is a city-building

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

developed by

HAL Laboratory formerly shortened as HALKEN, is a Japanese video game developer based in Chiyoda, Tokyo. It was founded on February 21, 1980 by Mitsuhiro Ikeda. The company started out developing games for home computers of the era, but has since establishe ...

and published by

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...

for the

Nintendo 64DD The is a peripheral developed by Nintendo to expand the capabilities of the Nintendo 64 with floppy disk, rewritable magnetic disks and online connectivity. Announced in 1995 before the Nintendo 64's 1996 launch, it faced multiple delays before ...

. The game and its peripheral were released only in Japan.

Gameplay

''SimCity 64'' may have been intended as a sequel to Nintendo's

Super Nintendo Entertainment System The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a Fourth generation of video game consoles, 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in No ...

(SNES) release of the original 1991 ''

SimCity ''SimCity'' is an open-ended city-building video game franchise originally designed by Will Wright. The first game in the series, '' SimCity'', was published by Maxis in 1989 and was followed by several sequels and many other spin-off ''S ...

'', given several elements from the SNES version are found in ''SimCity 64'', including Dr. Wright (named after Will Wright), the city's advisor. Although general gameplay in ''SimCity 64'' is much like ''SimCity 2000'', the game's graphical textures and building tilesets are considerably different and also, the game eliminates the water buildings and pipes only leaving the power plants and power lines. However, the game sports several advanced features that were not seen in ''SimCity 2000'' or even '' SimCity 3000'': The ability to view the city at night (now also available in ''

SimCity 4 ''SimCity 4'' is a city-building game, city-building Construction and management simulation games, simulation Personal computer game, computer game developed by Maxis, a subsidiary of Electronic Arts. The game was released in January 2003 for Mi ...

''), pedestrian level free-roaming of a city, and individual road vehicles and pedestrians (which could only be seen while in the free-roaming mode). Cities in the game are also presented in 3D hybrid graphics. Custom graphics can also be imported from '' Mario Artist: Paint Studio''. The 64DD incarnation of the game '' SimCopter'' was intended to read data from ''SimCity 64'', allowing the player to fly over their game's city in a helicopter. ''SimCopter'' was ultimately cancelled, and this feature was instead integrated directly into ''SimCity 64''.

Development

''SimCity 64'' was developed by

and published by

. Word that it was being developed leaked to the press in mid-1997. Producer

Shigeru Miyamoto is a Japanese video game designer, video game producer, producer and Creative director#Video games, game director at Nintendo, where he has served as one of its representative directors as an executive since 2002. Widely regarded as one o ...

was involved in editing the game. ''SimCity 64'' was originally intended to be released as a launch game for the peripheral. After numerous delays of the 64DD, ''SimCity 64'' was made playable at

Nintendo Space World formerly named and was an annual video game trade show hosted by Nintendo from 1989 to 2001. Its three days of high-energy party atmosphere was the primary venue for Nintendo and its licensees to announce and demonstrate new consoles, accesso ...

in 1999. The game is considerably obscure, given its

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

-only release and designation to run on the ill-fated 64DD platform.

Reception

The four reviewers of the Japanese magazine ''

Famitsu , formerly , is a line of Japanese Video game journalism, video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly f ...

'' awarded ''SimCity 64'' scores of 8, 8, 8 and 7 for a total of 31 out of 40 points.ニンテンドウ64 - シムシティー64. Weekly Famitsu. No.915 Pt.2. Pg.33. 30 June 2006.

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

gave the game a 6 out of 10.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Simcity 64 2000 video games 64DD games City-building games HAL Laboratory games Japan-exclusive video games Nintendo games SimCity Single-player video games Video games developed in Japan