The newest Sims game

MySims is a great new game in the Sims series. The Sims have been around for a while now, and I certainly didn't enjoy the games too much. When I first saw MySims, it looked like a game I would be interested in. It's certainly kept my interest for a bit now.

Plot

You are invited to move in a town that use to be popular, but it no longer is. The mayor has asked you to bring the town to life again, by building it up and making it a popular place again. You move in with a house and workshop to work in.

Gameplay

The game mainly revolves around building. Previous Sims games revolved around socializing and building, so this was a nice change of pace. There is some focus on socializing with others though. In this game, it's not that important to always talk with the people (outside of tasks). I liked this, as I don't care to hear the Sims repeat the same lines over and over.

You must build houses for residents for them to live in. Once they are moved in, you do various building tasks for inside their homes. Anytime in the game, you can change the outside look of the house, as well as the inside the house. Your main goal for the game is to get your town to a five star rating. You achieve this by building, and making your town's residents happy.

Around town, you must gather "essences" which are needed to build things. Essences are basically a paint for furniture. They are found by digging, fishing, talking to Sims, doing tasks and planting trees. Overall, most are easy to find, while some might take a while to find.

The only issue I have with essences: you must keep collecting them over and over. You can only get a few at each moment. For example, you can get a few fruit essences from shaking a tree. Then you must wait for the tree to get more fruit. While you can plant multiple trees in town, it takes time for them to grow. When a person asks for something that needs many essences, you will have to wait a while at times. However some essences are easier to get multiples of. Fishing is one example, as it's easy and you can keep doing it without having to wait. The game should've had better ways to gain multiple essences at once, instead of waiting.

Along with essences, there is blueprints. This are used as a guide on how to build a certain type of furniture. The blueprint doesn't have to be followed exactly, so it's open ended to a point. There is only two requirements for blueprints (when you are doing a task): you must fill in the stars on it, and you must use a certain number of essences after you build the item. You earn more blueprints for doing tasks, and raising your town star level.

Besides working for the Sims in the town, you can change around your own house. Also, you can explore the town to find more essences. Several areas (including a desert and forest to name a few) are unlocked once you progress through the game. Some of these areas can have houses built in them, while others can't have homes in them. Overall, the size of the town and surrounding areas is pretty decent. At times you can get lost though, but there is a map to help guide you.

The Sims in the game have various likes and dislikes. Some will like books, while others will enjoy food and so on. To make them happy, you must build things for them that include essences of things they like. For example, a Sim that likes food will enjoy a table that has a fruit essence in it. Some Sims will open a business in town when they move in. This is entertaining, as there is a variety of places that can exist. They range from a library, arcade, ice cream shop, museum and many more. Inside these locations, there is special items you can interact with. Also, each of these special places have unique items that can be used to decorate the inside of the building.

Various menus help you keep track of essences, blueprints and The Sims you've met. So if you forgot what a Sim likes, you can view a profile on them to refresh your memory. If you wonder what a certain essence is, check the essence collection. Collecting all the essences is a good optional goal to do, which adds to replay value.

Overall, the game is fun but is a bit too easy. If you wanted, you could probably beat the game in a few days. This isn't an entirely bad thing though. This game is meant as a "sandbox" style game, where you can just do what you want and not worry about getting the best ending. While I enjoy these types of games, some sort of challenge would've been nice in the game.


Controls

The controls are easy to learn, and suit the game well. You use the nunchuk to control your character, while the remote is used for everything else. The Wii remote works well with the game, as it's used to point and click. Moving throughout menus is an easy task with the remote.

Graphics and sound

The graphics are cartoon looking, but suit the game well. Previous Sims games havent been about realistic graphics, so this game is no different. Overall, items look just fine compared to their real life counterpart.

As for sound: it's decent to a point. Many Sims have a theme music of sorts, that fits them well. A musical sim will have a nice catchy little beat for example. The voices of the Sims is the usual weird stuff (similar to previous Sims games). It's entertaining sometimes, but gets repetitive and annoying at times. I still don't understand why they can't speak normal, or at least something you can understand more.

Other information

*MySims is a 1 player game with no online features. I don't care about online features much, so that wasn't a big deal. However, some sort of multiplayer mode would've been nice.
*The game suffers from some loading issues, however it's not a huge deal overall. It usually takes a few seconds to load new screens and new menus.
*There is no known bugs or errors in the game.