Play Sim Earth - The Living Planet Online

Sim Earth: The Living Planet came out on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990, developed by Maxis. It was part of that early wave of complex, simulation-focused games on the console, a time when developers were experimenting with bringing deep PC-style experiences to a living room audience. You didn't just play a character; you managed an entire world.

You control the fundamental forces of a planet's development, from its primordial atmosphere to the rise of intelligent life. Your main objective is to guide your world from a barren rock to a thriving, space-faring civilization, or simply to see what strange forms of life might evolve under different conditions. Signature mechanics include adjusting global parameters like temperature and oxygen levels through a series of sliders, terraforming the landscape to create new landmasses or oceans, and introducing or modifying lifeforms to adapt to the changing environment. The pacing is slow and deliberate, often requiring you to speed up time dramatically to see the long-term results of your tweaks, and the difficulty comes from the immense number of interconnected systems that can spiral into disaster with one wrong adjustment. It feels like conducting a grand, unpredictable experiment where you are never quite in full control.