Everybody has a game they consider their 'gateway' drug - the game that got them hooked on gaming, whether as a hobby, an obsession, or even a madness. Call it what you will, the ultimate result is the same. Now, SimCity 2000 didn't precisely fit that definition for me; by the time it rolled around, gaming had already sunk its hooks deeply into me.

What SimCity 2000 did do, however, was take its place as the first game to take up an unhealthy allotment of my gaming time. Before I played SC2K, I still spent way too much time gaming, but I at least was dividing that time among multiple games.

The SimCity design was elegant in its simplicity: you had three different types of zones - residential, commercial, and industrial - and you had to juggle growth in those zones in such a way as to avoid urban blight. SimCity 2000 added a dimension, introducing the water grid to the mix. Basically, in addition to keeping the zones balanced and powered, you now had to make sure there was enough water to go around.

This is the SimCity we see on the GameBoy Advance for the first time, albeit a slightly stripped down version. The graphics, while a close approximation of the original PC version, are nonetheless somewhat stripped down, and some of the management elements present in the original are also missing here. That isn't to say SimCity 2000 isn't a fun game, despite those shortcomings, but the shortcomings are worth considering. We'll get into that, though.

The gameplay, at its essence, is the same classic strategy fans know and love. While you're nominally the mayor of SimVille (or whatever you wanna call your 'burb), you have de facto control over everything that happens within the confines of your city. The fire comissioner, police comissioner, etc, are there mostly to offer advice. The ultimate fate of the budgets, or even the location of the schools, hospitals, police and fire departments are in your hands. The idea is to place the major improvements in areas where they'll overlap for maximum efficiency, since your income, commercial, and industrial tax base is reasonably limited.

However, as I mentioned, there were a few elements removed; railroads are still present, but subways are gone. Further, the terrain is utterly flat. That's fine in the sense that you no longer have to spend massive amounts of money on terraforming, but it also means that building hilly communities, such as San Francisco, is utterly out of the question.

The audio, never spectacular, is another area that's suffered in the translation, going from an actual melody (if occasionally repetitive) to beeps and boops. The space limitations are almost certainly to blame, but it's still unfortunate.

Graphically, the appearance is the same - the sort of isometric 3D view is still present - but many of the smaller animations that gave life to the city, such as cars on the roads and the occasional flying news helicopter, are no longer present. Again, the challenge of trying to cram the original into a 32 Mb cart is likely the reason why, as this is otherwise a faithful port. Additionally, the game is a little bit sluggish, much as the original was when it first came out; whether that's poor coding, or simply a factor of the GBA's processor not being able to handle what stripped-down remains are left is anybody's guess.

Still, despite the technical limitations, SimCity 2000 remains an enjoyable, challenging way to pass the time. It isn't the direct conversion I'd hoped for, but for twenty bucks, it's plenty sufficient to the task. SimCity novices will find it well worth the purchase, but veterans may prefer to wait and see what the inevitable PSP port will be like.