SimCity (NES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
451A playthrough of Nintendo's 1991 unreleased simulation game for the NES, SimCity.
In this video, I build a city from scratch, ultimately reaching a megalopolis of 600,000 before calling it done. I was going to include the scenarios, but they have a tendency to crash the system, and some of them don't seem to be able to be completed. They are the same ones that were included in the SNES game, though, so you can check out my playthrough of that version (https://youtu.be/wAhkGAjgRuo ) if you'd like to see them.
SimCity is an adaptation of Will Wright's groundbreaking PC game. The SNES port is widely known and well-loved, but it wasn't the only version of the game to be internally developed by Nintendo.
They also created an 8-bit version.
Though it was nearly complete and previewed by Nintendo Power, the NES game was ultimately cancelled and forgotten. However, a couple of years ago, someone unearthed a copy of a late prototype and made it available on the internet.
Anyone that is familiar with the SNES game will immediately see the commonalities between the two games. The map and zone sizes have shrunk, the gifts to improve land value don't work, and there are some heavy glitches in the scenario mode, but the game is very similar and plays well, nonetheless. The interface is particularly impressive, feeling about as natural and intuitive as the SNES game's, though it's naturally a bit more sluggish.
There is one significant glitch that affects my gameplay in this video, though. If your cash runs into the negative at the year-end budget review, a bug in the game ends up giving you a nigh-inexhaustible pile of money. It's fairly difficult to avoid triggering this glitch at some point in the game, so I just went with it when it happened.
I'm not sure why it was cancelled - it's a bit on the slow side but it's certainly playable, even on such ancient hardware, without any glaring compromises. I can only guess that Nintendo wanted the game to be a showcase for the SNES's power, and was worried that a quality NES port might undermine that perception.
SimCity on the NES is a remarkable achievement for the platform. The SNES game unquestionably provides a better experience, but this version still makes for a very good game, and it makes for an interesting peek at an obscure facet of the history of the game that propelled Maxis to sim stardom.
Just think, if only we could transfer our cities made in this game to the NES version of The Raid on Bungling Bay, we'd have the NES equivalent of SimCopter! And just imagine if you could import your cities into Konami's Laser Invasion... (drools a bit)
Hey, a guy can dream, right?
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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