SimCity 64 continues Nintendo's use of the general SimCity game with their own addition of more cartoonish and Nintendo related elements. The relationship between SimCity 64 and the SNES version can be seen by the reappearance of the earlier game's green haired tutorialmonger Doctor Wright [Dr.ライト]. The gameplay is similar to SimCity, where the player zones certain areas for commercial, residential or industrial use, and then builds the civic infrastructure to support their growth. The city will develop in accordance with the roads, power structures, police stations, etc. that the player builds. However, in a twist, the player can then shrink their nigh omniscient overhead perspective into a first-person, citizen-on-the-streets view. While in this perspective, other Sims can be interacted with. They will tell the player about their lives and neighborhoods. Sighting a gun toting criminal on the sidewalk is a good indicator that more police stations need to be constructed. These city dwellers are rendered as cartoon sprites. Apart from the ability to walk the streets there is some additional city interactivity available in the first-person perspective.

• At airports, the player can now access a helicopter. The vehicles' horizontal movement is controlled via the control stick and vertical movement with the up and down c-buttons.
• In a hide-and-seek mini-game Dr. Wright assigns you a person to find on the streets of your city. A bar on the bottom of the screen shows if you are drawing near to the quested person. There are some rewards to be had from listening to these persons' stories.
• If a rail system is in play players can board it; it can also be ridden, and the player may look out of the window of their car.

Using Mario Artist: Paint Studio players can create a character, animated with two frames of animation, and import him or her into SimCity 64. This character can roam the streets until the player decides to make a new one.

File list:
/SimCity 64 (Japan)/SimCity 64 (Japan).zip