MySims Hands-on Preview

The moment you see your first screenshot of MySims for the Wii, it is immediately apparent that the Sims world has been completely reworked to look just like a Nintendo game. That isn’t to say it is an attempt on EA’s behalf to rip-off the carefully guarded world of the Big N.

To the contrary, it is in fact an attempt to compliment the cotton-candy world of Mario, Zelda and the whole Nintendo gang. The new Sims look something like a cross between a character from Animal Crossing and a Mii, and functionally they are certainly comparable to the later.

This transformation for the long running and hugely popular series goes far deeper than aesthetics, without eroding the core formula that is so crucial to the success of the offline answer to Second Life.

For those unfamiliar with the Sims series, each game in essence sees you create characters and unleash them into a world of interaction. Interactions lead to a drip feed of more customisation options, culminating at a point where the player has near creative freedom to design people, clothes, personalities, furniture and buildings, all the time managing the wants and needs of their creations as the town they have built blossoms and grows.

In MySims the emphasis is firmly on increased customisation of the game world you fabricate. Starting out with a rundown town, you must attract new residents whilst keeping current ones happy. This is done by satisfying their desires, based on providing them with homes, objects and entertainments that please their combination of ‘interests’.

Six interests dominate your town, and each Sim possesses between one and three, from spooky, cute, geeky, fun, tasty and studious. Of course, these six tick off the various stereotypes about Sims fans and gamers in general, that they would be embarrassed to admit are reasonably close to reality. Excluding tasty of course, which is why Lara Croft and buxom Manga heroines exist.

If you were to start by creating a fairly spooky group of buildings, resplendent with gargoyles and crooked chimneys, you might start attracting spooky-orientated residents. Generally taking the form of pale Goths and raven-haired waifs, these spooky Sims would need their desires fulfilled both socially and practically. Of course, some will possess other interests, meaning you quickly need to create a mixed community that is balanced and self-supportive.

As you continue to be a magnate to eager new visitors with your various people and places, you begin to draw in the game’s signature characters: 20 NPCs with very specific roles, who bring tasks, unique building blocks, and businesses that affect the dynamic of your town. These include a Mayor and Gino the Chef, who will bring upon your community obvious facilities and bonuses.

So far there has been much talk of customisation, which is key to your enjoyment and progress with MySims, but let’s just get a sense of the level to which you can redesign your game-world. Taking the lead from Miis, you can modify the features of each Sim, who all have customisable voices for the first time, again speaking the ridiculous, but highly expressive language that is Simlish – a language so developed it was recently used as the dialect for a remix of Lily Allen’s single ‘Smile’. The scope for user creativity doesn’t stop with faces and language though; thousands of pre-designed costumes are also available to mix and match, and you’re able to create your own buildings and furniture.

Given countless blocks and shapes, you have access to something like a fantasy Lego brick collection that can be used easily via a drop-and-drag pointer interface and an optional snap-together system. Everything can be coloured, textured, and resized, and a plethora of themed blocks and palettes, collectively called essences, become available as a result of interactions and conversations. Everything from an elaborate themed wardrobe to a basic flat pack bed can be created, and houses can be designed inside and out, from the carpet colour and wallpaper pattern through to the number of stories and sculptures in the garden.

In some ways, MySims has almost become a bold, user-friendly art package, with its menus replaced by small towns and its cursor replaced by your Sim. Of course it is far more than this, and very definitely a game, but there is still something irresistible about a creative piece of software you tinker with for no other gains than enjoyment, like Photoshop redesigned as some slightly silly, accessible pastime, rather than a money making tool for the trained.

MySims is also the most goal-orientated of the Sims titles, with various NPCs and signature characters giving you allsorts of different tasks, such as creating a video game arcade using a certain number of essences. Many of the tasks set emerge subtly from conversing with visitors, while others are handed to you more explicitly. The end result is something that is part objective-based exploration game, part SimCity asset management clone, and part blank canvas.

Regardless of what it is, MySims is as hard to put down as it is to pin down. A testament to this is that long after the formalities of the press presentation and game demonstration quietened down, I found myself feeling very relaxed and utterly hooked into the game, designing a dog-themed, four-poster bath. I was even joined by the head designer Robin Hunicke, who was as compelled to finish the creation as I was, despite the hundreds of hours she must have already spent pouring over the game.

With wireless connectivity functions between the DS and Wii versions of the game still to be confirmed, and details sparse about the chance to upload and share you creations, there is still a lot to learn about MySims. Without a doubt though, MySims already has the potential to be something very popular indeed.