Publisher - Imagineer
Developer - Imagineer
Platform - 64DD
Type - Simulation
Score - 4/10
The following review is based on
the Japanese version of Sim City
2000. The game contains many
Japanese characters (both kana and
kanji) and is not suitable for import
for non-Japanese speakers.
Note that Sim City 2000 and
Nintendo's Sim City 64 are two
completely different games. What
follows is the review of Imagineer's
Sim City 2000, available only in
Japan.
Judging from games like Fighter's
Destiny or Quest 64, Imagineer is
perhaps the most promising
Japanese developer for N64. But
while the company is breaking new
grounds in the fighting and RPG
arena, Sim City 2000 is a step
backward in more than one sense
of the word.
Gameplay: Type in your name and
the name of your city and start
building up a major metropolis on
an empty lot. Gameplay is similar to
the PC version. For a certain fee,
you lay out industrial, residential, or
commercial zones, build streets and
railways, connect electricity, handle
water resources, and then wait for
things to grow. After a while, new
businesses will start to flourish and
people will move into your city.
That's where the real game begins:
Juggle resources, make sure that
crime and pollution don't get out of
hand, build police stations, new
power plants, schools, parks,
airports, football stadiums, and
more. To spice up the gameplay
once in a while, the computer
randomly punishes you with
disasters such as fires, floods,
earthquakes, or even an alien
attack.
Just like the PC version, Sim City
2000 on the N64 potentially offers
never-ending gameplay. It's really
addicting to create a functioning
microcosm -- but there are a
number of problems with the N64
version that keep us from
recommending the game.
N64-specific features: The N64
version adds a lab to grow new
plants, a horse-racing mini-game,
an "omiyai" dating sub-game, a very
basic space shooting game, and a
virtual pet -- other than that it is
identical to the PC/Mac version.
These additions are interesting, but
not so well executed that they raise
the overall quality of the port.
Control: Keep in mind that the
original Sim City 2000 was
designed to be played with a
mouse, not a good precondition for
a console port. Although the N64's
analog stick is able to simulate
mouse control to a certain degree,
it's far from ideal (especially when
you want to create large zones).
Imagineer tried to come up with a
fitting solution to make the menus
more intuitive for stick control by
arranging them in a circular fashion.
So to select any event or building,
you simply push the stick into the
appropriate direction. It's a decent
solution, but can't compare to the
original PC mouse control.
Graphics: It's hi-res, just like NFL
Quarterback Club -- actually, not
like Quarterback Club at all. Many
of the colors and patterns
constantly flicker and the
sprite-based buildings and streets
pixelate when zooming in. The
disasters look exactly like in the PC
version, with no attempt on parts of
the developer to make use of the
N64's hardware or improve on the
old designs. The scrolling is
horrendous, and the stills
announcing events (such as the
building of a landmark) are blurry
and have no detail.
Sound: Ladies and gentlemen, we
have a new winner for worst music
on the N64. Sim City 2000 uses
the same elevator music as the PC
classic, with the worst synth
instrumentation you could imagine. I
played it loud in the office for
exactly 10 seconds before the
whole place erupted in complaints
and attempts to toss my N64 out of
the window. Be nice to your
neighbors, folks! Switch the music
off.
The sound effects, a ring here, a
police siren there, are directly lifted
from the PC version, but so highly
compressed that they sound
muffled. What little speech there is
sounds like it was spoken by a
female Sean Connery. The word
"splines" comes out as "shplinesh,"
and "Sim City" incidentally sounds
like "Shim Shitty."
Overall: Sim City 2000 on PCs
was one of the best sim games of its
time. But now, four years later, the
original system and graphics look
dated -- add to that the N64
version's ridiculously bad sound and
headache inducing flicker graphics,
and you've got three huge reasons
why the game won't come to the
US. Unless a courageous US
publisher invests lots of cash into
making the game look and play
better, stay away as far as possible
from this game. Considering that the
PC and Mac original can be had for
only a few bucks, there is virtually
no reason to recommend this game
to the readers of this site -- even if
your Japanese is impeccable. Avoid
Sim City 2000 at all costs and wait
for Nintendo's promising Sim City
64.