Today, EA gave a sneak peek of ‘need for speed’ and ‘simcity’ as part of their road show at the Apple Store here in San Francisco.  I was not all that interested in need for speed, but just as a note, this is the first time a car (the Nissan 2009 something, I need check on that) was first displayed in a game.  Neat idea.  But no, I came to see simcity.  And for a handheld, it looks goooodd.  🙂

Yes, I played with it and the graphics are nice, the menus make sense. Side note though, when you pan or zoom, the polys are hidden, so you only get the property outline. No biggie.  The buttons are good sized to make it easy to use.  I like that when you build something, like a road, you can ‘place it’.  Something the version on my treo 650 did not have. The game is mostly built from the ground up, but the core engine is from simcity3000, so we can expect a pretty rich feedback loop.  Is there a cheat code?  Yup. … I’m I going to tell you?  No. …  well, ok, to GET to the cheat code textbox, you shake the device.  I do not have any codes right off, but if I get them, I will share…

{Update:  cheat codes!
i am weak = Construction costs set to $0
pay tribute to your king = All extra rewards

} // I tested a few others.. No luck.

They do not have a solid release date, but target to be sometime in the next 7 days.. Xmas download anyone?  Its also target priced at $9.99.  Normal first release price.

So I will buy it as soon as it comes out and write a follow up.  Hopes are high!