Sim City Deluxe for iPad is on sale for $.99 for the holidays. I believe normally it's about $6. I had to buy it. I've looked at about 6 city simulation games available for iPad and this is by far the best.
Anyone playing?
It is not as full featured as the desktop version of Sim City and I have noticed a few issues, but it's still good especially for the sale price.
Issues:
* Can't build bridges or terraform after game starts. On a recent map a river cut down through the middle of the map and as far as I can see there is no way to connect one side of the city to the other side of the river?
* It appears to be difficult/impossible to build an economy with a substantial "commercial" component. I've tried half a dozen cities and "industrial" seems to be always in demand while commercial is always stagnant. As I recall, to avoid heavy reliance on industrial is to only use light industrial, and choose "green" ordinance, but every town I've developed, "commercial" is always weak.
* With my meager city management skills, it has been really hard to get a stable economy going. After a number of years, I am usually offered a Casino, which I jump on and get a real infusion of cash. What the heck are the real money makers? I've played several of the desktop versions and don't remember this issue persisting as it does in the iPad version.
Notes, not real issues:
* Before game starts, can add water or land areas, but can't build mountains.
* City loans can be found and originated under the "Budget" area.
* Water pumping stations only work on areas of fresh water. Rivers may or may not work as a source of fresh water.
I grabbed it for 99 cents... it runs very nicely on my iPad mini except it sort of "lags" now and then for a second... but hardly an issue.
You need flat land to flat land set right to build a bridge... keep moving your road around to find a good spot on a river where it lets you build a bridge... I think its a little too picky, but I've been able to get some built.
I've built a city with commercial overshadowing industrial... but it took a long time. Make sure you get tourism up... ordinances as well as tons of stuff for people to do if they come visit... then commercial will love being there, and make your commercial taxes very very low... I was running like 2% taxes on them at the time, but with the a third of the map covered with high density commercial, it was still a ton of money coming in. Industrial is definitely much easier.
They need to add terraforming tools... raising and lowering land and such...
Also, the water system seems weird.. I always get int he ticker at the same time about not enough water, but also that I boast a fantastic water system... and I always have over and above with everything covered, yet it still complains half the time about no water.