A decent game with too many annoying flaws to be worth anything more than a rental.
And thats basically it. The game FEELS pretty good when you play for the first time. The graphics are nice, if a little repetitive. The music is a little on the week side, but since you don't need it, you can simply turn it off and listen to anything else instead. The controls are a little sensitive, but very easy to use ( Until you're in a bus or anything else that shakes, more on that later) and it's still pretty fun to build your own city.
The problem is, the more you play, the less you feel like playing. The game has several flaws, some minor, some big, that will most likely turn you off.
First of all, the In-Game advisors are very annoying AND useless. Why? My city has pollution and crime problems. I ask for their advice and what do I get? Some random comment about needing to build more shools. Uhh... thanks, I kew that, but what about the pollution? Or the crimes? Bottom line, the moment you have more than one problem at a time, don't count on them for anything. And god forbid a fire or something appears in some forested area far away from your town, since they then lose it and become completely useless until the disaster is gone.
What else is wrong in this game? Ther's only one save file. That means that if you want to start a new city, kiss your awesome metropolis goodbye.
Also, even though the DS is made so you can play anywhere, expect some major frustration when playing this game on a bumpy bus ride. Most actions can be cancelled, but not demolishing. I was just trying to get rid of empty landfills, but one bump later, I had deleted two higly evolved industial sectors and a seaport. And forget about trying to buid roads in those conditions.
Add to this the fact that the gameplay is quite slow. Even when you do speed-up time, tax money doesn't come in very fast early in the game. While this is true of many games in the series, combining this with the other flaws makes the game feel like progress takes forever to happen.
Bottom line, Sim City Ds was a decent attempt to bring the series to the DS, but there are simply too many things done wrong in this game to keep anyone but the most diehard fans of the series playing for more than just a few hours. It's worth renting, but doing that will most likely kill any urge you may have had of buying it.