SimCity Creator

The ever-expanding Sims universe bulges a little more with SIM CITY CREATOR, which lets players build and manage their own municipalities. A series of 15 tutorials lays down the rules for such activities as city zoning and utilities allocation. Then players are left to explore the game's broad array of functionality on their own. You can design and construct cities however you see fit, working within a modest budget to build infrastructure and municipal buildings that will attract residents, who will in turn start businesses and grow the city's economy. But watch out for potential disasters; an earthquake or fire could demolish massive portions of the cityscape and leave you struggling to keep citizens satisfied.

Despite its all-ages rating and the kid-friendly Wii platform, Sim City Creator, like many city building games, can feel dauntingly complex. While the basics are pretty straightforward -- make sure all of your buildings have power, that there are measures in place to deal with garbage and pollution, and that roads exist to make citizens' commutes as simple and short as possible -- learning how to manage the costs of these projects by altering tax percentages, taking out multiple loans, and buying and selling power and waste, is a formidable challenge. Staying in the black without prompting a citizen revolt in the form of a union strike or population exodus can be extremely difficult.