Forget the busted remake. Forget the cash-hungry mobile games. The best SimCity Maxis ever made is still available, and as of now it's a free download on EA's Origin store.
I'm of course talking about SimCity 2000, the game that struck the perfect balance between accessibility and the finer tuning of city-management. More devoted fans might prefer SimCity 4, and in some ways I do myself, but there's just something about 2000's look, toolset, disasters (which remain the series' best) and obsession with arcologies that make it stand out.
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That and the whole "reticulating splines" gag, which started here.
SimCity 2000 [Origin]