I didn’t touch this one that much. For the most part, it’s a straight port of SimCity 2000 on PC, but completely in Japanese (even with Google Lens, it’s a nightmare to play). On top of that, the joystick moves a cursor and is really not suitable for this kind of game. I did try to get somewhere with it, but I couldn’t even attract a single person to my city.

This version of SimCity 2000 does have some additional features I never got to, mainly in the form of minigames. You can bet on horse races, breed monsters (to defend your city from other monsters), defend your city in a Sci-fi shooter and take part in a dating sim.

I am curious to see what they’re like, but the barrier is just too high – I’ll save my SimCity effort for the N64’s other, more custom, SimCity game.

?

If this review has whet your appetite for an N64-based city management role, you’d do well to consider the following: Sim City 2000 is due for UK release in a few month’s time, and the Japanese version is near incomprehensible unless you’ve played the game on another format. There’s also the problem that moans and requests from citizens are so easy to ignore when they’re in another language – another curious way in which Sim City 2000 mirrors real life…

James Price, N64 Magazine #13. Review Score: 83%

Remake or remaster?

It would be curious to see the minigames in another version.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get the N64 version of SimCity 2000. The PC version can be bought from EA.