SimCopter

SimCopter is a 1996 simulation that combines helicopter flying with the familiar city-building world of SimCity. Players pilot a helicopter through cities, responding to emergencies, transporting people, fighting fires, rescuing stranded citizens, and generally becoming the person everyone calls when something has gone terribly wrong. The ability to import cities created in SimCity 2000 gives the game an especially interesting connection to the earlier simulation. Flying around a familiar city from the cockpit provides a surprisingly personal perspective on the urban world you previously viewed from above. Missions can become hectic, with traffic, fires, accidents, and other emergencies competing for attention. SimCopter is at its best when the city feels alive and unpredictable. It is also a wonderful demonstration of how Maxis could take a perfectly respectable city simulator and ask the obvious question: “What if you could fly a helicopter around it?”