As we know, the Kilo’ster loves the classics. It’s one of the reasons I do GBA reviews. So when I saw Sim City 2000, the classic from Maxis, was on the GBA I had to reserve it. Now I am wishing I never did because it wasn’t faithful to the classic game at all.

If you are not familiar with the Sim City scenario, the series started in 1989 and the goal is to take a plot of land and eventually grow it to a huge city. You get many power-ups along the way and you earn more as you become a better mayor. It starts simple and then scales larger as you have more people and more responsibility. It teaches you about managing money, where to place industry and how a commodity works.

In 1994-95 Maxis released the 2nd installment; Sim City 2000 on PC and SNES (among other systems) and it was received quite well. You can’t step 50 feet anymore without seeing a Sim title of some sort. In ’95 when Maxis wanted a release to the SNES, THQ/Black Pearl made a fantastic version that made a great companion to the series.

Now let’s fast forward 9 years to DSI’s version of Sim City 2000 for the GBA. I assume that they researched the idea a bit and found they could do something good with it. However I doubt they took a glance at the SNES version because they lost a lot of gameplay potential by not looking at what was done in the past. I’m not saying that DSI should’ve copied the SNES version but I think they should’ve adapted more gamepad accessibility.

Once again this is where you find that Kilokahn becomes the judge, jury and executioner to a game…



The graphics pretty much seem the same ones that Maxis hands out to any developer. The game has that Maxis style through and through, which was never a complaint in my department. I gave it an above average grade to the graphics because they did a good job bringing good aspects to the small screen. However they could’ve given a better opening and prettier menus, but it’s a sim game and not a fighting game.

I don’t think that DSI even attempted to use the original music because what you get is a mixture of the bland and tiresome collection of music that doesn’t even get you pumped to play the game like the original music. If you recall the music from Maxis, it was jazzy and kept you entertained. The original also had nice little sound effects and trumpets make you feel as if you are making the world a better place. All of this is missing from this version. I felt as if I was being lulled to sleep with this version.

Controls make or break a game and this is where this game lacked the most. If you are using a top-view style game that is shaped like a baseball diamond, you should make the controls reflect that. Adding power lines or transportation is a hassle because of a lack of control support. There should be more interaction between the gameplay and the controls. Especially when it is next to impossible to make a road that is more than 1 block long and when you make a road that is 1 block long, they don’t connect to the other parts of the road. The menu GUI was just as bad, not giving you a nice interface to work with. Their version of a menu was worse than using a web browser with a keyboard.

Fresh Factor is lost in here because they don’t attempt to hide the extras from you; they give you everything you need at the start of the game. This really makes the game boring from the start. The original would give you only enough to make it through the first few stages of your town and make you earn the extras. Maybe the Fresh Factor in this is fact that it gives you everything at the beginning? Nah…

Overall I think this game needed some serious Beta Testing before it was sent out. If they hired me to glance through the game, I’d given them 15 or 20 suggestions that would’ve made this game a great joy to have on hand. Sadly that isn’t the case and this is a game that I will never play again. However if someone decides to make a faithful version of the original Sim City for the GBA, I’ll play that game until I get fired from my job for playing video games instead of working.