role-playing

According to an earlier review, "The worst game i ever played, on the back it shows these tall buildings and even when i zoom in the buildings are blue and green squares. i hate this game. The only thing i liked was destroying the town (because it was so stupid)."

As a matter of fact the game will look exactly like the pictures on the back provided that you build roads and a power grid. When you first allocate land for residential, commercial or industrial usage all you get is the coloured squares. Whack in a power station and transit and you're away. Buildings will sprout up.

Anyway, that aside, this is basically the more simplified Sim City 1 concept but with graphics ported over from the PC Sim City 2000. It's not a straight port (nothing like as complex) but it's good hand-held entertainment and you get the warm glow of wielding power over a whole bunch of Sims on the bus/train etc. Top notch.

All things considered this is a very good copy of the PC game.
Pros:
Nice graphics, fairly easy controls, lots of features (like disasters) can be turned on/off individually or or all turned on/off. Construction is easy, and described well in the instructions.
Cons:
Eye strain (headache) from the dark screen (you need pretty good light for this one.) No cars driving around, no people in the stadium, or a train running around town. When you're zoomed out far enough to see the whole city, there is very little detail. When zoomed in to see the streets and buildings, it's a pain to scroll all over the place to see other parts of the city. (Guess you can only do so much with a portable.)

I find the game to get a little boring after awhile, but I felt the same way about the PC version. The instructions could offer more advice about running the city. Even though I'm not a "Sim-Head" I find it interesting enough to recommend. This would be a great buy if you love Sim City.

Finally, a game for the GBA system that cannot be beaten in one day. The possibilities are endless. Great for those long trips. My only complaint is that at times, during certain scenarios, there seems to be too much going on for the cartridge to handle. I thought playing it on the gamecube using the gameboy player would solve this problem but it didn't. Can be quite frustrating when fires are breaking out and the cursor just doesn't want to budge.