SimTower: The Vertical Empire (known as The Tower (ザ・タワー Za Tawā) in Japan) is a construction and management simulationvideo game developed by OpenBook Co., Ltd. and published by Maxis for the Microsoft Windows and Macintosh System 7 operating systems in November 1994. In Japan, it was published by OpenBook that same year and was later released for the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation in 1996.[citation needed] The game allows players to build and manage a tower and decide what facilities to place in it, in order to ultimately build a five-star tower. Random events take place during play, such as terrorist acts that the player must respond to immediately.
Critical reception towards the game was generally positive. Reviews praised the game’s formula, including its open-ended nature and its ability to immerse the player into the game. Criticism targeted the game’s lack of documentation, which some reviewers found made it harder to learn how to play the game. The in-game speed was also criticized for being too slow, which was a crucial issue in the game because time must pass for the player to earn income to purchase new facilities.
