Ever wondered what it would be like to create the world? Personally, my ambition ended at creating a city, but I’m lazy. If you have the drive to build a planet, SimEarth is the game for you! Let’s see what DHGF has to say about it.
SimEarth
Publisher: Maxis
Developer: Maxis
Original Release Date: 1990
Cost: 800 Wii Points.
Christopher Bowen: OK, first off, to our casual gamers: DO NOT BE FOOLED. You probably want something like The Sims. This is not like The Sims. This is a spin-off of SimCity, put on a console, where it’s possibly at its worst.
SimEarth isn’t a bad game, but this is the kind of game that needs to be on a PC. The TG-16 version doesn’t control very well because a controller is the worst kind of input device imaginable for a game this deep (even SimCity on the SNES had this problem somewhat).
If you’re a big fan of Wil Wright games, then I can give this a recommendation, but if you’re that big a fan, then just download the bloody PC version, it’s abandonware at this point
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>Alex Lucard: I used to love the PC version of SimEarth. I remember back in high school, school was called two hours late due to a blizzard after I arrived early to put the finishing touches on an assignment. I ended up spending those two hours playing SimEarth in the library and making crocodile men. I’ve always really enjoyed this game, even moreso than SimCity, but I’ve never actually played the TG-16 version. As such I can’t honestly say whether this is worth it or not.
My advice would be to check out the abandonware version of the game per Bowen’s link and then decide if it is worth getting the TG-16 one.
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Mark B. I’m going to have to go with the group consensus on this one. While SimEarth is a fun, if incredibly complex, world management game (think SimCity on a much larger scale), the TurboGrafx-16 version is probably about the worst version to play, both because of the mushy control compatibility and because time in general has not been kind to the game in general and the T-16 version in specific. The game looks kinda primitive and will take a good bit of time to learn, no matter what version you play, so if you’re looking for something a little less learning-intensive, this might not be for you. Just be aware.
It should also be noted that if you’re considering downloading the abandonware version of SimEarth, unless you’re running an ancient PC, you’ll probably need to download DOSBox to run the game… which means you’ll probably need to know how to run DOS. Installing and running DOSBox shouldn’t be too hard, since it, too, is free, but in case you’ve managed to get to this point in your life without using DOS in any form or fashion, you’ll probably want to know that “cd..” goes backwards a directory, “cd (directory name)” changes to that directory, and typing in the name of the “.EXE” file runs the program you’re looking to run. So, y’know. Have fun.
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And on Wii Ware, we’re getting Drill Sergeant Mindstrong (party games), NEVES Plus (puzzle game), and Family Mini Golf (another mini golf game) going for 800, 600 and 500 points, respectively.
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