Ludography
SimSafari cover

1998 · Maxis · Business simulation · Strategy

SimSafari

SimSafari brings Africa to you. Imagine yourself in rugged bush country, peering through binoculars at vast herds of elephants, zebras and lions. Choose from exotic plants and wildlife to create your own safari park. Team with a neighboring village and build a flourishing safari camp.

Released
4 March 1998
Platforms
WindowsmacOS
Genres
Business simulationStrategy
Developers
Maxis
Publishers
Electronic Arts
Modes
Single-player
Perspective
Bird view / Isometric
Themes
BusinessEducational
Country
United States
Age ratings
ESRB E
Composers
Jerry Martin

About

SimSafari is a construction and management simulation game released by Maxis on March 19, 1998. It is similar to SimPark, except that the park is set in Africa rather than in North America, and therefore has African animals and plants.

Keywords

  • animals

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The game is divided into three different zones, the nature park, the tourist grounds, and the African village. The ultimate aim is for the players' park to reach five stars, although like most Sims games the player can continue playing indefinitely. To gain five stars, the player needs to make sure each zone is being run properly. The player can control tourism and staff.

The park is where the player can buy animals and made sure they were not being over-eaten or underfed. The player can control the species of animals, grasses, shrubs, and trees that were built here. The game has information on every species in it, with short animations for the animals. Natural disasters can occur, like wildfires, droughts, locusts, and twisters.

Development

SimSafari was one of a range of spin-off titles published by Maxis from the SimCity series targeted at younger players. The game was announced by Maxis in 1997 as part of a lineup including SimCity 3000 and Streets of SimCity. SimSafari was released on 19 March 1998 for Microsoft Windows and Macintosh.

Reception

Critics praised the game's visual presentation.

Reviews were divided on the challenge level of SimSafari. Some found the game difficult; describing the game as "far too hard", Ultimate PC considered the game required real-world ecological knowledge to succeed in a manner inappropriate for a children's title.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
macOS19 March 1998North America · Europe 31 December 1999
Windows19 March 1998North America · Europe 31 December 1999

Editions and related releases

Included in
SimMania for Kids

Games like this

Collections2 collections

Platform libraries

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.