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Game review: SimPark

© Van Waffle

Kids can spend hours upon hours playing computer games. Our challenge as parents is to find games that are both entertaining and educational. Are there any good ones that teach about nature? SimPark does that while stimulating your child's imagination and providing hours of non-violent amusement (screen shot at right).

Creative games like SimCity and The Sims, all from the same creators, have been among the most popular computer games of recent years. In SimPark, the player gets to create a park and manage the flora and fauna that live in it. But be careful! If the deer get out of hand, their favourite foods will disappear. If your forest habitat gets out of balance it will start to look like Death Valley. And if things aren't going smoothly, you'll have the head ranger on your case, and revenues might suffer.

To start, you can choose a major climate type from somewhere in the continental United States. This determines what plants and animals will flourish. Then you can start planting trees, shrubs and flowers and building visitor attractions.

SimPark's interface operates on a close-up scale so that you can see individual plants and animals. Seasons come and go, flowers bloom, and trees grow to maturity.

You have to watch your revenue, because managing a park costs money. At the same time you have to make sure people don't leave litter. Some wild creatures will naturally wander into your park, increasing that all-important biodiversity. Of course you can also choose and place animals in the park. If they find the right food, they'll flourish. If the dandelions or cottontails get too numerous, you can try introducing a natural predator. You won't see any violent, true life adventures in this game. If a predator and prey encounter one another, the prey simply disappears. Or you can get rid of them the easy way, just catching them by hand.

Rizzo the frog frequently appears to offer game tips and wildlife trivia. His outgoing chatter can become annoying, but fortunately the options allow you to turn him off. Otherwise, the background sound is only an occasional bird song or animal call so you can tell what creatures are living in your park. So SimPark's annoyance level for other people in the room is relatively low.

You can also click on a plant or animal to get more information. For example, select a sickly shrub and Rizzo will chime in: "This is a serviceberry. She is dead! Her species was over-eaten."

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