Sim City accomplishes its goal and makes for addictive play.
If you're a first timer to the game (which would be rather rare, I imagine) make sure that you read the manual, as it is extremely useful and will provide all the basic tools you need to be successful rather quickly.
As is well known, the point of the game is to construct a city within a given land area. The stated purpose is to grow your city to the point where you reach 500,000 people. Half the fun, however, is creating your own city with the tools accomplishing cool aesthetic layouts and personality.
I think what makes this game successful is the ease with which you can get your city to 100,000 or 200,000 people having a bunch of fun watching it grow, and at the same time the difficulty of reaching 500,000 people. The replayability is so high for this game because, not only do you get to create your own city (which is fun) but you can take it any direction you like. Ultimately, if you reach a city of over 500,000, you'll have spent hours figuring it out and will have had lots of fun in the meantime.
The graphics accomplish what they need to, but don't impress beyond that. They do a great job of communicating different zones clearly which allows you to plan effectively. The soundtrack for the game is, unfortunately, awful and gets very old quickly, so turn it off and crank up your Built to Spill.
Given how inexpensive it is to purchase this game ($8 on ebay) it's a steal. Hours of fun for little money = great deal!
In closing, there are few games that I find myself blowing 45 minutes (or 3 hrs) on so quickly as this game. It's nothing fancy, but then again, neither is the point of the game. It's just simple and good.