Gameboy Advance - Sims 2, The

Format
Gameboy Advance
Publisher
Electronic Arts
Developer
Maxis
Country of origin
US
Genre
God sim

The Sims 2

By David Rasmussen
25th Jun 06

It is almost a franchise in itself, and by that I mean the offshoot of The Sims, the Sims on the GBA.
It should be since it has very little in common with it’s big console versions, growing into it’s own gameplay style with each passing sequel that comes out. With it’s own personalities, pacing, and gameplay, the GBA franchise of The Sims have been running things their own way since the original Sims : Bustin’ Out way back when (which was abit of the Sims mixed with some aspects of the later released Urbz and put into it‘s own miniature world that you could actually explore, unlike the world of the console Bustin Out which was limited in exploration possibilities). Well now we have a new Sims, The Sims 2, and if you thought this would diverge from the previous games and personalities then… well… you’d be wrong. Welcome to The Sims 2 (aka The Sims : Bustin’ Out Episode 3), and get ready to be disappointed.

Previously you’ve worked in the rather roomy Sim Valley, leaving your Uncle’s barn and making a place for yourself in the grand world of The Sims (even so far as becoming the owner of a mansion).
Then you moved to Miniopolis and struggled against the evil Daddy Bigbucks from the first game, as he schemed to take over the city of Miniopolis and turn it into an amusement park.
Well, as you start this game you realize that Daddy Bigbucks has not been deterred from his dreams of power, in fact now he’s gotten worse since he’s decided if he can’t buy a city he would build one… a rather tight fitting city, as a matter of fact. Welcome to the artificial construct of a city called Strangetown.

Strangetown is a sad sad excuse for The Sims (GBA version) to look into the overblown and overused cliché of Reality TV, as the entire city (such as it is) is a gigantic “set” which is run behind the scenes by the infamous Daddy Bigbucks who seems to cater to the “Goths“ who seem to be made up of Daddy Spike and Mommy Drusilla from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and their goth children… hooray? Anyway this so called city is the stage for Daddy Bigbucks own version of Reality TV, which he wants you to “Star” in… and if you think that’s a recipe for disaster then you’d be right on that score.
From there it’s once again off to the Sims races, but in a different way (which may or may not suit you), because the Sims are not the Sims you’ve gotten used to in previous versions of The Sims.

Unlike previous Sims games, where you started small and worked your way up, you find yourself stuck in a series of episodes (12 promised, 10 delivered with an 11th unlockable IF you can find someone else with a GBA and a copy of Sims 2 to link up to… yeah, good luck with that) which does nothing to improve your state of being as a character. At least in previous games you had a sense of progress as you moved on up from neighborhood to neighborhood, unlocking better (larger) homes and mini games (jobs) to work, but in this game you only have the one house (set up over Daddy Bigbuck’s hidden studio), and nothing to unlock as all mini games (all five plus two “product placement” mini games) are available from the word go, stealing a bit of the playability that made the previous outings of the Sims fun. Actually that seems to steal a lot of the playability of the game, come to think of it.

This turn of events is, without a doubt, depressing since it means most of what was good about the previous two Sims games have effectively been spade and neutered out of The Sims 2, from the depth of furniture you could get ahold of (you‘ll find the selection here to be poor in comparison to previous outings), to the work you had to go through to unlock mini games (which you don’t have to stress here since all mini games are available from the word go with the “commercial“ minigames playable one per chapter).
Even earning skill points (now limited to five points apiece per skill) is not a hardship as you only need to earn the money to purchase new points from a guy standing on a Gilligan‘s Island set piece broken boat (the S.S. Minnow?) who “lives“ near your house. How hard is THAT! Heck, it’s even easier than the University method of earning skill points from The Urbz, and who would have thought they could simplify it past that simple method?!?

Another downer is the fact that you’re status meters, which once monitored everything about your character, has been replaced by a single meter bar (one long “life“ meter instead of several smaller meters). Now this should have been a good thing, right? Well… uhh… not so. While it is true that it is easier in a sense to power up one meter (and maintain it) as opposed to several, it is also flawed in that your character has randomly triggered “needs” which you have to see to or your meter drops (eat, sleep, bathroom, etc). Now these triggers hit even if you had already done the thing(s) asked for, so that means if the game prompts for it you have to do it AGAIN, which (yes) means sometimes you could have filled your meter to full and head out to do something only to have to turn back time and time again to handle some little task like bathroom and so forth (and there should be no need for this because your meter is full).

The meter is also affected by discussions you have with other characters in the town, which is an amalgamation of characters you’ve seen from the first 2 games and new characters (including bizarre characters like aliens, an alien “emperor“ named after the Xizzles which were your “skills“ in Urbz, and two large fuzzy creatures in the bigfoot and it‘s cold counterpart the yeti), which is good and bad.
This is good because if you have a successful “talk” with them (more on that in a second) your health meter recharges to full (which is good if you’re low and go through a talk mode just to recharge it).
But this is also bad because if you have a bad “talk” (which is not as hard as you think) you could faint, which means you have to spend time charging up again before going out to do work or something.

