Released in 2007 by EA Redwood Shores, MySims is an attempt to capitalize on the growing popularity of Animal pass (excellent Wild world released two years ago). A chibi-style spin-off from the main Sims series, the series is aimed at a younger audience and tasks players with rejuvenating a community with friendship and brightly colored furniture.
MySims cozy package Pair the original release with MySims KingdomThe sequel expands on the medieval theme. A Switch isn’t really necessary for a laid-back town builder. The best examples of the genre have all been on Nintendo consoles. What does this remake bring to the table that makes it a worthy alternative to the likes of Tom Nook’s Debt Simulator and the highly influential game Stardew Valley?
The answer to that is complicated. MySims offers a formula centered around Simlish, with mechanics simple enough for young people to grasp. Veterans won’t find anything new here, but these titles offer a workmanlike and often compulsive experience.
In this pack’s first title, you start things off by creating a Mii-esque Sim and naming your town. From there you meet Mayor Rosalyn, who will give you a short tour and give you some errands. Your role is that of caretaker, you must build residences, commercial premises and sundry items to adorn the interior.
The building uses a blueprint system reminiscent of the internal Gummi Ship editor Kingdom of hearts. Manipulating components on a 3D grid, you snap designs into place, piece by piece. Builds have a basic requirement of parts to be considered complete, but where you go from there is up to you. There are no restrictions other than the required components, giving you the freedom to create works of art or disgusting ones. The longevity of these games will ultimately depend on how much you want to experiment with the tools provided.
Around town you will pick up everyday items that can be used as ‘essence’. These collectibles expand your paint palette, allowing you to decorate construction items. Most objectives will require items to be decorated with specific essences, and this forms the fetch quest at the heart of MySims.
Completing construction tasks will upgrade the town, attracting other Sims to flock to your flourishing metropolis. As you grow the community, the mayor will provide you with the means to expand into surrounding areas. This introduces many different biomes, unlocking more quests and more Sims in the process. It’s a familiar loop but well presented. The construction menu is a bit difficult to use at first, but once you get the hang of it, putting designs together will become second nature.
Overall, MySims is a fun time with reduced maintenance needs and less persistent goals than similar products in the genre.
In traditional Sims style, MySims Kingdom takes the systems of its predecessor and wraps them in a narrative theme. In this fantasy adventure, you are a newly appointed Wandolier. You can guess the ability to conjure and manipulate objects into buildings and furniture.
You are sent by King Roland to an archipelago to repair and expand his kingdom. Your mission this time is no longer alone – you’ll have Lyndsey and Buddy (the clumsy waiter from MySims) joining you the entire time.
There’s an increasing sense of freedom to explore in Kingdom, making this a strange hybrid between a social simulation and an adventure game. After a brief tutorial, it quickly opens up into a relatively free structure. Instead of completing quests to increase the population of a town, here you are improving an already densely populated group of islands. Travel options are limited at the start, but you’ll soon be moving across the kingdom.
The building system is also enhanced through MySims’ stop-start inventory gameplay. You can use your wand at any point in the world, bringing up a build menu of your choice using a floating cursor. All housing and items can be built on the fly, instead of being locked in detailed design mode.
Your creativity is also required to solve environmental puzzles, which adds a bit of variation to progression. Essence remains an issue, with many construction tasks requiring specific aesthetics to overcome the challenge.
Originally DS and Wii titles, these games have been well optimized for the Switch. The simple, chunky art style isn’t exactly demanding, but the stability is perfect nonetheless. The blocky environments and character models in particular feel right at home on the Switch screen. There are some minor inconsistencies with the sound mix. The sharp chime that plays when picking up items is over-emphasized, while the character’s Simlish babble is muffled.
Sadly, there’s one glaring omission in this remake that affects the overall experience – the lack of movement control. Considering both of these games were released on the Wii and the majority of your time will be spent manipulating the on-screen cursor, it’s puzzling that this wasn’t included.
Conclusion
MySims games act as a simple, less demanding alternative to other social sims. The generous and (mostly) well-presented mix of MySims and its more enjoyable sequel will appeal to young people and genre completists for a long time. The lack of motion controls is puzzling, but these are still an engaging and easy-to-understand pair of Sims spin-off games.
