Sim City Deluxe Review - Does EA's Sim City franchise still have life in it?

The granddaddy of city management finally lands on Android, and while he's slower and makes less sense; there is still that twinkle in his eye. The Sim City series has had a long history, from its humble beginnings in the dark ages of 1989 to the current day, no one game has quite nailed the balance of fun and frustration of running a city the way that Sim City does.  Sim City and its sequels have been ported to almost every system in existence over the years, some good and some terrible.

Name: Sim City Deluxe | Developer: EA Mobile | Genre: Simulation| Players: 1 | Version: Varies | Size: Varies | Price: $4.99 (Full) |

For the uninitiated, after being granted the best mayoral power in existence (The power to always be in office) it is your duty to guide your little slab of land from a vast stretch of nothingness to a bustling city.  You handle all manner of city duties, from road construction to zone placement, public utilities, and city ordinances.  While this sounds simple enough, you also have to keep your Sim Citizens happy by keeping them educated, entertained, and employed.  The game of Sim City is more of a game of checks and balances, wrapped up in one of the most addictive packages I have ever seen.

It's true, for those of us who know and love the Sim City games, this is an electronic addiction.  It's quite easy to start playing and quickly lose track of time.  Unfortunately, for those who are new to the series, the game can quickly overwhelm and frustrate you.  The many nuances of Sim City are poorly explained.  Sure, the handy help function tells you HOW to do something; but it is not so forthcoming with WHY you should.  Sim City Deluxe is very much like its predecessors Sim City 3000 and Sim City 2000.  As a new player, you are expected to fail.  This is not so much a failing of this specific game as it is a failing of this type of game.

Sim City has always been a PC focused game, relying heavily on the exacting positioning afforded by a mouse.  On a touchscreen, however, you will almost never place zones or roads exactly where you want them on the first try, and EA has smartly made concessions.  Everything you place on the board can be stretched and/or moved with ease, thanks to handy positioning and resize buttons.  While this does indeed add extra steps to the process of building your city, the game would be neigh unplayable without it.  It's a little touch that I wish extended through the rest of the game.  Sure, EA gives you the option of automating power lines, which is exceedingly useful, but that's where the improvements end.

There can be no question, Sim City is a complex game, and unfortunately the interface is similarly complex.  You will find yourself digging through menu after menu, each shift of these menus leads to a short loading screen.  While my Evo 3D handles these in less than a second, I can picture that pause being much longer on less capable devices.  These menus are seemingly haphazardly designed, with tiny icons, minimal information, and links to other menus.

The news ticker at the bottom of the screen is fantastic at getting you to the exact menu you need during gameplay, but you will invariably find yourself digging through menu after menu hunting for something that didn't quite make it to the news ticker.  (On this note, the Stadium is in the Petitions menu, under the Advisors menu).

Sim City can be, at times, a beautiful game.  The buildings are well realized, and outside of a few instances, you will not mistake one building for another.  The graphics are also very clean, and the level of detail holds up and actually increases during extreme zooming.  Even on the decidedly non standard resolution of my device, the screen is nicely scaled to fill the whole area.  This is a small touch, but very much appreciated.  There are a few hiccups with the graphics, such as building temporarily disappearing during heavy scrolling, or certain indicators not disappearing when they should.  These are merely momentary distractions, and do not affect the gameplay.

The most unfortunate part of Sim City Deluxe are the bugs.  In 4 separate instances when my city's population reached toward 250,000 people, the game would crash.  We are talking nasty, force close errors.  To add to the frustration of this, the scenario cities do not suffer from this same problem.  Huge scenario cities happily move forward with huge populations, but sandbox cities always crash the game.  This is a huge slap in the face when you have spent hours carefully crafting your city, gently guiding it from a little town to a full blown city.  While this is the most obvious bug, once you dig a bit deeper, you find a multitude of other annoying bugs.  Business deals that should provide monthly income sometimes do not, the color coding of overlay maps is randomly reversed.  If I took the game at its word, I would think my citizens LOVE that Toxic Waste Disposal Plant.

As a long time player of the Sim City series, Deluxe is a disheartening experience.  The numerous bugs, frustrating interface, and apparent lack of testing do their best to destroy what should be a fantastically fun experience.  While the concessions made for the touchscreen interface are nice, there are so many places where they could have been improved.  Why do I still have to manually count how long a road is?  Counting squares on a small screen is not fun.  Why automate power lines, but not water pipes?  In the end, Sim City Deluxe comes across as a half hearted attempt to put Sim City on yet another platform.  It's Maddening, but somehow the soul of Sim City still manages to shine through.  I cannot recommend this game for new players, but for those of us who have built this city over and over again it is worth a look as long as you reign in your expectations.