Most known for the Will Wright series SimCity and The Sims, Maxis was once an extremely prolific software house. Since 2014, when the last SimCity came out, Maxis has dedicated itself to making games and expansions for The Sims. While we won’t see the studio produce titles as wild as SimAnt in the future, some of their old games still hold up to this day.
Maxis has always been known for its simulation titles, starting with the original SimCity in 1989. Through the ’90s, Maxis was most known for their Sim series, publishing titles like SimEarth and SimLifeyear after year. Most of those titles take the formula of SimCity but focus on larger systems. Ironically, Maxis will find true success with the original The Sims, by concentrating on smaller simulations.
6 SimAnt: The Electronic Ant Colony
SimAnt is a curious simulation game about leading a colony of ants just like an ant would: with pheromones. The player doesn’t have direct control over their ants, making this less of a strategy game with a unique theme and more of a simulation. Random events, like floods that wash away pheromones and human footsteps that kill large groups of insects, diminish the importance of strategy even more.
SimAnt might be muddled in by its simulation, but it’s still a strategic game, complete with the depth and curious abstractions typical of the genre. Players only control one ant at a time, but they can freely select that ant as if taking control of its tiny mind. Meanwhile, the campaign sees players move their colony garden to garden not for any in-game reason, but as a way to add variety to the gameplay.
5 SimLife: The Genetic Playground
In SimLife, players explore and interact with a simulated environment. There are optional scenarios to try and beat, but the game tries its best not to impose any clear objectives on players. Before the simulation begins, players are free to alter planets, animals, plants, and even certain rules of physics.
SimLife isn’t well a particularly well-known title now, but back in its day, it managed to spawn an entire subgenre. Any creature-making simulation, a genre pioneered by Maxis with its 1992 title, draws its roots here. This includes Maxis’ Spore and other mid-2000s titles like Impossible Creatures.
4 SimEarth
1991’s SimEarth is the second game in the Sim series. The series and its creator, Will Wright, were already well known in the PC gaming space for the original SimCity, the first title in the historic series. The extreme success of SimEarth only served to cement Maxis as a simulation powerhouse.
The premise of SimEarth is simple: players create or modify a planet until it suits their needs, then drop different life forms in the simulation and see what happens. Like most games in the Sim series, SimEarth has some scenarios where players are given specific goals, but most of the fun is in the freeform simulation.
3 Spore
Although it was panned on release by fans and critics alike, Spore holds up just fine. It might not be Maxis’ masterpiece, but it’s easily one of the developer’s most interesting games since the original 1990s run of the Sim series. With 5 ages to go through and a robust species creation (and modification) system, Spore is also one of Maxis' longest games.
At first, Spore might look similar to other Maxis games like SimLife, but immediately distinguishes itself by giving the player control of one character at a time, all the time. The game doesn't stop at simulating natural selection and evolution but gives the player a direct role in optimizing the survival chances of their species.
2 The Urbz: Sims In The City
The Urbz might look like The Sims, and it is in fact a spinoff of the more famous series, but deep inside they are wholly different games. For one, The Urbz doesn’t share its big sibling’s aspiration of being an everything game, with endless expansions bringing the household simulation to college, the woods, the mall, etc.
Two aspects of The Urbz that aged surprisingly well are aesthetics and character. This game tries so hard to be cool that it becomes enduring, but it’s not just that. Unlike most other Maxis games, The Urbz has real characters with bespoke dialogue and animations, as well as a handcrafted world to explore. Talking about worlds, Urbzville was the first city in the prolific Sims series, later followed by Bridgeport from The Sims 3.
1 SimCopter
SimCopter is quite the exception in Maxis’ catalog of simulation games. This title doesn’t recreate the complexities of running an airport or directing the air traffic of a city’s sky. SimCopter is instead a straightforward flying sim, a simple affair both by Maxis’ standards and when compared to other helicopter simulators.
The standout feature that the game is seemingly built upon is the SimCity 2000 integration, which allows players to import their own cities to fly around in. This option is only available when in user mode. The other main mode, career mode, offers a slew of challenges in the vein of arcade flying games and simulators alike.