Difference between revisions of "SimAnt: The Electronic Ant Colony"

From TheAlmightyGuru
Jump to: navigation, search
Line 27: Line 27:
 
* Over all, there just isn't that much to do in the game. After a single play-through of the full game, and an hour in experiment mode, you've done everything the game has to offer.
 
* Over all, there just isn't that much to do in the game. After a single play-through of the full game, and an hour in experiment mode, you've done everything the game has to offer.
 
* The full game is really easy, and can be beaten in a about a half hour with only a rudimentary understanding of the game.
 
* The full game is really easy, and can be beaten in a about a half hour with only a rudimentary understanding of the game.
 +
* A difficulty setting would really help the game since it's so easy. I played a game where I constantly killed my yellow ant over and over again, and my colony still grew faster than the red's.
 
* The game doesn't actually track the ants in other areas of the map. I understand why they had to do this on old computers, but it doesn't even do a very good general estimate. A new colony, after only a little while of game play, can jump to 200 ants. However, if you stay in the map, it will take much longer to get to that count.
 
* The game doesn't actually track the ants in other areas of the map. I understand why they had to do this on old computers, but it doesn't even do a very good general estimate. A new colony, after only a little while of game play, can jump to 200 ants. However, if you stay in the map, it will take much longer to get to that count.
 
* While you get to dig your own nest, the AI ants don't utilize it effectively. They drop food and eggs randomly around, making it very difficult to make a strategic layout unless you want to sit in the nest all day and move stuff around. I would have preferred a way for you to direct other ants to keep eggs in one section, food in another, guard and area, etc.
 
* While you get to dig your own nest, the AI ants don't utilize it effectively. They drop food and eggs randomly around, making it very difficult to make a strategic layout unless you want to sit in the nest all day and move stuff around. I would have preferred a way for you to direct other ants to keep eggs in one section, food in another, guard and area, etc.

Revision as of 20:59, 22 July 2018

Original box art.

SimAnt, known in Japan as シムアント [ShimuAnto], is a ant simulation game by developed and published by Maxis and released on MS-DOS in 1991, and later ported to various other platforms. You play as ants in a colony trying to expand the size of your colony across a yard and into a house. The game also comes with an experimental mode and a thick manual with encyclopedic information about ants. Like a lot of the early Sim games, it's more of a toy than a game.

I bought SimAnt, not just because I really liked Sim games, but also because I always thought ants were really interesting. I found out they're even more interesting from this game, especially from the manual.

Status

I own this game for DOS and have beaten both the game's quick and full game modes.

Review

  • Overall: 6/10
  • Best Version: DOS

Good

  • The game nicely embodies the Sim mentality allowing for lots of experimentation. You can dig your own ant tunnels, lay your own chemical trails, pit ants against each other, etc.
  • It was nice that the designers actually included a campaign-style game where you can actually beat it. And the plot, trying to infest an entire yard and house, is very thematic.
  • The game has a lot of details that teach you about ants like the ability to modify their birthing caste, sharing food, chemical trails, etc.
  • The addition of the house setting, with new graphics and hazards, was icing on the cake.
  • The various hazards, rain, lawn mower, spider, ant lion, kitchen, etc. make the game very life-like.
  • The graphics are actually quite nice for a PC game of the day, the designers wisely chose to modify the EGA palette, a rare occurrence in this time.
  • The in-game tutorial is very helpful.
  • The manual is amazing and features, not just details about the game, but a miniature encyclopedia of ants.
  • The addition of dialogue boxes is a hilarious addition to the game.
  • The game has a pretty impressive windowed interface for a 1991 DOS game.

Bad

  • Over all, there just isn't that much to do in the game. After a single play-through of the full game, and an hour in experiment mode, you've done everything the game has to offer.
  • The full game is really easy, and can be beaten in a about a half hour with only a rudimentary understanding of the game.
  • A difficulty setting would really help the game since it's so easy. I played a game where I constantly killed my yellow ant over and over again, and my colony still grew faster than the red's.
  • The game doesn't actually track the ants in other areas of the map. I understand why they had to do this on old computers, but it doesn't even do a very good general estimate. A new colony, after only a little while of game play, can jump to 200 ants. However, if you stay in the map, it will take much longer to get to that count.
  • While you get to dig your own nest, the AI ants don't utilize it effectively. They drop food and eggs randomly around, making it very difficult to make a strategic layout unless you want to sit in the nest all day and move stuff around. I would have preferred a way for you to direct other ants to keep eggs in one section, food in another, guard and area, etc.
  • Even though most of the game takes place in a backyard lawn, there is very little grass. This was probably decided because too many obstacles would make movement frustrating, but this means you're looking at a dull brown screen most of the time.
  • For some reason, in experiment mode, you can't remove walls once they're built, which makes them problematic to use.

Ugly

  • Nothing.

Media

Box Art

There were two main art styles for SimAnt, the original and the re-released Classics version. While I like both, I prefer the original, which is the one I own.

Documentation

Gallery

Videos

Links