CREATIVE SHOWCASE

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Client:Electronic Arts

SimCity, one of the largest video game series, launched its SimCity game for the handheld Nintendo DS system with a minimal yet creative and vibrant site. 

The site, offered in multiple languages, gives site visitors opportunities to learn more about SimCity's latest game. Notable components of the site include a video gallery of game footage as seen at the Nintendo DS system, a brief history of SimCity games from 1989 through 2003 and an overview of game features in various game modes.

In addition, the site features a mini-game where budding SimCity builders can build a city for the mayor to tour. With enough landmarks and the right types of roads, players can earn big points if they please the SimCity mayor.

Lastly, to make the visit to the SimCity DS complete, the site includes a link to the store where site visitors can purchase the SimCity game for their Nintendo DS, based on the visitors' location.
-- Nanette Marcus, cover stories editor, iMedia Connection

Creative Showcase is meant to be a teaching tool and an inspiration for our readers. We comment only on creative that we really love. Our panelists discuss what makes it great, but if they feel there were missed opportunities that would have made it better, we invite them to mention those. And finally, we seek out a wide range of opinions that reflect the marketplace for the panel, in order to provide constructive, useable feedback for agencies, clients and others involved in these creative pieces.

I'm not much of a "gamer," but I fondly remember the early days of SimCity and how engrossing of a game it was, even in its early iterations. It's great to see the game continue to evolve, now for the Nintendo DS. The promotional site is quite nice, with its most impressive feature being robust Flash design and a certain amount of slickness and attention to detail.
 
The content of the site was apropos and pretty easily navigable through a fun (and well-rendered) city square scene. Being an early fan of SimCity, I enjoyed the history section, despite tedious scrolling text boxes. The game features section was helpful to see, but also a little tedious to sit through.

Every video game site should show you samples of the game and the video gallery did just that. However, the presentation of this content was a little underwhelming (it was too small to understand). A navigation problem throughout the site is the need to "go back" before choosing another area to explore. Universally accessible navigation is a pretty standard feature for a website in 2007, and this would be a perfect opportunity to use it. Definitely the best part of the site was the mini game, which showed just how addictive the SimCity experience is, even in a much simpler form.
 
Overall, I'd give this site a strong passing grade for successfully showing off the new version of the classic game. But the site makers should make sure to pay more attention to some of the details like navigation, in lieu of getting carried away with slick graphics.
-- Dave Clark, interactive creative director, Draft FCB

The site loads by taking you through the history of the game from the first edition to the most current -- a clever way to get people involved with the idea of a new game. But that's where the ingenuity ends, unfortunately. The site is devoid of any personality at all. Sure, the Flash graphics are as good as the games themselves, but this site is missing the most important part of an online experience: great sound design. The musak they have is circa 1992, and it just drones on and on.

The choices to check out the SimCity history, mini-game and video gallery are too few and not rewarding. I was expecting a lot more from this site, which it didn't deliver.
-- Matt Wright, director of product management, Video, HowStuffWorks