Funny how much an opinion of a game can be shaped by how experienced one is with other games. In this case, I happened to play SimCity sometime after I had been exposed to SimCity 2000 - no offense to SimCity but this really isn't a comparison. Furthermore, I first played SimCity sometime after I had played it's sibling on the SNES which was basically the same game, with an overlay of Nintendo polish (although the SNES control pad couldn't hold a candle to a mouse for this kind of game).What's funny is that, insofar as I actually play SimCity games (i.e. building a city as suggested by the rules outlined by the game), SimCity is probably my favorite - the same complexity that makes the sequels better sandboxes also makes them less accessible. As I've said before, I enjoy complexity only so long as I can get a really good grasp of the entire system and thus exploit it to fit my will - the gold standard here, for me, is Final Fantasy V, whose job system has depth and complexity, but is straightforward enough that I could enjoy the hell out of exploiting it to suit my whims. Here, exploiting SimCity for maximum efficiency is just as straightforward. Rails solve traffic and pollution problems, police and fire departments don't require road access to be effective, and thus can have zones built around them to maximize the use of space. There isn't elevation to contend with, water pipes or sanitation to worry about, zones are all the same size. This simplicity makes for boring looking cities, but for a better game from a casual perspective.
But! Even while SimCity may make for a better game, that simply isn't what I look for when I come into these titles, instead I'm looking to make something cool (especially since, even when playing the 'game', there isn't a real objective anyway). Those tools and features that make SimCity 2000 harder to play - terrain adjustments, adjustable zone sizes, etc. also allow for one to make a much more interesting cityscape. Do I find myself needing to use money cheats to make the city I want to make? Sure, but I'm having a really good time while I'm doing it, so I hardly see much to fault in that approach. Additionally, because I know there are specific things one can do in SimCity to make a city efficient (at the expense of aesthetics), I find it hard to avoid doing those things (like following set block patterns when laying zones, or especially in using rails in place of any and all roads). Because SimCity 2000 closes these loopholes, I find myself feeling freer to experiment in city design, even if this means also operating without a net in terms of trying to get the city to operate within the game rules.
Comparing SimCity here to the SNES version also exposes another rather large flaw in the original, its lack of dynamism. No music, not terribly dynamic graphics (the SNES version adds seasonal effects as a nice flourish), no Dr. Wright to help advise the mayor, less flashy disasters. SimCity really works best when seen as the seed for later titles that it really was.
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