Blow an entire SimCity (sans those pesky cold sores)

In addition to revealing that SimCity DS will be coming to America in summer 2007, Electronic Arts also dropped some interesting tidbits about how this new version of the classic SimCity series will play.

Besides being able to sign mayoral proclamations with your own signature using the touch screen, what really piqued my interest is that players will have to blow into the DS microphone to put out fires. And if your SimCity skills are anything like mine, that will happen quite often.

As someone who is all about innovation and/or adding new features to an otherwise old game (SimCity DS is a remake of sorts of SimCity 3000), I have to admit that this whole “blowing into the mic” thing is getting a little out of hand.

Unless it is implemented in a vital way that really adds to the overall package, I would prefer to not have to sit in a packed train/busy bus/close-quartered airplane and blow into my handheld system. Developers must not have experimented with this, as blowing in public is rather loud and really seems to attract the unwanted attention of others. Just ask Jenna Jameson (aw, snap!).

Overdramatic grumblings aside (Kokomo angry!), SimCity DS does look promising and a summer release announcement for the U.S. is exciting news. Let’s just hope the embarrassing gimmicks are kept to a minimum.