2005 Sim Game of the Year
Simulation
games is a category where Independent Games always have some of the
most interesting titles. Indie developers' innovate approach leads to simulation games that are typically quite different
from the standard fare found in more mainstream games.
This year we travel from Africa to Alaska, we try surviving on a
lost island and surviving as President, it's the 2005 Sim Game of the Year!
5th Place - Lost Island - Surviving
Though
Lost Island bills itself as a Real-Time Strategy, it is really a very deep
simulation game. The general concept of attempting to survive on an island
quickly brings to mind Lost in Blue, the survival game for the Nintendo DS,
though, notably, this is the better looking of the two.
In Lost Island you find yourself in one of several different scenarios where you
need to complete specific tasks to move onto the next scenario. The
scenarios are not sequential and there is no specific story, instead the focus
is on the problems you are confronted with in each scenario.
The interface for Lost Island takes a little getting used to, though once you
have it down the game is really fairly simple (it just takes awhile to get it
down!). Lost Island is quite interesting, it provides players with a series
of objects and characters that must be used in combination to complete specific
tasks such as getting water or building shelter. A day/night simulator
takes players through all the different periods of the day, and keeping your players
healthy through wind, sun and rain is certainly a challenge. Lost Island
is an engaging game that is challenging and will keep even the best of players
involved for many hours.
4th Place - Kisses
| Developer: Amju Games | Players: 1-2 | ||
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| System Requirements: Windows 95/98/ME/NT4/2000/XP, GeForce 3 | |||
Kisses
is about social interaction in a small Eskimo village of eight igloos, an ice
fishing hut, a small forest, and a snow mine. Four male and four female
characters live in the village, and one of them is you. Daily life is simple: in
the early morning, everybody gets up to mine packed snow to melt and drink,
gather wood to build a strong fire with, and catch fish to cook and eat.
Your furniture is usually rather small and primitive at the beginning of the
game, but by socializing and befriending others, you can earn benefits (small
red hearts) that will cause your possessions to be upgraded. For example, you
could get a larger shelf that you can use to store more food and drink in, which
means you can socialize for more days in a row before having to go out and work
again.
The better your food and drink is, the less frequently your needs show, because
if you are overly hungry, cold, or thirsty, your alter ego will make a sad face
and be less attractive. Itâ"s actually a good idea to stay away from people until
after dinner.
People who see you will react accordingly - if you're well fed, you're "a cutie"
and will subsequently earn lots of compliments, while being a cold, sick
individual is considered disgusting and will cause people to insult and avoid
you.
After a long time experimenting, you'll eventually find the perfect rhythm
that will allow you to make the most out of your days and resources, and will
ultimately earn you the many friends and benefits you need to be a happy little
Eskimo.
3rd Place - Fish Tycoon
| Developer: Last Day of Work | Players: 1 | ||
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Download |
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| System Requirements: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP, 500MHZ, 96 MB RAM, DirectX 7+ | |||
Fish
Tycoon takes one of the world's most popular hobbies, fish-keeping, and makes
the advanced hobbyist side of it, fish-breeding, a very approachable and
addictive game. The game springs from the screensaver fascination with
tropical fish and includes a built-in screen saver of the fish that you
are raising.
In the game you initially start with one aquarium and several different types of
fish. The goal of the game is to cross-breed the fish as you search to find the
right combinations that will lead you to the 7 'secret' fish breeds in the game.
As your fish grow you can choose to keep them, or sell them in your fish store.
The game offers a full shop of supplies and things to research, such as better
tank environments, which immediately improves the health of
the fish in your tanks and will help to keep those 'fragile hybrids' alive.
Players can purchase a second tank which gives them more flexibility to work
on their goals.
Most interestingly, the game plays in real time in a persistent world (unless you
set it to do otherwise). This makes it entirely impossible to play the game as a
normal game would be played. Instead players must wait for fish to be born or
for fish to grow up, making the game an easy one to turn on a couple of times
each day and play for five minutes or so. Perfect for any office, especially with the
screensaver, Fish Tycoon is a very different game than what you are used to and
provides a very nice break from more attention-intensive games, just don't
forget to feed your fish from time to time.
