MySims Kingdom Review

Written by: Steve Martin Posted: 17th February 2009

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MySims builds a kingdom on DS.

MySims Kingdom Details:

	Casual
	Nintendo Wii/Nintendo DS
	EA Games
	EA Games

Out Now

MySims Kingdom for the DS is very similar in principle to its Wii brethren, just scaled down. Instead of a host of different islands to explore and customise you have a single town that has undergone a massive upheaval due to someone stealing all the decorations?

By using the extractor given to you by the resident mad scientist Dr. F you are able to suck up essences from the majority of the objects in the world around you. These essences can then be synthesised using another of the good doctors inventions to create an object that can be placed around the town and help bring it back to its beautiful best.

Different essences create different items, and experimentation is the only way to get all the objects available to you. Obviously all the object placement on the plain is done by using the touch screen and a mini map to select the location of the object, the top screen displays your individually customised character and his surroundings. It’s the usual “performing tasks to help the villagers out” kind of experience and you are rewarded with new areas and stuff to decorate your home in the town, in much the same way as you beautify the landscape around town. Object selection is done through basic but functional menu screens. Another major difference is there are selections of mini-games to be found and played in the game, these can also be played with a friend using Wi-Fi connection. They are all relatively simple and range from a ghost shooting range where you tap the ghosts to blast them to a simple tennis game that can only be played using the buttons not the stylus and kayaking requiring you to stroke the screen to row your kayak with diagonal slashes to turn sharply. As is always the case some mini-games are better than others, I found a few were quite fun, such as ghost blasting, others were either flawed by bad control system (kayaking) or a bit boring such as tennis. Playing these games earn you medals and cash to spend on new items for your home or new outfits for your Sim. As with all Sims games, you’ll get as much fun out of it as you put in, but after playing the Wii version this feels a bit lack-lustre in comparison.

Graphically, its nothing special, fairly detailed and works well, but a bit jagged in places. The music and sound effects are average and you won’t miss much if you turn the volume right down on your DS.

If you stick with this, you may find it rewarding, but I struggled to muster the energy to play for long periods of time. It does seem like a normal Sims game has just been juxtaposed with a selection of mini-games. One major letdown is the witty writing seen in the Wii version seems to have been lost in translation, and this makes it a less endearing and engaging version to play.