Its comically overdesigned buildings were quite charming. The police station had a giant pair of handcuffs, and the video rental shop looked like it was built from VHS tapes, and there appeared to be futuristic lights flashing from within.
There were a few odd cheat codes for it, though the ones I had didn't really circumvent anything in the game. One code caused RV homes to briefly transform into toasters and pop some toast. Another triggered a freakishly short animation of someone dropped with a parachute. If you tried to scroll down, then the character would vanish even quicker.
The character creation thing is simplistic. Moreover, you can change your character at any time. I did this while my character was playing with some kids, multiple times, and the kids ran off in terror.
I left the game running during recess, as the reward certificates only required maintaining a balance of population and jobs, not on maintaining resources and quality of life. It worked for me, even if my city looked worse for wear.