From the Toysit archive
SimCity Creator — Wii
SimCity Creator for Wii: curved routes, distinctive city buildings and flyovers, plus an original two-visitors town-map activity and preserved history.
The play at a glance
Draw the roads, then look at the city from above
The retained Wii case crowds towers, a railway and several architectural styles into one lively skyline. SimCity Creator invites a change of viewpoint: lay out the city, connect its places, then look down over the result from a flying vehicle.
Using older Wii equipment
If your Wii Remote has the 0.6 mm strap cord covered by CPSC notice 07-061, contact Nintendo about replacement before play. Current replacement availability was not established. The notice concerns the strap, not this game.
Connect places with a purpose
EA’s Wii announcement describes zoning space for homes, businesses and industry, adding distinctive “Hero” buildings, and laying out curved roads and rail lines. The city can take on different architectural styles. Flying over it in a helicopter or plane offers another way to appreciate the arrangement.
The publisher also describes advisers and optional disasters, including monsters and storms. Those are parts of the game’s playful city-making premise. A quieter way to talk about a layout is to choose one visitor and imagine the places they would want to reach.
Start with a station, then picture a walk to a park or a delivery to a workshop. Which landmark would make the directions easier to explain? Which route would you draw first? Those questions can become a separate paper town with its own inhabitants and priorities.
Try this: a two-visitors town map
Draw a station, a park, a workshop and a café. Add enough space between them to try more than one route.
- Choose a visitor who wants a quiet walk. Draw their route from the station, including a place to pause.
- Choose a delivery driver headed for the workshop. Use a different line style for that route.
- Add a river. Decide where a bridge would help, then explain which visitor’s route changes.
- Draw a postcard view from above the town and write two directions to a favorite place.
A partner can add a request, such as a bench beside the water or a clearer sign near the bridge. Revise the map together. This is an invented town story; its routes and priorities are yours to decide rather than a reproduction of the game’s simulation.
A city-building snapshot
The complete original description, its named codes and all nine items in the Sim City Features list remain below. They preserve the page’s mixture of Wii-specific promotion and wider reflections on the series.
The historical record
Original Toysit coverage
The complete earlier product account and commentary are preserved below as historical coverage.
Create, enjoy, destroy with special building codes in this construction video game for Nintendo Wii
Build homes, businesses, factories, skyscrapers, freeways, railroads in this video game for the Wii. Try different city styles, including American, European, Asian, and Future. Hire assistants and advisors with unique personalities to help you manage your town and build new neighborhoods. When you want to check out what you've built, fly over it in your plane to see all the detail of your design. If you want to give your city a little excitement, send in a giant monster to wreck it. After all, you built it. The fate of your city and your citizens is in your hands. Sim City Creator codes: name your city Mummy's Desert for an Egyptian theme; Ancient Culture for Greek; Future Picture for a sci fi city, and Become Wild for a jungle theme (although Becoming Wild is what the narrator said on Cartoon Network).
Sim City Features
- Freedom and Creativity: SimCity games provided players with the freedom to create and manage their own cities, fostering creativity and allowing players to design their urban landscapes as they saw fit.
- Complex Simulations: The series featured intricate simulations of city life, including traffic, economic systems, and environmental factors, offering a rich and engaging gameplay experience.
- Realism and Detail: SimCity games aimed for realism, with attention to detail in city planning, infrastructure, and the impact of decisions on the city's growth and well-being.
- Accessibility: While deep and complex, the games were accessible to players of various skill levels, making them appealing to both casual and hardcore gamers.
- Replayability: The open-ended nature of SimCity games, combined with randomized elements, provided high replay value, ensuring players could return to their cities to refine or start anew.
- Community and Mods: The series encouraged community engagement, with players sharing creations, mods, and custom content, fostering a dedicated fan base that extended the life of each game.
- Educational Value: SimCity games were not only entertaining but also educational, teaching players about urban planning, problem-solving, and resource management.
- Evolution and Innovation: The series evolved with new features, graphical improvements, and innovations over the years, keeping it relevant and engaging for longtime fans and newcomers alike.
- Endearing Legacy: SimCity remains an iconic franchise in the city-building and simulation genre, with a legacy that has influenced countless other games in the industry.
Sources and editorial notes
EA’s original Wii announcement and its July 2008 lineup document support the city-design description. A complete matching Wii operating manual was not recovered. The four city-name codes and the Become Wild/Becoming Wild discrepancy remain unverified historical text, not recommended instructions. The DS game’s historical progression is separate. The generic series claims about mods, realism, community and education below do not establish Wii features or learning outcomes. Current network services and save procedures are not asserted. The map activity is original editorial work; no hands-on testing is claimed.
- Original Toysit image — Existing same-site image reviewed and retained unchanged.
- EA: original SimCity Creator announcement, reproduced by Nintendo World Report — The embedded May 29, 2008 publisher release was reviewed for zoning, buildings, curved transport, advisers and flyovers; the Wii and DS sections describe different games.
- Electronic Arts: July 2008 lineup announcement (PDF) — SimCity Creator’s Wii passage on PDF pages 4–5 reviewed, with page 5 visually inspected. Confirms Wii-specific interface, city styles and curved roads/rail; this is an announcement, not an operating manual.
- CPSC: Wii Remote wrist-strap replacement notice — December 15, 2006 notice for 0.6 mm cords; match the actual accessory. No recall of this software or clearance of used hardware is implied.
- Original Toysit coverage — Complete historical account retained, including its original claims and wording.
Images and descriptions are retained as historical material. How Toysit covers toys.
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