MySims review

Way better than YourSims

GamesRadar+ Verdict

Pros

  • +

    Fun building furniture

  • +

    Similar appeal to Animal Crossing

  • +

    Lots of details to find

Cons

  • -

    No real complexity

  • -

    Frustrating searches for items

  • -

    Little replay value

Why you can trust GamesRadar+ Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about our reviews policy.

Five minutes in, one thing was clear. Despite our best efforts to kill the trees and build a vale of torment that would leave its residents a quivering mess, “Animal Crossing” would have been a more appropriate name. MySims ignores all the things we loved about The Sims proper, such as attending to your character’s bodily functions and creating the kind of psychological tortures that make Guantanamo Bay look like Scout Camp.

Instead, you’re rebuilding a failed town – customizing and constructing houses and furniture from magical essence blocks. The better you do, the more people move in, and the more world you can access. That’s about it, really. There’s none of the complexity of even Viva Pinata. Much like Spore, the fun comes from creating things. Building houses stops being fun the first time you discover the interior bears sod-all relation to your carefully slapped together exterior. Boo! Luckily, building furniture is more fun. Yes. Really.

Every item starts with a blueprint, but the only bits you have to include are the important ones: the mattress part of the bed, the seat of the chair and so on. For the rest, you have free range, building both with blocks and ‘Essences’. What this means is that if you find an apple, you can either add it as part of your design, or paint more standard blocks in its colors. Essences can be everything from 8-Balls to purple crayons, and each Sim has specific tastes. Some like ’em cute, others prefer spooky.

Finding the bits can be a pain, though. Some are easy, such as red apples. Others are infuriating, like the stones you need early on to build a pizza oven. You have no pointers as to where to look, and the many rocks littering the landscape don’t count, so you’re left to scour the map with your metal detector until you find the blessed things near the train station. Or to be more exact, you cheat and ask Google. Later item requests usually mean a lot of hunting around for bits, at least until Ikea moves in and destroys your custom furniture business with the power of affordable Swedish crap. Probably.

MySims is cute and very simplistic. There’s not much to it, little replay value, and after a couple of hours, you’ll feel like you’ve seen it all. On one level, you haven’t – there are lots to find. On a more practical level, you’re right. Saccharine sweet as this Sims Lite is, it’s definitely more for kids and Wii owners than fans of the main series.

Dec 11, 2008

More info

GenreStrategy
DescriptionThe Sims meets Nintendo's DS in a cute-ified version of the world's most popular series.
Franchise nameThe Sims
UK franchise nameThe Sims
Platform"DS","Wii","PC"
US censor rating"Everyone","Everyone","Everyone"
UK censor rating"3+","3+","3+"
Release date1 January 1970 (US), 1 January 1970 (UK)
More
CATEGORIES
Latest in Strategy
A big mech's lost its limbs in a screenshot from Mecharashi.
After Square Enix cancelled the first new Front Mission in years, it’s suing the developer behind it for releasing another very similar mech game
Kingmakers
Kingmakers is a strategy game about taking on medieval armies with a gun, but its devs thought the giant mech was too much
Kingmakers appearing in the Future Games Show Spring Showcase 2025
Remember that bonkers Kingmakers trailer where an attack helicopter blew up some knights? It's back with a deep dive of its simulated attackers and destructible buildings
Mount and Blade 2 appearing in the Future Games Show Spring Showcase 2025
Strategy RPG Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord heads to the seas for a Viking-inspired expansion
Rise of Industry 2 appearing in FGS Live from GDC
Go big or go home in Rise of Industry 2 as you claw your way to the top in this complex 1980s business management sim
The Deadly Path appearing in FGS Live from GDC
Strategy roguelike game The Deadly Path poses an uncomfortable question: "Am I actually any good at strategy games?"
Latest in Reviews
Zombicide box featuring stylized art of survivors fighting zombies
Zombicide 2nd Edition review: "Like a zombie flick brought to tabletop"
Razer Handheld Dock with Steam Deck sitting on cradle, pink and yellow RGB lighting on, and Alienware monitor in background with Tomb Raider Trilogy gameplay on screen.
Razer Handheld Dock review: “Your Steam Deck will ride shiny and Chroma"
Photographs of the Agricola board game in play
Agricola review: "Accurate representation of the highly competitive and often unstable world of agriculture"
Photos taken by writer Rosalie Newcombe of the Shure MV7i microphone, within a pink and white themed room.
Shure MV7i review - convenience and excellence rolled into one superb sounding package
Key art for Atomfall showing a character in the English countryside looking at a nuclear plant some distance away
Atomfall review: "This isn't British Fallout – it's something much better than that"
Razer BlackWidow V4 Pro 75% gaming keyboard with purple RGB lighting on a desk setup
Razer BlackWidow V4 Pro 75% review: "a niche luxury"