Despite EA’s efforts to make 2013’s SimCity reboot a better experience for gamers, many longtime fans of the franchise still haven’t embraced the latest game’s new direction, and long for the days of “classic” SimCity. Although far from perfect, 2003’s SimCity 4 embodies much of what fans feel is lacking from the new SimCity, and the game still runs well on modern versions of Windows. For Mac users, unfortunately, the state of SimCity 4 was a different story. That is, however, until late last week.
On Thursday, Mac gaming publisher Aspyr launched SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition on the Mac App Store. Featuring the same gameplay as the title’s original release, including the Rush Hour expansion pack, this new version has been updated to work seamlessly on modern versions of OS X.
After playing 2013’s SimCity for the past year, the graphics in SimCity 4 certainly look dated, but the game runs well on all of our test hardware, including a 2011 MacBook Pro (AMD Radeon HD 6750M), 2012 iMac (GeForce GT 650M), and 2013 Mac Pro (AMD FirePro D500). The only issue we encountered was a bit of stuttering when zooming in and out of a city but, otherwise, the game played great on all systems, even when we loaded up large and complex cities.
Aspiring mayors can pick the game up now for $19.99 on the Mac App Store, and Aspyr is expected to bring the Mac version of the game to other digital retailers like Steam in the coming weeks. SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition for Mac requires OS X 10.8.5 Mountain Lion or later. For a list of supported GPUs, check out Aspyr’s website.
