MySims

There's no denying that Nintendo is the king of cute--the DS and the Wii are home to some truly adorable titles like Cooking Mama. Well, you can add MySims to the list of games so sugary, they'll give you cavities.

An interesting take on the mega-popular Sims formula, MySims is fun but it ultimately falls short. As a lifelong Sims fan, I hate to say this but Animal Crossing did it first and it did it better.

This Village Needs Some Prozac

You start off in a village which is currently experiencing some down times. Once a thriving village, it's now a ghost town that's in need of rebuilding. That's where you come in: you have to slowly rehabilitate this sleepy village and return it to its former glory. How do you accomplish this task? By collecting Essence, a substance that can take six kinds of forms: cute, geeky, studious, spooky, tasty, and fun. You can get Essence by doing tasks like picking up apples and helping other people.

You then use the Essence you collect to paint the buildings and objects you create. This is important because you have to match each object to the personality of the person you are building it for. A cute personality requires a cute object, a geeky person will require a geeky one and so forth. Use the wrong Essence and you risk failing that objective. You also build items in your workshop and you can unlock tools as you play. Eventually, you'll be asked to erect entire houses for people.

Those are the basics and unfortunately, the game just isn't particularly fun. The game is highly frustrating due to some quirks in the control scheme. Building items in the workshop is especially aggravating as you use the Nunchuk to rotate and zoom into your item, while using the Wii Remote to pick up and place blocks. This sounds easy on paper, but considering the fact that some objects require you to piece together 60+ pieces, it quickly becomes a chore.

The task system can also become tiresome after a while, especially when you're spending all of your time making furniture for other people instead of focusing on your own. Collecting Essence is also a repetitive and tiresome job that just feels pointless after a while.

Younger gamers might be able to overlook these faults and enjoy themselves but longtime Sims fans shouldn't let the brand name fool them into investing in it.

PROS: A solid and fun game; adorable characters.
CONS: Too simple for hardcore Sims fans. The controls are wonky during build mode.

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