As for the talks? The discussions in Sims 2 has slipped down to the lowest it could possibly go on the intellectual scale, and who would have thought it could get dumber than the pick to image topics from the Urbz! Sims : Bustin’ Out was the smartest of the three GBA games, in which you had a choice of answers to give, either snitty or honest (which provided some humor in the remarks you were given a choice from).
Next in intelligence (middle ground) was Urbz : Sims in the City, in which you picked out discussion topics based on pictures (and talked up the character to the topics they wanted to talk about while avoiding ones they were not up to), which still was kinda fun in it‘s own way (and still somewhat intelligent).
This time out you don’t even have the ability to do that, as you are given a set of 2 (start) to 5 choices of discussion in three topics (Friendly, Romantic or Intimidating) in the lowest brow dumbest click the button in order to get the character your talking to to respond to those images (and pop the same image in their voice bubble) and repeat until you fill a diamond shaped “discussion” meter until you earned one of three points in one of three categories discussion mode. Yeah, that sounds about as boring as you think it sounds. I thought this game was supposed to get “better” as the games came out, but as it stands it seems some aspects of The Sims seems to devolve with each subsequent release which is ridiculous in my opinion! I don’t demand much of The Sims, but one thing I do demand is that the games don’t (bleep) out on us and become stupider with each passing release! Then again this is EAGames we seem to be talking about here, and par for the course EAGames seems to have this same attitude of devolving gameplay for The Sims as they do for their Harry Potter franchise games -- I.e. “dumber is better“… say what!

Also, and I know you probably figured this out by now, the game itself is now probably the easiest to beat of the three Sims games to date. This lacks any of the real energy or drive of the original two Sims, and (unlike the first two) there is no reason for you to put any real effort into the game as you did in previous Sims games. You’ll pick this one up, and down without much effort (in about a matter of so many hours you‘ll have this game beat with a perfect score). This, as you might suspect, isn’t a good thing if you can easily beat the game without much effort, and don‘t even ask me about the lack of replay value that is spawned from that because there is little reason to play this version of The Sims on GBA again with it‘s lackluster gameplay. So much for each subsequent release being better than the last.

Sure, if you need a Sims fix it will feed it, sure, but if you wanted an intelligent challenge then go get a GBA RPG game like Tales of Phantasia, either Fire Emblem or Breath of Fire games, or Final Fantasy IV Advance for the GBA. Those are going to challenge you more than this game, mostly because they ARE more challenging than this game without a shadow of a doubt. Or, better yet, get one of the original two Sims games (Bustin’ Out or Urbz : Sims in the City) as these are far better releases, and probably now available at a low low price at places like GameSpot or GameFly (or wherever you can find previously played GBA games for sale at lost prices).
Or, alternatively, get The Sims 2 for the Nintendo DS which has better options including a hotel you can run and the chance to perform karaoke using the system’s microphone attachment. At least that is more than this game provides, which is a major time killer that is over before you know it. Breakdown will prove it out.

The Sims : Breaking Down the 3rd
What’s Hot?
I wish I could say that the GBA version is worth your time and money, but it isn’t. If you have a Nintendo DS might I suggest you stick to THAT version of the game, at least it has a few more quirks that make it more playable than this version. Otherwise go retro and get the previous two Sims games, they’re better.

What’s Not?
The sad sad fact that the Sims is suffering from Harry Potteritis in that the franchise is slowly degrading and lowering itself down the long pit of retarded gameplay with each subsequent sequel.
I am pretty certain the game can’t get any lower than The Sims 2, but heaven forbid Nintendo might prove me wrong when the next Sims game rolls out onto shelves. Please, I know you people at EAGames have some twisted logic that more people will buy the games if they are “dumbed down” more and more, but I couldn’t express how horribly WRONG you are in that assessment! We need smarter games, not dumber ones! Stop dumbing down the handheld GBA versions of the Sims already! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!

Moments to Remember?
I can’t think of a thing that I loved about the game. Heck, you can’t even get a roommate anymore! How devolved and… dare I say it… politically correct can this game franchise sink down into!

What to Ignore?
Is it me or do you seem to lose more and more freedom of gameplay with each subsequent Sims game?
I mean this is the lowest the franchise has gone, and the least freedom offered in a so-called Sims game to date! When the franchise returns to it’s root (from the first Sims games) and offers more freedom and more playability then there might be hope yet for the franchise, but as it stands if it continues to downslide in intelligence and freedom with each and every sequel then there is no hope left for the Sims on the GBA if it continues to lose respect with every game that comes out.

Overall?
If you must have a Sims fix, and played the previous two Sims, you should really consider the Nintendo DS version before this one. Then, after that, the PSP version (which should be at least better than the GBA version). Then, finally, this version.

It is a sad state of affairs to see the once beloved Sims on the GBA degrade to the point that I can’t even muster the ability to care about the games, but it has finally come to that point with this franchise.
The games have lowered itself to a shameful point and even the gimmick of the whole “reality TV” thing couldn’t spare it from my wrath. This is the lowest the Sims have gone on the GBA, and, sadly, I am afraid this will probably not be the end should another Sims comes out.

Please, EAGames, no more inferior Sims games for the GBA! You are our only hope… aka don’t screw it up already and make a good Sims game to make us forget about this dog of a release. Thanks.

Oddly enough though, after playing this I think I’m ready for Naughty America GBA… I mean, damn, even I at this point think a M for Mature sexed up sims sex game on the GBA would actually be more intelligent than The Sims 2, and if even I think that then there’s something severely wrong with The Sims 2 if Naughty America GBA would end up being better than this “game“! Chew on that for awhile, EAGames!

-- David Rasmussen 25th Jun 06

Gameboy Advance Sims 2, The Images