SimAnt

"Ants In My Pants!"

SimAnt is probably my favorite Sim game of the old days. Unlike other Sim games, you're not dealing with buildings cities, lives, parks, etc. Instead, you're on a more minor scale--an ant colony!

The Story - 10/10
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The story? You are the yellow ant and you must build each ant colony to superiority over the evil red ants and drive the humans in the nearby house crazy.

You might be surprised that such a simple story has been given a ten by me. To me, the story, as simple as it may be, is nothing if not original. No game before or since has you take on the role of helping build ant colonies.

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Graphics - 6/10
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The graphics are not anything special, although good. When you get into a fight with red ants, you watch an animated fight sequences of the standard dust-fight. Peas look like peas, and both the ants and the spiders are done well enough.

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Saving System - 4/10
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I have never liked the saving system in this game. To actually save, you simply have to select it from the menu. But the saving process is slower than you can probably imagine. Let's just say that if you're the impatient type, then this will not be the pot of gold of the game for you.

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Caste System - 10/10
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You can't have an ant game without a caste system in there somehow. In SimAnt, the caste system allows you to decide how many, percentage wise, of each ant type you want to be born in the colony. That is, of the ants born, how many you want to be workers, soldiers, or breeders.

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Goals - 10/10
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Yep, you actually have specific goals to accomplish and take care of throughout the game. In SimAnt, in the beginning, you're one and only focus is to wipe out the red ants and set up black ant colonies in each area of the map. To do this, you must first simply kill the red queen ant and then the area is yours, despite any remaining red ants. Although this is a bit more difficult than it sounds. Of course, while doing this, you have to make sure your queen stays living and keep enough food in the colony by finding scattered peas or killing spiders.

Also, to reach each new section of the yard and house, you have to have enough breeders to leave for other areas.

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End Review
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SimAnt was always a personal favorite of mine as a kid. I almost never hesitated to rent this game from a movie rental store when I saw it. A few years ago, in fact, I was quite disappointed when one such store closed down in my town as it was the last place that rented out games from the NES and SNES days.

If you're a fan of the SimCity games, then I would suggest trying this out. Oddly, I always had more fun with SimAnt than I did the City games.

The scores:
-The Story - 10/10
-Graphics - 6/10
-Saving System - 4/10
-Caste System - 10/10
-Goals - 10/10

Overall Score: 8

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/18/07