MySims

Also known as: My Sims [UK]

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Why do we smile at Sims that we'd rather kick in the face?

Words: Alex Dale, Xbox World 360 UK

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Sept 19, 2007

MySims is Animal Crossing, all right; it's largely got the same premise (flutter around your new town making friends and picking up junk for your house), it's got the same day/night cycle and it's definitely got the same visual stylisation. But MySims also shares Animal Crossing's most crucial feature; its charm.

Despite blatantly being designed up by unfeeling marketing robots, EA Japan have created a cute little world with soul. Although as a game it's fairly empty and devoid of meaning, you can't help but grin like a mouse with a wheelbarrow-load of cheese while playing it.

The goalposts have been shifted somewhat on DS; your Sim begins the game by fleeing his or her hometown (in shame, no doubt) in favour of a small, rundown tourist spot that's fallen on hard times. This, you soon find out, is because it's exclusively populated by idle layabouts, so it's up to you, as the hero/heroine of the piece, to prance about making things nice and clean so tourists will flock to your shanty town.

Perform acts of kindness, like buying them bouquets of flowers or just generally holding conversations with them for a few minutes without brassing them off, and your "star meter" will go up. In turn, this alters the layout and the fortunes of your new town as word spreads that your town is populated by such a lovely person.