You start the game off with Mr  Maxis  guiding you and he will pop up from time to time . You need to give him your name and eventually  name your city or village depending on what mode you choose.  There are 2 modes , Challenge  and free play.  Free play has only one location to choose from and one Era to start with , you must complete Challenges in Challenge mode to unlock other eras.  There are also Buildings in challenge mode that when unlocked become available in Free play.

As expected you use the stylus to pick from Different Sub Sheets, which include  Sim Sheet.  Choose this sheet to see what your citizens are thinking . The Build Sheet is were you find your building materials , such as houses and power plants. Budget sheet is all about the finances. Info Sheet is where you look at your progress of land use and pollution .  Last but not least you Have your Option Sheet and save sheet .

Now here is the bad news, once you get a town or village done at any time you can get hit by Tornadoes , Fires or  Earthquakes , even a riot could break out . These can be turned off in free play mode , but you will have to deal with them in challenge mode.  One cool feature of this game I like is the addition of alternative power plants and other green living things. They have wind power and geothermal buildings in this game.

Overall , I enjoyed this game on my DS, not to much of a headache like most finance strategy games I've played . This game does not force you to listen to overly whiny or needy citizens and it doesn't impose artificial time limits that ruin the fun.

Over all I give this game 4 stars out of  5 .

Whiten by Jeff