SimCity for DS

By Robert Purchese Published 28 February, 2007

From EA in summer.

EA has been squashing cities this afternoon, and has announced that SimCity will appear on DS sometime this summer.

The handheld's touch screen approach will make selecting and building your village into a prosperous empire comfortable and intuitive. However, more unique ideas, such as blowing onto the microphone to put out fires and signing mayoral documents using the stylus will also feature, as will Wi Fi connectivity, though it isn't yet clear how.

"We are very excited to bring the SimCity experience to the Nintendo DS platform," said Takahiro Murakami, producer of the game. "The unique Nintendo DS functionalities inspired us to incorporate many new features to delight the most dedicated SimCity fans. The game is filled with fun surprises that will appeal to new and existing fans of the franchise."

Nintendo's handheld has already prompted other classic simulation remakes, such as Theme Park, which will be available for DS on 23rd March.

Expect more details to emerge soon, but for now you're left with just one solitary screenshot to feast on.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (33) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • vane101 #1 5 years ago

    Well if you can have it on a phone then you can have it on the DS!

  • chupachups #2 5 years ago

    Great, this is wonderful. Simcity on the PC used to keep me occupied for hours at a time, I'm sure it'll be really well suited to the DS as the stylus is a good mouse substitute.

    But please stop doing these "blow into the microphone" features, they get very boring!
    Edited by 1 at 28/02/07 @ 17:41

  • paul_haine #3 5 years ago

    "blowing onto the microphone"

    ENOUGH

  • KingOfSpain #4 5 years ago

    Looks like Sim city 2000. I hope it has the business model of 4 because it wasnt too great in 2000.

  • asphaltcowboy #5 5 years ago

    Graphics are nice!

  • zoidberg #6 5 years ago

    sim city on DS
    match made in heaven

  • Der_tolle_Emil #7 5 years ago

    What? Theme Park already out in March? That's good news.

    I'm also excited about SimCity. What would be an actual blast was if they included the SNES SimCity too.

  • faux_carnation #8 5 years ago

    I always wondered...once you've got a prosperous city going....what then?

  • Keso #9 5 years ago

    you summon bowser to stomp all over it.

  • ph101 #10 5 years ago

    Ace. On an unrelated note here's hoping for civ.

  • chupachups #11 5 years ago

    "I always wondered...once you've got a prosperous city going....what then?"

    It's a freeform game. It's more of a toy than a task, if you see what I mean.

    You can try to make a large city, or a prosperous small town, or you can try seeing how you cope with disasters etc etc.

  • Bitkari #12 5 years ago

    "It's a freeform game. It's more of a toy than a task, if you see what I mean. "

    True, but SimCity DS will also have plenty of "scenarios" to play if objective-style gameplay is more your bag.

  • TR421 #13 5 years ago

    Theme Hospital please, it's still regularly places high in the PC Budget charts.

  • OnlyMe #14 5 years ago

    Theme Hospital is excellent, I want it for the DS as well! Of course, Civilization and Pirates! would also be welcome.

  • Razz #15 5 years ago

    IT'S ABOUT FUCKING TIME! :)

    /gets condoms

  • Der_tolle_Emil #16 5 years ago

    Theme Hospital is great :) I'm a medic ... Well, I just forgot why I mentioned that. Must be that running professor from contact to my right. At least it's a bit related to medicine. The only thing bad about Theme Hospital is that it gets boring after a while. You don't have so much freedom as you do with SimCity or Theme Park.

    There is enough to do in SimCity once the city is "completed". There are always some needs to be satisfied though I agree that at some point you get tired. That's what I loved about SimCity 4: The ability to build many cities lying next to each other. Still SimCity 4 is the worst SimCity ever. The whole traffic bullshit is just boring and much of a chore, the automatic building of the roads also sucks.

  • SeesThroughAll #17 5 years ago

    Yes, like I said on the pic section, Sim City pretty much makes a killer app for me.
    I'm going to buy a DS just for this - Yes, I liked SC2000 THAT much.

  • smelly #18 5 years ago

    I read the article and thought "man that's gonna look crap on teh ds".. then i saw the screenshot and was proved wrong.

    Wii version please! I'm too lazy to sit at my desk playing games, i want to lie back on sofa with wiimote and play.

  • Hunam #19 5 years ago

    23rd March for theme park!

    :D

  • Der_tolle_Emil #20 5 years ago

    The screenshot is indeed looking nice - SimCity 3000 is my personal favourite so it's nice to see it again.

    I just hope there is a decent zoom function available. I'm a bit afraid that the general view will be a bit too crowded - I like looking at entire city blocks and think of which street corner should get the next bus stop, but this could actually be a bit difficult on the small screen.

  • Matsuo #21 5 years ago

    /me like!
    EA is doing some great stuff on both Wii and DS. Who would have thought a few years ago?

  • Daikon #22 5 years ago

    Oooh looking forward to that!
    I hope I've finished Zoo Tycoon DS before then...

  • chupachups #23 5 years ago

    "True, but SimCity DS will also have plenty of "scenarios" to play if objective-style gameplay is more your bag. "

    Come to think of it, every version of Sim City has had scenarios. The original had a variety of weird things like coping with the firebombing of WW2 Germany, or Godzilla attacking Tokyo, or (really exciting this one) sorting out the traffic problems in Bern in Switzerland.

    Apparently the guy who created it noticed that different people seemed to enjoy different things, and one favourite of the people he playtested it on was to build a city up to a massive size... and then completely destroy it! :-) Maybe that's a sort of sand castle mentality...

  • Tonka #24 5 years ago

    /pre-orderes

  • ED209 #25 5 years ago

    We need Theme Hospital! The original was the 'best thing ever'TM AND it had a point, in that you progressed along a board game thing, with new hospitals and challenges each time. Well you were supposed to, but the PC version was too buggy to progress properly (in my experience anyway).

  • ED209 #26 5 years ago

    Here's a question for ya.

    Has the DS got the same processing power, and the cartridges the same storage space as a Sim City 2000 era PC then? Cos if it does all well and good, and it should be a good conversion, it's just usually hand held versions of games are simplified tosh. and i need the real deal. I must. It is my - destiny.
    Edited by 1 at 01/03/07 @ 09:03

  • mostly_harmless #27 5 years ago

    I wonder if there's anyway of making this interact with MySims...

  • Popzeus #28 5 years ago

    "blowing onto the microphone to put out fires"

    Surely blowing onto a fire just makes it burn more fiercely - oxygen being the fuel of fires and all that. Did EA sleep through science class?

  • Psi #29 5 years ago

    okay have you blow to power the wind turbines then, have to contantly blow all the time while playing or you get blackouts :D

  • the_dudefather #30 5 years ago

    i wonder if it wills till have the easy method of building a super metropolis
    1: "I need more cash"
    2: build small city that is profitable
    3: turn off disasters, change speed to African swallow, turn off papers
    4: let cash flow in

  • richardiox #31 5 years ago

    Fingers crossed for a US release in April / May. I need this so bad it hurts.

  • botherer #32 5 years ago

    It's out in Japan already, so if you speak all foreign, you can play it RIGHT NOW.

  • Jim.Jupiter #33 5 years ago

    "Surely blowing onto a fire just makes it burn more fiercely - oxygen being the fuel of fires and all that. Did EA sleep through science class?"

    Never blown out a candle?