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Before anything, I just want to throw out that I have a soft spot for this franchise. I remember a decade ago when my brothers bought this, and we were all wowed on how amazing it is to basically be god in a video game (sadly, we missed out on the SNES and the awesome ActRaiser game at that time). The Sims on PC to this day, is still a fun little game. The later titles are better graphically, but all of them haven’t really changed except with a few games adding in storylines (weird, I know!) and simply more items, jobs, etc. The Sims on the 3DS is really a bit of a breakthrough for the series. I’ve always wanted a Sims game on a portable console that was actually… well, The Sims. The Urbz and The Sims 2 on the DS were both amazing games in their own right, but they weren’t the Sims games you expected them to be. The Sims 2 Pets on the PSP and The Sims 3 on iOS devices attempted to do the same thing except with lousy controls, and for the PSP game, excessive loading times. Now, let’s see if the 3DS can finally do The Sims right!
(I’ll be using IGN’s five categories, as I can’t think of anything better to call each section).
Presentation:
When you think of The Sims on the 3DS, you’re probably thinking the touch screen is going to give you an advantage in control. Well, yes and no. The Sims 3 and I have one very big issue with each other. The buttons are very small to press on the screen, and the game almost has to be played with a stylus at all times. Now I have to admit, giving the Sim him or herself commands through the touch screen is a very nice touch, but trying to navigate through the tiny menu on the bottom screen is really a frustrating experience. Also, whatever happened to seeing my Sim’s erm… personal needs? It annoys me when I have to wait for a cube to show up telling me that my Sim needs to eat, shower, and pee. One huge issue the game has is the camera which can only be controlled with the touch screen via a digital analog stick and not with one of the buttons, what were they thinking?!
Graphics:
The Sims 3 is decent looking game. If you want to know what “decent” is, think of somewhere in between Dreamcast and PS2 quality (graphically of course). A lot of the textures look very dated, and the character models have clunky animation and seemingly freeze for several seconds when given a new command. I give the character models a little credit, as they do look pretty good for 3DS standards, but every object in the game has large jags that seem to really stick out. The 3D effect the game gives you for the top screen, does add some depth to the world, but ultimately fails since you occasionally lose the 3D sweet spot since you constantly have to switch between the top and bottom screens due to the control. I recommend playing this game in 2D, since 3D offers little to nothing for The Sims 3.
Sound:
The Sims 3 has the classic Sims sounds that you would expect. The Sims language, music, and classic sound effects are all here. While none of them are out of the ordinary, the music the Sims play on the radio still sound really catchy, despite them being in The Sims own language.
Gameplay:
If you haven’t played a Sims game before, you basically have one role. Play the role of God or basically “big brother”. Your sim has free will over themselves so unless you tell him/her otherwise, he or she will do whatever they feel like doing. Most of the time it’s slacking off, being a slob, and wasting time… and this is where you can jump in to help them. Your Sims will need to be told when to shower, eat, crap, and to go to work. While the game usually does this for you, it does feel better to go and do it yourself. Eventually you will want to go out of the usual routine and you will want to your sim to get a boy/girlfriend. Get married. Have kids. Get a promotion. Learn new things. You know the typical stuff in life. The Sims is really a game that can go on forever. Thankfully, the 3DS does retain of the classic Sim gameplay, but to deal with all of the awkward control and bad camera, your journey with your sim may end sooner than you expect. Thankfully, the game does offer some unlocks in terms of new items, as well new clothes for your Sim. Whether or not you find this as an incentive to keep on progressing with your Sim is completely up to you.
Since this game does literally go on forever, I noticed the game does finally let you build your own home. I haven’t gotten around to testing out how big your home can be, or how much stuff you can put into it. But most portable Sims games before this one forced you to live in only pre-built houses, such as The Sims 2 (DS)’s hotel room or The Urbz (another DS Sims title) penthouse. I give it a plus for finally letting you build you own pad, but with the game’s bad controls, I doubt you would have to patience to make one without putting the game down.
Lasting Appeal:
The Sims 3 can be satisfying experience if you can get used to a crappy camera, bad controls, and the mediocre graphics. Under all of the game’s crap is a game that really does have a good gameplay experience, that is, is you have to patience to deal with it. All in all, for casual gamers, I don’t recommend The Sims 3 at all. The controls are confusing at best, and the camera is so awful that most people would be done with in less than an hour. A hardcore Sims fan might have the patience to deal with it, but in the end, they will probably be begging to return to the vastly superior PC version within minutes of playing this game.
TL;DR – THE FINAL RUN DOWN
Presentation – 5/10 – The menus are hard to use and the camera can only be controlled through a digital analog stick on the touch screen. The only credit it gets is letting me command the Sims with the touch screen.
Graphics – 5/10 – Wasn’t expecting much. And yeah, we didn’t get much either. I’ve seen Dreamcast games that looked better.
Sound – 8/10 – The usual Sim sounds and music was a real hard category for the game to fail on. Thankfully it at least did this right.
Gameplay – 7/10 – Addicting gameplay, but only if you have the time and patience to let the game stick to you.
Lasting Appeal – 3/10 – I have a hard time playing this game for more than 15 minutes. I get annoyed on how this game even bothered to even have a 3D effect since it makes it nearly impossible to play when it’s on. It’s like how people ported PS2 games during the Wii’s launch and forced every port to have poorly done motion controls.
OVERALL SCORE: 5/10
BUY, RENT, OR AVOID? – AVOID. Sorry, EA. How about porting the original Sims to this thing instead? I’m sure you might be able to that right.
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