Streets of SimCity is a 1997 video game that combines racing and car battles. It was made by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts for computers running Microsoft Windows. Players can visit cities created in SimCity 2000 and play deathmatch games with up to seven other players online. The game was designed to use the same technology and improve the graphics from SimCopter, another game that let players drive through SimCity cities. It was the last Maxis game developed without direct oversight from Electronic Arts, which bought Maxis shortly before the game was released.

When it was first released, Streets of SimCity received poor reviews. Critics said the idea was interesting, but the game had weak gameplay and technical problems. Over time, it has been seen as the weakest part of the SimCity series and an example of other Maxis games that were not successful before Electronic Arts acquired the company.

Gameplay

Streets of SimCity is a 3D environment that shows city streets. Players can drive vehicles or complete missions in this setting. The city layouts are based on SC2K files from SimCity 2000, which players can import into the game. Fifty custom cities are already included. The game comes with the SimCity 2000 Urban Renewal Kit, which lets players build or change cities. Players can choose from five vehicles, including a car styled like a VW Bug, a sports car, and a utility van. Missions are played in a Career mode with 30 episodes across five campaigns. In these missions, players act as a television star performing car stunts in different shows. Mission goals may involve racing opponents, delivering packages to specific city locations, or avoiding other vehicles. Between episodes, players can repair their vehicles. Vehicles can be customized with upgrades such as machine guns, missile launchers, mines, and armor. These upgrades are bought with money earned from completing missions. Players can drive vehicles using a first-person view from inside the dashboard, where they can see a map and radar showing nearby vehicles.

Development

Streets of SimCity was created by Maxis as one of several related games to the SimCity series after the release of SimCity 2000. Maxis developed the game during a time when Electronic Arts was acquiring the company and changing its structure. The game used the same 3D engine as SimCopter, a 1996 game that added the ability for players to fly through their cities. Jason Shankel, a programmer who had worked for Maxis for two years and helped develop the SimCity 2000 Urban Renewal Kit add-on and Network Edition, was the lead designer. Shankel improved the SimCopter engine to support better 3D graphics, increase the resolution, and create more detailed building models. The developers used feedback from criticism of SimCopter to include more gameplay content and added a tool that allowed players to create and edit cities without needing SimCity 2000. In 1998, the game was included in the Ultimate Sim Series compilation with other Maxis titles.

Reception

According to PC Gamer, Streets of SimCity sold 120,000 copies by 2001. The game received mostly negative reviews when it was released. Many critics believed the idea of the game was good, but its execution as a standalone title did not meet expectations. Next Generation wrote that while the game's concept "sounds like a blast," it "fails in practically every category." Most critics criticized the racing gameplay, comparing it unfavorably to Interstate '76, a similar racing title. Gareth Jones of PC PowerPlay said the driving felt "unresponsive and nothing like real life," noting the lack of a reverse pedal. Jonah Falcon of Computer Games Strategy Plus pointed out poor collision detection, handling on slopes, and AI, stating that "the computer AI is so awkward that computer cars get stuck in tunnels, blindly smashing themselves into the side wall over and over like psychotic robots."

Some reviewers noted the game had some entertainment value because it connected with SimCity 2000. Next Generation called this feature "the only interesting part" of the software. However, Peter Olafson of PC Games said the game moved away from the series' focus on urban traffic by emphasizing vehicular combat instead. Michael Ryan of GameSpot criticized the maps, explaining that they were imported from SimCity 2000, which caused all streets to have sharp right-angle turns and made ramps to bridges too steep. The game's graphics received mixed reactions: some praised their quality, while others noted that high system requirements affected performance. Olafson described the buildings as "lovely and seamlessly constructed" and varied, but he experienced slow performance and graphical issues without 3Dfx settings enabled.

Looking back, Streets of SimCity has been widely criticized. T. Liam McDonald of Boot wrote the game had "no entertaining elements whatsoever," GameInformer called it a "bizarre departure" for the franchise, and GameSpot labeled it "one of Maxis' greatest follies." Both PC Zone and Hyper described it as one of the worst games ever made. Critics also noted that the game and SimCopter were poorly implemented, with Rock Paper Shotgun calling it "sterile and broken." In Vintage Games, Loguidice & Barton said the game was considered the "black sheep" of the SimCity franchise due to "poor collision detection, driving simulation, and quality assurance." The game contributed to the poor reputation of spin-off titles in the Maxis software lineup and SimCity series.

Some reviews were less critical. While PC Games called the game a "disaster" as a SimCity title, they acknowledged it had some entertainment value as a driving game. Jim Vorel of The A.V. Club ranked it as the fourth-best Maxis simulation title, saying it was more satisfying than SimCopter because "the rendering of the cities is much better, and there's something simply relaxing about going for a cruise around the place you built." Schweizer noted that the use of urban landscapes to "allow players to race and crash in polygonal streets" was an early attempt to create a navigable 3D city, similar to future titles like Grand Theft Auto by DMA Design.

Legacy

Streets of SimCity was one of the last games in a series of related titles made by Maxis. These games were not well received by critics or buyers during a time when EA acquired Maxis. The design of SimCopter and Streets of SimCity helped shape how Maxis made games, leading to a similar 3D approach for Sim City 3000. However, this 3D style was later changed to a 2D style after EA acquired Maxis. SimCity 4: Rush Hour, an expansion pack for the 2003 game SimCity 4, later added features that let players drive vehicles through the streets of their cities.

In 2019, an independent developer named Alxander Krimsky released an updated version of Streets of SimCity for Windows 10, called SimStreetsX. This version changed the game’s code to allow eight players to play together online. Krimsky created this version in one week and said it was simple to do, as he had previously made a similar update for SimCopter using the same system.