Streets of SimCity is a 1997 racing and vehicular combat video game published by Maxis and Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows. The game features the ability to visit any city created in SimCity 2000, as well as a network mode allowing for players to compete in races with up to seven other players. The game was developed to build upon the engine and graphical fidelity of SimCopter, a title with a similar premise of navigating SimCity cities. It is the last Maxis game to be developed without supervision by Electronic Arts, which acquired Maxis in the months leading up to release.
Upon release, Streets of SimCity received negative reviews, with critics considering the game's concept interesting, but found its execution and gameplay lackluster and noted it suffered from performance issues. It has been retrospectively viewed as the nadir of the SimCity series, and representative of a number of less commercially and critically successful spin-off titles by Maxis up to the period of their acquisition by EA.
Gameplay
thumb|left|Driving from a [[first-person perspective, showing the dashboard and map.]]
Streets of SimCity represents city streets in a 3D environment in which players can navigate vehicles freely or complete missions. It was created by Maxis during a period of acquisition by publisher Electronic Arts and a restructuring of the company. The game was developed using the same 3D engine as SimCopter, The game's lead designer was Jason Shankel, a programmer who had worked for Maxis for two years and led development of the SimCity 2000 Urban Renewal Kit add-on and Network Edition. Shankel built on the engine to support 3D acceleration, increase the resolution and remodel the buildings for greater detail. The developers used lessons learned from criticism of SimCopter to design the game, including more gameplay content and an editor so that players did not need to rely on ownership of SimCity 2000 to create and edit cities. In 1998, the game was packaged with other Maxis titles as part of the Ultimate Sim Series compilation.
| GPPCG = C
| GSpot = 4.4/10
| NGen = 1/5
| PCM = 1/5
| PCGUS = 37%
| PCPP = 30%
| rev1 = APC
| rev1Score = 4/5
According to PC Gamer, Streets of SimCity sold 121,000 copies as of 2001.
The game received mostly negative reviews upon release, with many critics considering that whilst its concept had merit, its execution fell short as a standalone title; GameInformer considered the title was a "bizarre departure" for the franchise, Several critics also assessed that its implementation was janky, The title helped contribute to the poor reputation of spin-off games in the Maxis software lineup and SimCity series.
Some reception has been less critical: whilst PC Games wrote that Streets of SimCity was a "disaster in its own right" as a SimCity title, the game had some entertainment value as a driving game. Jim Vorel of The A.V. Club ranked the game as the fourth-best Maxis simulation title, writing that it was more satisfying than SimCopter as the "rendering of the cities is much better, and there's something simply relaxing about going for a cruise around the place you built". Schweizer considered that the use of urban landscapes to "allow players to race and crash in polygonal streets" was an early attempt to create a navigable 3D city that would anticipate future attempts such as the DMA Design title Grand Theft Auto.
Legacy
Streets of SimCity was one of the last in a range of spin-off titles published by Maxis that met a poor critical and commercial reception during a period of acquisition by EA. The design of SimCopter and Streets of Simcity was initially influential to the direction of Maxis in developing a similar 3D approach for Sim City 3000, which was later abandoned for a 2D approach following acquisition by EA.
In 2019, independent developer Alxander Krimsky published a patched version of Streets of SimCity for Windows 10 named SimStreetsX. The version, which rewrote the assembly code for the game, allows for networked multiplayer play for eight players. Krimsky developed the version in a week and stated its creation was straightforward, having prior released a similar reimplementation for SimCopter in the same engine.