MySims Wii review

MySims for WiiA month after release one million people discovered a new town in MySims and made it their own!

For the first time it’s your world to transform! Move to a town that has been struggling lately. With a little creativity and some help from the locals, you can make this place thrive. Improve the town to attract new characters, from Italian Chef Gino Delicioso, Florist to Kickboxing Instructor, and DJ Candy Supergroove to arcade owner, Vic Vector and Cap’n Ginny, the town pirate.

Discover what the residents want and need, so that you can help them enjoy life in your Sim’s new town. Design a hot tub or jukebox from scratch, build homes and businesses from the roof to the front door. Uncover special decorations and patterns as you explore the growing town. From the furniture and objects to the buildings to the town as a whole, each of your creations is unique.

System: Wii, DS
Genre: Life simulator
Release dates: September 18th 2007 (USA), September 20th 2007 (EURO)
Players: 1
Developer: Maxis
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Origin: America

MySims Wii screenshot
“Ah, van vesua! Cummuns nala” is Simlish for “Hello, how are you doing?”

The game’s goal seems simple: Transforming the traditional Sims gameplay for the Nintendo Wii (and DS) platform. To do this, MySims moves the you to a delightful but disorganized town where (thanks to the easy controls) you can re-shape everything and make it your own.

You begin by creating their own cartoony toy-like Sim that reflects their personal style and attitudes. Modify gender, hair, skin, eyes, and clothes. From pig-tails and baseball caps to dreadlocks and Mohawks, the options are varied and the style is unlike any Sims game to date. Very cutesy and colorful with a charming fun-loving result. By unlocking cool new clothing, hairstyles and accessories, you can explore the game’s depth of customization and expression, and the characters are just the beginning…

At first, the town is rundown, but you can make it much more dynamic. Using a selection of building blocks, unique patterns and engaging creativity tools, players can design furniture and appliances, architect new homes and businesses, and re-define the entire MySims landscape.

You move your character through the world with the Nunchuk’s analog stick, zoom the camera in and out with D-Pad up or down on the Wii Remote, and rotate the camera with D-Pad left or right. Point at various objects and Sims throughout the world with the Wii Remote to interact with them.

Watch the MySims launch trailer.

So what are the main features of MySims?
* Build and customize an entire town — Your town is your own unique creation, from the design of the flower shop to the layout of a Mad Scientist’s laboratory, and beyond.
* Shape the community — It’s your call who lives there and who moves out! Who will you befriend? Who will you ignore?
* A whole world to explore — Socialize with the locals and uncover all sorts of useful and surprising treasures hidden throughout the town.
* Create your own Sim — Personalize your Sims appearance from head to toe with the Wii controls. Unlock cool new clothing as you befriend the neighbors.
* Design your own stuff — Decorate with your very own furniture and accessories, then customize your creations with things you can grow, harvest, or discover around town.

See the MySims features in this video tour of the MySims world, starting at character creation and ending with item customization.

In conclusion I have to point out that that small kids might need help building blocks, but that’s fun for their parents/siblings to help with. Teens and adults playing the game will notice a downside that gameplay isn’t always smooth “thanks” to load times, which seem to happen whenever you leave a house or building, day changes into night, enter a new part of the world, or go into your workshop.

Also, if you’re not enjoying the art style, you can’t expect to get more than a weekend out of this game, so be sure to look at the pictures and videos above to see how you like it. If you do, then there will be up to 80 Sims to cater to, which will last you a long time.

I gotta say that if you enjoy the Animal Crossing series, getting MySims is a NO-BRAINER, it’s also similar to the Harvest Moon series, but with less depth. While that’s a drawback, the biggest feature missing here is that there’s no local nor online trading and visiting of other people’s towns isn’t available. But I think that’s because Electronic Arts wanted this to be a game that could be played with the whole family. So how much fun is MySims on a scale from 1 to 10?

Sims Wii expressionFUN FACTOR – 8.0
It’s basically a cartoony The Sims spinoff that cloned Animal Crossing amazingly well, but unlike that game, MySims actually allows you to build everything from the ground up. If you like the cutesy candy-colored chibi look of this Sims world, you’ll love it till you drop in a sugar-induced coma and dream lollipop dreams!

Graphics – 8.0
The visuals are stylish, full of charm, simple, cute, well animated, adorable, *hugs?*, well… you catch my drift. Too bad about the sudden change-of-scene load times that happen.

Audio – 7.0
The Sims’ fictional language Simlish never sounded this good before. Fun voices, simple sound effect, and a soundtrack I can’t remember well but “happy” pops into my head thinking back.

Ingenuity – 8.0
The intuitive point-and-click Wii remote controls mean that whether you’re building your Sim, interacting with the environment, or building objects, you’ll be able to do what you want in seconds. Surprisingly customizable, especially if you’re creative!

Replay Value – 7.5
There are lots of different essences to collect in this single player game, to then apply them to build everything in your town. But the game isn’t limited to just your town, you can visit caves, forests, and beaches. So outside of reaching five stars, it’s fun to progress in the adventure and unlock those new parts of the MySims world.

Compared to The Sims games the social interactivity depth is lacking and real-life requirements like a job and say… sleep, aren’t required. And while that was the point to give this game simple gameplay, it does cut down on the playtime. No multiplayer is a bit of a party pooper here. That said, once you get hooked its the perfect time waster, or as the Sims would say “Bum! Bum!” (Woah! This is fun!)