SimCity 2000

"Not SimCity 2000 like you and I remember it."

I've been a huge fan of Sim games since I was a kid. It was always fun to create something really cool, see how it works, tweak it a little to see what changes, then reign disaster upon it. Needless to say, once I heard SimCity 2000 was coming out for the Game Boy Advance, I was very excited. I remembered playing SimCity 2000 for the PC and SNES and thought a portable version of the game would be awesome. Well, much to my dismay, I was quite disappointed with this incarnation.

The biggest gripe I have about this game is how watered down it is. Most of the features that made SimCity 2000 distinctively different from the original SimCity were removed. It's really much like the original SimCity in a ¾ overhead perspective with bus stops and train stations. My favorite part of SimCity 2000 is the realism and high-level of detail, such as the water supply, hydroelectric dams, terrain editing and budget planning. Top that off with the map being only ¼ the size of the PC SimCity 2000 map, and you've got the recipe for disappointment. The lack of graphs and population meters are also disappointing.

The upside is the graphics and sound effects are completely identical to the PC version of SimCity 2000, however, that is the only upside. The graphical placement of buildings and other structures seems to not interact with other buildings in your cityscape. For instance, you'll find yourself re-doing road just to make it look ''right''. The graphics seem to not want to build intersections. Power lines also run parallel, rather than perpendicular to roads if you place only one across a street. Also, the game seems to regurgitate sound effects at random. For instance, when I was laying down road, I kept hearing water splashing in the background and animal roars. To top it off, even though there is an option for turning music on and off in the main options screen, there is no background music while you're building your city.

The main thing I don't understand is why the SNES version of Sim City 2000 was so much better? You have other games for the GBA that were ported from the SNES that are ''improved'' all around. Take Link to the Past, for example. The game is graphically identical to the original version. Now, take the SNES version of SimCity 2000. Sure, it's not an exact replica of SimCity 2000 for the PC. The graphics on it were much blurrier, the resolution wasn't nearly as sharp, there was to terrain editor and the building sprites weren't exactly like the PC version. Still, the SNES game was much like the PC version in as much as it had most of the features the PC version had, except the city plane was 96x96 squares, rather than the full 128x128. The only edge the GBA version has is the improved graphics quality. Aside from that, the GBA version is far inferior to any version of SimCity 2000 in the past. I'd have taken a port of the SNES version of SimCity 2000 any day.

Overall, this game was certainly not what I expected it to be. By all means, it isn't a complete failure and should still provide some enjoyment value. Overall, if you're anticipating something like SimCity 2000 for the PC, this isn't it.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 12/28/03