This one: It's not like the others.
While perhaps known in the west as one of the quirkier entries in Maxis' Sim series of computer games, its true origins are distinctly more eastern. Originally produced and released in Japan simply as The Tower, the SimCity inspired title enjoyed immediate success, and it was only after that Maxis stepped in to release the title in other locales. With a quick renaming of the title, SimTower quickly helped to restore the slightly ebbing popularity of the Sim series.
When gameplay begins, options are limited. At the one-star tower rating, the player is restricted to building lobbies, offices, apartments, restaurants and lifts. There's no tutorial, and very little in the way of in-game tips, so it's up to the user to figure which combinations will lead to happy tenants and of course, profit. Condominiums are good for a quick few bucks, but put a noisy coffee shop next to it and the residents will complain. A block of offices on the 5th floor is a great use of space – but no-one will work there if there's no lift access. If you're not careful, you could spend all your money and end up with an empty building, with no chance of recovery. Start small, concentrate on managing foot traffic through the space, and you'll slowly rise to higher floors, higher star ratings, and more options to add to your tower. But beware – with higher ratings comes more fame, and with more fame, more danger!
SimTower is a simple, smart looking game, and while the scope may seem limited, it's a great way to while away a few hours. You might not be able to choose exactly what kind of eateries populate your floors, and the offices may all look the same, but learning the rules and fine-tuning your creations is certainly satisfying. I personally enjoy the sound effects as the day-night cycle goes around, and the occasional burst of background noise from the various establishments as they enter and exit their busy periods. There's no music aside from the intro chord when you boot, but to me it just makes it more atmospheric.
One piece of advice though – watch your resolutions. While this game will run happily on operating systems from early versions of Windows up to the 9x series, computers running the latter have a tendency to run at much higher resolutions than it expects, and being that the game doesn't scale, everything is going to end up looking a bit… small. If you find yourself straining to see what's going on, then hop down a few notches to a lower resolution, and give your eyes a break.
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While perhaps known in the west as one of the quirkier entries in Maxis' Sim series of computer games, its true origins are distinctly more eastern. Originally produced and released in Japan simply as The Tower, the SimCity inspired title enjoyed immediate success, and it was only after that Maxis stepped in to release the title in other locales. With a quick renaming of the title, SimTower quickly helped to restore the slightly ebbing popularity of the Sim series.
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