2nd Place - Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa
| Developer: Pocketwatch Games | Players: 1 | ||
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Website |
Download |
Purchase |
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| System Requirements: Windows ME/2000/XP, 1.0 ghz, 256 MB, 32 MB Video | |||
Wildlife
Tycoon is a different game from the typical tycoon games where you
work on getting things ready for a secondary audience, such as the visitors to
your park. In Wildlife Tycoon however, it is
the animals themselves that you must please. The game is built around adding the right
animals to balance the eco-system.
Of course just adding animals wouldn't be very interesting and the game doesn't
stop there. You are able to refresh dried up watering holes with new rain
and add plants, trees, brush and grass to the mix. Each animal has
different needs, and while it can be fun to add several Lions to the mix, if you
only have a couple of Zebras in the park, they'll quickly be eaten and you'll
soon see green gas coming from the rotting corpses of your
lions who starved to death.
The game also gives you control over the animals, and this comes in handy in
multiple ways. Animals won't wander too far from obvious water and food
supplies on their own, so it can be helpful at times to educate the animals by
directing them to another food or water source. The information will even be automatically passed on to the animal's offspring
(you don't, however, have to give any direction to the animals on how to create
the offspring).
With different types of environments that range from sandy to grassy, and misty
to sunset Wildlife Tycoon gives players an experience that is different from any
other game out there.
2005 Sim Game of the Year - Democracy
| Developer: Positech | Players: 1 | ||
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Website |
Download |
Purchase |
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| System Requirements: Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP, Direct X 7.0+, 256 MB RAM, 32 MB Video | |||
What
would you do if you became the president or prime minister of your country?
Positech Games' Democracy lets you find out how you would fare as the leader of
a well-developed country, such as the USA, Canada, Germany, or France (and
others!).
Democracy is a highly educational game and is advertised as such. You manage
your
country's finances and policies, internal affairs and security concerns, and are
frequently asked to deal with a crisis or dilemma that recently emerged. The
greatest difficulty lies in finding the right balance of taxation, funding, and
legislation to ensure that your country doesn't go bankrupt and that your next
election will be successful. Everything you do has a positive influence on some
things while negatively impacting others.
What really makes the game great is the wide-open aspect of the game play and
the ability to really do whatever you want (though certainly not without
consequences). If you want to try to be the perfect president you are welcome
to do so, or if you are feeling just a bit more sinister you might try
legalizing prostitution and pot while requiring prayer in schools. Where many
Presidential sim games only go to through the election, Democracy takes your
through your full terms in office, if you aren't assassinated along the way for
the policies you chose, or voted out for not picking policies that were popular
enough.
At
first, Democracy overwhelms simply because there is so much on the screen that
you can click on. And then, during your first couple of games, you'll face the
painful realization of how difficult it is to make the right decisions at the
right time - which is when the educational value of the game becomes apparent.
You will, once you learn to predict the outcomes of your actions, find that the
game is actually very easy to control and relaxing to play because, basically,
all you have to do is check the situation, make a decision, and adjust some
sliders in the countless policy windows.
Democracy is a very complex and interesting game with lots of value. You'll never look
at politicians the same way once you realize that, in order to remain in power,
you will have to compromise a lot. An awful lot. For example, you may find
yourself radically changing some oddball policy because you needed more votes
from smokers in the upcoming elections - despite the fact that this policy was
completely against your public health strategy.
Positech Games' Democracy is a great game which, despite its somewhat high
initial difficulty, is definitely worth checking out. It offers a lot of nice
details and very challenging game play.
Losing
a game of Democracy is almost as rewarding as winning your next election -
because you know for yourself that you learned a lot about the scenario and the
political processes involved. There is always the motivation to do better next
time, to shamelessly tax another minority and make more voters happy in your
next term of office. It's a tremendously detailed simulation that
everyone can enjoy on some level and wins the polls as our Sim Game of the
Year award.
By: Russell Carroll
Posted: Monday December 12, 2005
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