It was bound to happen, sooner or later. There is a simulation craze out there subsisting on the theory that ‘if you build it, they will come.’

Enter The Tower SP, a building sim that – more or less – is exactly what its title suggests – you build a tower, hope for business and residential occupancy and hope to make a ton of cash by properly managing a professional building.

Ok, let’s give credit where it is due. Back in 1994 Maxis released a PC game entitled, imagine this, SimTower. The game was just called Tower in Japan, developed by Open Book and released the same year.

SEGA’s version of The Tower SP for the Game Boy Advance is essentially that title, ported over to the handheld, but retaining much of the flavor and idea. Almost sandbox in nature, the game does have specific objectives – which essentially means you begin with a building site, with a set amount of funds and then build your Tower floor by floor.

You begin with the easiest source of revenue, offices. Of course, as you move upward, you will need elevators, cleaning crews and security. The minutia of managing the building is kept to a minimum. You can set rent rates, but leave the details of cleaning and security to offices that you place within the structure. Once you have placed either security or cleaning rooms, they will automatically schedule rotations.

The interface is easy enough to navigate with the R shoulder button bringing up the menu of building options and the A button selecting them. You then use the D-pad to find an appropriate place in your structure to drop the selected item.

The bigger your building the more building options you have, but this all takes money and that begins with sound planning.

That the game throws in a professorial type is somewhat silly, but apparently it works within the context of the game.

The sound is incidental at best and the two-dimensional graphics are a throwback to much earlier gaming days. This is not a program that one buys for much else than an economic sim that is easy to play, but not overly intense.

The Tower SP has a fair amount of options, but the game mechanics are as dated as the graphics. If you are looking for a casual gaming experience, this may be worth checking out. But if you are looking for something more meaningful and immersive, pass. There is a dearth of building-style sims on the GBA, and while The Tower SP is certainly a step in the right direction, it is merely an appetizer before the main course, which is – hopefully – being prepared.

Gameplay: 6.5
A simple interface and sandbox-style game makes this easy to jump into and get going.

Graphics: 6.0
Serviceable but certainly not pushing the limits of the GBA.

Sound: 5.0
What is here is not much.

Difficulty: Easy
Not too tough to learn, and the only true investment in the game is time to build that tower.

Concept: 6.8
The idea is fine; it is just that the execution is a little on the “lite” side.

Overall: 6.4
Not overly hard to play, but this is a simplistic building/economic sim at best.