessary visuals, without seeming to clutter and overcrowd the screen.

MUSIC--7
At times, the music can be a little to perky for it’s own good. Especially at the beginning of the game. So many words can describe it: Bright, cheerful, peppy, perky, happy-but two words sum it up more nicely: mildly annoying.

CONTROL--9
Everything is easy to control and place. The mouse does the game justice. There are a couple of issues with the decisions that impact the control (for example the decision not to be able to click-and-drag to cover up large areas with grass), but nothing major is wrong here. Sometimes, you have to change the camera a little but too much, though, and that can be a pain.

FUN--10
This game has it all. Designing a city without the stress of Sim City, Sim City 2000, and Sim City 3000. There even is a create-a-character feature, where you can create the people who live in your town. The back of the Compact Disk case does not do the game justice. An exact quote: “Well, OK, there are grown-ups, but nothing’s perfect.”
Who do you think is buying this game for the little ones anyway? I always like to make a really big house on a really big plot of land, and make it the mayor’s house, and spend forever decorating the lawn. A problem with this game is that grass is not automatically placed on the, and you cannot click and drag to cover all the ground, so it can take hours, to cover the town with grass, even if it is covered with miscellaneous buildings.

CLOSING STATEMENT
This game should be a required prequesite for any of the games in the ‘grown-up’ Sim City series. It prepares you for what will happen on the giant step up the ladder. It allows you to be a child at heart (or a child) while designing a great town will still make you feel like an adult.

OVERALL--9

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/04/00, Updated 07/18/01