Simcity 2000 simply doesn't work well with the GBA button layout, and it's far from being as fun as the PC version.
Gameplay
Pretty much everything from the original SimCity 2000 is in the GBA version. As before, you can build residential, commercial, and industrial areas, and build areas like police stations, parks, stadium and stuff like that.
However, all of this is very hard to do on the GBA because of the button layout. You have to select everything individually, and to build something, you have to first press down on the left trigger and scroll through a list of buildings to get what you want. While building cities is possible, it is a very slow process in the GBA version because of everything being so slow when you try to make buildings. The game is, as all SimCity games, fairly difficult, and you will have to start out small in order to think big.
You will have to deal with all of the financial parts of your city as well, such as property taxes, and every once in a while you will be able to "read" the city newspaper to see if they like your planning or not.
The are four scenarios in the game, but how are you supposed to send out a bunch of fire trucks to exterminate a rapidly-spreading fire when your cursor moves at the speed of a turtle? Seriously, though, the disasters in these scenarios are too fast to be able to conquer by a slow moving control scheme.
If the whole building process were a bit quicker, then that would definately help this game, otherwise it's not very fun at all.
Graphics
The graphics are just about as good as the SimCity 2000 game, and all of the buildings and textures look the same, which is nice, but a little dated for even a GBA.
Sound
Not much going on in the sound department. They have menu music, and building music, nothing really to talk about here. There is nothing special about the sound design in SimCity 2000
Overall
Overall SimCity 2000 is a disappointment, after all the fun that the same game for the PC gave us, this falls very short from it. It simply take far too long to even build one building, one roadway, even rotating the camera takes a while. If the process were sped up, the game would be a whole lot better. The graphics are a bit dated, but it still managed to keep the original SimCity 2000 look, and the sound design is also a flashback from the past.
I wouldn't really recommend this game, because it doesn't offer the amount of fun that is worth a purchase, and really, it's not too exciting...