Review: My Sims for the Nintendo Wii

Combining the cuteness of the Mii and The Sims franchise, Nintendo and EA have come up with My Sims for the Nintendo DS and the Wii. Today I got the Wii version and popped it in for some long needed Sims play.

I've loved The Sims franchise since its release over 8 years ago. I picked the game up after an ex-boyfriend of mine came into Radio Shack, where I was working and told me all about playing it. So I caved and bought it too. I spent hours upon hours playing that game. When the expansions came out. I grabbed Living Large and then Hot Date, but after that my computer couldn't keep up with the new expansion's requirements.

I was left without any new Sims games to play for my PC. I tried the console versions and found they just weren't as fun as the PC games. Sure, you have goals for once, but no freedom and no cheat codes. *grrr* I need a good Sims game to fill the simulation game void in my life.

And in walks The Sims for the Wii ... who needs a mouse, when you have a wii remote?

The Sims has you creating a unique, advanced Mii of your own to help revived a once happy town. You can pick your Mii's hair style and colour, it's eyes, face paint, glasses and outfit. Once you create your Mii, you are brought to town to meet the Mayor. She tells you that you must help renovate town and bring new people to live there.

The Mayor gives you your own house to live in and decorate. You must build your house first and then afterwards you can decorate it anyway you want. But first you have to build your furniture.

Your Mii has the ability to create buildings and furniture with the help of your workshop, building supplies and essences. Essences are items that you find around town to paint your buildings and furniture with. You can dig them up, shake them down from a tree, receive them as gifts or pick them up at random. Village people will give you tasks to building pieces for them with certain number of essence paint on them. Essences also add a personality to your piece like spooky, tasty or geeky.



As you perform tasks and add buildings and plants to your town, your town rating will go up as will your tourist rate. Tourists will come to town and you will be required to chat with them and invite to move into town. When they agree, you find a vacant lot and build them a home or store.

The graphics are very bright and colourful. I love the cute, advanced looking Miis. Their doll like appearance is different than normal Sims games and it make this game stand out. Don't let the cute Miis appearance trick you into thinking this is just a kids game, because its fun for adults too. The building process allows for true artists to express themselves in game.

The music is very cartoonish and whimsical. Cute, but a little repetitive in some areas and frankly I wouldn't want to play this game with a headache. I would probably break the disc. Better to mute the sound on those days.

Loading screens were a little long in some areas and the game does sport some animated glitches. Nothing that kept me from playing though. Just little ones like the loading screens skipping frames or characters moving around the screen without actual walking there.

The gameplay is pretty simple to figure out but there could have been clearer instructions on building furniture and digging up items. It took me three pieces of furniture to figure out there were more than one set of wood pieces to use and I still haven't figured out the prospecting feature.



I did like how this Sims version doesn't have you running to the bathroom every five minutes or having to deal with a depressed Mii. The game focuses more on the design aspect of the Sims franchise, rather than the daily care of your Mii. In this game, you don't have to do anything to keep your Mii going, but you still have to kiss your neighbours' butts to get things from them like tasks or Happy essences.

I like how you actually have to be mean to your neighbours too just to get sad and angry essences. How fun is throwing a water balloon at your friendly neighbour, Goth.

The in game reference to Vincent Price with a creepy scholar named Sir Vincent Skullfinder that moves into town is great. EA sure knows their classics.

I wish this game could have been online or something that allowed your Mii for visit friend's towns. Animal Crossing gave gamers the ability to travel to friend's towns with memory cards and that made it more fun. The Sims needs an online feature to do the same.
All in all, this game is fun. I love Animal Crossing and The Sims has the same fun and cute gameplay. If you like Animal Crossing and The Sims, then pick this game up.

Rating: 7 out of 10

[Update: I figure out the prospecting. You just have to keep moving until the game prompts you to digg. I am such an idiot.]