8/27/20- Utopia: Creation of a Nation

Utopia: Creation of a Nation (1993) by Celestial Software, published by Gremlin Interactive (love that name) for SNES, originally released on Amiga and DOS. This one’s great. Utopia was initially conceived by its creators as an attempt to improve on the SimCity concept by introducing more involved social elements. In what is essentially SimCity on alien planets, you develop your cities, set budgets, manage supplies, trade, develop weapons, and engage hostile aliens (or are you the real alien?). What it lacks in the intricacies of some of SimCity’s mechanics, it makes up for in other areas. The budget system is very fleshed out and requires you to be on top of your finances to make sure certain sectors get enough funding; the trading has a supply and demand mechanic that sometimes leaves you in tough spots if your resource management is poor; you have to gauge your population’s consumption to decide how much of a resource you’re comfortable throwing away; you have a council of advisors who give genuinely good advice to improve your city; you can even control the birth rate. The graphics are in that lovely 16-bit isometric style that I love so much, and the music has a great sci-fi atmosphere with synths and midi bells. I got really into this one; when I record footage, I usually go for about 20-30 minutes, but this time I had to sift through over an hour of footage. You might notice in the sizzle reel a clip where one of my mines collapsed– I audibly gasped when I saw it, that’s how much this game got me. This is the Super Nintendo version, which suffers slightly from a stiff d-pad cursor to control, but it might be worth it to give the DOS and Amiga versions a try if you can emulate them.