Why is SimCity Creator so brilliant? Back in the day, ‘god games’ like Powermonger and SimCity used to be about as user-friendly as typhoid. There were innumerable variables which, invariably, you couldn’t distinguish from each other. Nothing seemed to happen for ages. There were lots and lots of spreadsheets to furrow your brow over. Nothing seemed to happen, and then, everything seemed to happen. The game would usually end with you voluntarily unleashing an earthquake/ tornado/ towering inferno on your civilisation just to put the damn thing out of its misery.

SimCity Creator, on the other hand, is as welcoming as a particularly cute rescue puppy. Key is the challenge mode. Here you’re tasked with developing your civilisation – Santhony City, seing as you asked – throughout crucial periods of history. In the Neolithic age this means overseeing the transformation of hunter-gatherers to farmers. In the Renaissance, it means harnessing revolutionary ideas while banging up loads of revolutionary types. In post-war Asia it means reconstructing and modernising a society still haunted by the traumas of global conflict. It sounds high-fallutin’, but it’s really just SimCity meets Quantum Leap (ask your granddad). Or Bill and Ted’s Awesome Reconstruction Adventure (ask your dad).

Read the whole review at PocketGamer