Out of all the crappy DS ports of console games, this one stands out as one of the best handheld ports.
GAMEPLAY: The game is really easy to build stuff, you select the pickaxe icon on the screen to enter build mode and select the type of building you want to create. You can make buildings en masse or one square at a time. Not only that, but you must choose an area to build your around. The Sims need an area with water and a good food supply, much like how civilizations are built. Once you get further in the ages of civilization, money and pollution are a concern. You can adjust the tax rate of the Sims and change the budget of hospitals to make them work better. My two flaws I found was that once you have made a massive city, the game lags when you move the view across the map. Not only that, but it takes one minute to go to a different menu because of all the activity that is going on. The other flaw that I found was that that it takes a long time for the city to reach a checkpoint. You can wait hours for a notice to come up for a new building or a new age of civilization to come. Overall 8.5/10 for gameplay.
GRAPHICS: The graphics in SimCity Creator or pretty impressive for a DS. I wasn't expecting 3D graphics and complain how they aren't up to par with the Wii version because it is a handheld. The buildings are extremely detailed and the scenery is pretty animated, water can be seen flowing across rivers or lakes and hunting grounds can have animals that move around. It is also neat to see the buildings be in it's early stage of development and grow to a fully built house. Overall it's an 8/10 for me.
SOUND: The music is somewhat mediocre, you will hear the same 30 second loop of canned music for the rest of the period of civilzation. Also, the sound when you get a notice is really lame, it sounds like an 80s gameshow key tone and makes the game look awful. This section could have used some more tweaking. Overall it's 6.5/10 for sound.
So with all this said, SimCity Creator for the DS is a great addition to your handheld library. It offers some nice visuals and simple gameplay that doesn't take that long to master. The music isn't great but you can simply turn the volume off, right? Very nicely done, extremely addictive and fun as hell.
GAMEPLAY: 8.5/10
GRAPHICS: 8/10
SOUND: 6.5/10
FINAL RATING: 8/10