Once upon a time long ago a company named Maxis released a lesser known title called Sim Tower back in 1995 just before Windows 95 came out. This game was designed by a Japanese game maker known as Yutaka Saitoh in his country a year before as The Tower 1.2J. Since then there had been some minor updates and things to the game, even a pseudo sequel called Yoot Tower, but nothing ever captivated the game players who really fell for the game like the original. Fast forward more than a decade and shrunk down to the handheld level, The Tower has been revitalized on the Gameboy Advance as The Tower SP. With the micronisation, changes, and even upgrades will this game still hold the magic or will it fizzle out?

Presentation:
As The Tower SP is both a handheld game and a simulation one would feel that the presentation value of the game could end up border lining between being minimalist and outright lacking, but thankfully this isn’t the case. With the original computer game this was based upon the user being thrown into a world of creating their own tower with the allowed funds in a very bare bones environment. While this is still somewhat the case on this version of the title there has been some much welcome additions to the presentation package of the title. Visually The Tower SP is a mostly static world in which there are various locations displayed in various states of use accompanied by silhouette bodied people with minimal motion on the game outside of the stairs, escalators, and elevators. The nice thing to see though with the title is that the visual end of the old computer game has been held up solidly with all the colorful and intricate details given to what places you lay out in your little world within the tower. Menus have been slightly upgraded from the old Windows fare but still are highly minimalist visually, yet fully functional. New very minor animations but also graphics abound from a borderline story mode have been added to the title. In the game you end up working for a CEO and he will show you where your building area is. The CEO is displayed in a slightly goofy anime style with huge bushy white eyebrows probably covering up the fact he’s bald on top. You’ll see him in a large bodied lightly animated set of poses that give the game a more warm feeling and perhaps even a sense of a pat on the back for your accomplishments from his behaviors.

Aside from the graphical end of the package the audio package is a mix of well detailed sound effects and a very light accompaniment of music to go along side. Those familiar with the original game will instantly feel right at home as the game powers up to the title screen. The familiar rising tone of expanding audio followed by an instant drop out to a knock-knock effect still welcomes you into the world. Music from the game will generally only be heard not during gameplay, just during the various different menu driven scenarios with the CEO of the tower you are developing for him. The tunes are non-offensive, yet they are non-inspiring, basically a casual nice sounding piece of background music to make an otherwise slow part of the game feel a bit less empty. Music aside though the real audio of this game is based upon all the levels of sounds effects created that come into effect around the various places within your tower. If you pass by a business you may hear office chatter, but if you go by a retail outlet then you’ll hear some mumblings followed by an electronic cash register ringing up the order. Whatever has some level of function to the game right down to the common sound of the elevators rising and falling will have an associated audio, but even then there are a few random effects tossed in for atmospheric fun such as the sound of a jet plane going by. Most audio queues are not within your control, yet a few well places ones where you end up perhaps scrubbing down the toilets on the floor do right up to finishing with an audible flush. While the music package does falter only being in that it’s relegated to the menus, perhaps it was a design choice so the amazing level of audio samples from your busy tenants and visitors in the tower are not drowned out.

Gameplay:
The Tower SP obviously if you have been reading this review up to this point you know that this is a simulation, a skyscraper design and management simulation to be exact. This is the meat of the game, and not so much as is the audio and visual presentation that accompanies it. The Tower SP is broken down into tiers of overall completion, four to be exact, which ratings are given by symbolic gold stars. At each point in the game when you earn a new star for hitting a population milestone new construction opens are opened up to you for further expansion. Furthermore unlike in the original package as a story of sorts has been added to this game, you will find that as you rank up, your overall allowed building perimeter will increase in width as well. The basic premise behind the game is that you work for the CEO named Yamanouchi (a pun off of ex-Nintendo CEO Hiroshi Yamauchi,) and as his building manager you are given a budget and a plot of land to develop as you please. Your goal is to make a functional tower that will rake in daily, weekly, and quarterly profits to not only sustain the structure, but to allow it to grow. As the tower grows in size and capacity Yamanouchi will reward you with cash bonuses upon leveling up and work to get the city zoning commission to allow you more land to develop for the increasingly large structure. This is all new fare for the classic title as previously it was a blind romp in trial and error with zero direction or story in how to attempt the game. With this new story and sets of tiered limitations it allows for more intelligent building due to the structured environment and also gives the gamer a greater sense of accomplishment. At each level of succession new things will greatly open up your ability to make an amazing tower. When you rise up to having a three out of four star tower the ability to create a hotel complex arrives, cinemas, large restaurants, various shops, a link to the metro subway, recycling centers and more. The game literally between Yamanouchi giving advice and random inspections, his cash rewards, and the new things that open up at rank increases boost the desire to drop yet another hour into the game you just moments ago wanted to do just five more minutes on.