Today, Doc Watson prescribes 40 cc’s of Maxis with Streets of SimCity, another fantastic classic game.
Before we start, I’d like to mention that I will now be including the opening cinematic of each game I prescribe on GameRx. I’ve added one to my review of Dark Colony from last week.
Pentium 166MHz Processor
35MB Hard Disk Space
32MB RAM
SVGA 640×480 at 256 colors Video Card
DirectX 3.0a
4X CD-ROM Drive
Mouse, Keyboard
I can honestly say that I’ve never played a game quite like Streets of SimCity—a vehicular combat simulator that occupies a bizarre niche somewhere between Saint’s Row and Death Race. Combine the comparison with the same Maxis quirkiness that makes the Sim-Franchise so endearing, and one has a recipe for a bizarrely gratifying experience. Streets evokes memories of the car shows of the ‘70s and the heyday of CHiPs, Cannonball Run, The Gumball Rally, and Mad Max—which makes Streets a delightfully self-aware parody of funk-driven car chase films.
The game itself doesn’t exactly have much plot, existing merely for its own sake. Using the engine from the game SimCopter (a game for another review at another time), Streets of SimCity allows the player to navigate maps that have been created in SimCity 2000. One completes missions, earns money, and purchases upgrades on any of over fifty provided maps or player-created own save files from SimCity 2000. In the player-selected first- or third-person perspective, one picks up power-ups on the road, evades police, hunts down other enemy targets, flees from opposing fleets of cars, and other shenanigans.
Here’s where it gets really fun: while there are generic supplies available like petrol, tires, engines, or radar detectors, one also may purchase weapons, armor, ammunition, and special devices. There are the staples of the genre—oil slicks, smoke screens, and proximity mines. What? You say you want machine guns? We’ve got it covered. Missile launchers? Sure. Force-fields? Got those, too. Hydraulics that send a car leaping over other cars for the Mario-kill? Go for it. A hovercraft mode so one may glide along the streets or soar through the air? Hell, at this point, why not! Additionally, each city’s buildings are destructible, allowing one the choice between weaving through the roads and carving one’s path to a destination. This game has plenty of zany ways to equip your car and different play styles for each automobile, letting the player decide how crazy he or she wants the experience to be—on a scale of one to surreal.
Speaking of rides: for the automobile aficionados who may read this, the cars featured in-game are…
- the Ferrari 250
- the Ford GT40
- an early ‘70s Pontiac Firebird
- an early ‘60s Volkswagen Beetle (also in SimCity 2000)
- “HMX Utility Van” (also in SimCity 2000)
Larger cars have more weapon slots and a higher smuggling capacity at the cost of being easier to hit, having more inertia, and maintaining a lower top speed, making the car a tank on the highway. Smaller cars can zip around the map and make great cars for hunting or police evasion. It’s pretty easy to find a happy place somewhere in between the two types of cars. You may notice the absence of the ‘64 Ford T-bird in the cinematic from the list. Sadly, while it appears on the cover, menus, and promotional material, it is not playable. This is, indeed, a tragedy of tragedies.
On top of all of this, the game has a kickin’ soundtrack. Because it has the whole ‘70s car-show theme going, the soundtrack features some great jazz, funk, and fusion tracks that play in the menus and on the in-game radio with some ‘90s techno and grunge tracks thrown in. The radio also showcases advertisements for in-game products that give the game just a little more atmosphere, adding another layer to its self-aware parody. The in-game radio may be one of the first like it in gaming (though I may be misremembering the games of my youth). If you like the game, the best way to support it by buying its soundtrack on iTunes or EA.
The game supports both online and network play for those players so inclined, hosting up to seven players simultaneously. One can hold races, and deathmatches with customizable rules, parameters, conditions, and funds. It’s pretty straightforward stuff that makes LAN-party gold.
There are a few mods floating around on the net for Streets. These are mostly skin-packs that make the different cars appear to be other famous cars, like the DeLorean or an older Camero model. Since the game is so old, these are incredibly easy to make yourself compared to modern modding, requiring nothing more than MSPaint or a similar crappy paint program. Simply open the skin file from the program files in Paint: go nuts! Sadly, aside from these packs, mods are few and far between.
The main downside to the game is that it is rough around the edges. It’s a little buggy, but is definitely quite playable as is. Clipping errors are rare but not unheard of, the hovercraft is really dodgy over waves when gliding over water, and the instant-death-zone can be a little sensitive if you get within spitting distance of water. That said, these issues merely break immersion occasionally, which isn’t too bad considering that it fits on 35 MB of disk space.
The game lacks that extra polish, but still is a unique experience and worth at least thirty minutes of your time it would take to find it, install it, and give it a spin. With the popularity of franchises like Grand Theft Auto and Saint’s Row finally reaching their popularity peak, I think there’s definitely a place in the market for a revival of a game that parodies American 1970’s automobile culture. Given its highly customizable nature and unique aesthetic, I could see this being a big hit with the PC crowd, especially if it had a tight multiplayer experience. I know I’d buy it.
Doc Watson is writer and editor for the Redshirt Crew. If you have suggestions or comments, he would be more than thrilled to respond! You can reach him by Twitter @DocWatsonMD.
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