SimCity DS

[Dogg Thang]

Just bought this about 20 minutes ago. Looks nice. Feels nice but the stylus is a bitch for placing things. I haven't yet managed to put anything where I want it. I also don't seem to be able to place one square of anything like zoning, roads or whatever. Only seems to register when I drag it out to two or more squares.

Interface seems pretty good though the way the two screens work is a little strange - you place stuff on the bottom screen on a basic colour view and it appears properly on the top screen. Haven't read the instructions yet so no idea if there's another way of doing it.

It does feel already like effort went into this so I'm hoping for better than the half-assed Theme Park port.

Edit: Forget the bit about not being able to just do one square. I was just being a tit.

[Lebowski]

picked this up form tescos for the priceley sum of 25 pounds and its not a bad little version of sim city.

if you haven't read the manual or done the tutorials you may be struggling because your probably not zooming in to the map to zone it, it's nicely mapped to the shoulder buttons so if your a bit ham fisted it helps a lot.

if you do make a mistake the undo button is sat at the bottom of the screen next to a whole host of other useful buttons so its not a big issue really.

its pretty much sim city on the move though with a few nice presentation touches and a few random mini games so if you have played a sim city game you know what to expect here

only thing i could see that was missing was the water pipe laying thing you have to do in later version

but if you do like sim city you cant really go wrong
oh yeah and it loads the maps before you start first time ive seen a loading screen on a ds game, that suprised me quite a bit.

only one save per game so a bit poor on that front as the wife quite likes sim city too

[Dogg Thang]

Yeah, you're right about the manual. I had to give in and read it (having to read a manual is admitting defeat!). I had no idea until I opened the manual that there was an undo function. That has made all the difference.

The water pipes were in SimCity2000 but were they in 3?

[yesteryeargames]

got this also, great so far just wondering , how do you baldoze the ground to make more sea?

[Lebowski]

got this also, great so far just wondering , how do you baldoze the ground to make more sea?

not sure you can in this version as it dosent mention being able toin the tutorials

[abigsmurf]

glad they got rid of the water pipe system.

Is there anything to the game other than a standard sandbox mode?

[Dogg Thang]

There's a 'Save the town' mode, which I haven't tried yet but I think it's specific scenarios. There's a few little extras like a musuem where you can see the stuff you've got but the main mode is the sandbox one.

I don't think there's a way of making more land. Actually most of the land-modifying stuff is gone. No levels either.

[Dogg Thang]

My power plants keep blowing up! What the hell? Anyone know what the deal is with the power plants? I built a coal power plant and 15 years later, it blew up so I built an oil one. That blew up in a year. So did the next.

[Lebowski]

erm they have a usage life you can use the magnifying glass to see how many years that have left, there supposed to last 70 years though, so maybe your towns too big for just one power station and its getting worn out

[MiaBocca]

Just picked this up too, the presentation looks nice.

Only played it for 15 mins and had the same problem zoning single squares.... So I think I'll read the instruction manual and go through the tutorials too!

[Dogg Thang]

I have to wonder just how limited the DS really is. I'm enjoying this and it plays well but it can't replicate a game that must be about 8 years old and doesn't even come close to matching its previous incarnation, which is 12 years old. In many ways, SimCity was better on the SNES.

Given that the DS couldn't even deliver Theme Park to a level comparable with the Megadrive, something isn't right.

This is definitely enjoyable but it's so cut back. No underground bits at all (no water, no underground rail), no hills, no tunnels, seemingly no motorways and quite a small selection of buildings.

What's up?

[c00ke5ter]

1) Windows PDA \ Windows mobile smartphone
2) PocketSnes
3) SimCity for snes rom (I own the snes cart so don't feel guilty about playing it mobile)

Job done.

[Dogg Thang]

There's actually a great PocketPC version of SimCity2000. I must charge my pointless crappy PDA to play it. Only things I ever did with it were play SCUMM games and SimCity.

[elkatas]

What's up?

Lazy developer, and developer not sure who are intended audience for the game . I mean... Sim City 2000 was ported relatively well for GBA.

[Stabby]

Would it be wise to spend $40 and play this over one of the PC versions? I would rather not spend too much money on games right now, unless this is a must have?