My Sims Kingdom sim
Once again, as in last year's My Sims you are in a land that has seen better days.
King Roland runs a contest to see who would be his fixer-upper.
You of course ace the contest - which also happens to be the tutorial,
and are awarded a wand and the title of Wandolier.
Would that I had a wand that could repair the infrastructure in Oakland
as the one the Wandolier wields.
However, the wand has to be charged and for that you need mana and essences.
I already know how to collect essences, those amazing textures, and so I went about
chopping down trees and picking their fruit. They do grow back as soon as they are watered.
The Sim Kingdom is a fun place to be. You have close buddies, old friends that appear
from the last My Sims game - everyone is nice to you.
The Kings daughter, Princess Butter, a spoiled brat is more amusing than threatening.
You can build more things, easier and bigger than in last year's My Sims.
There is still an endless amount of construction, interior and exterior,
but now there are more ready made units available and you can mess about with mechanical objects.
Characters are chunky - a cross between Legos and bobble heads,
but they smile and clap their hands when they are happy and scrunch up their faces when displeased.
Before you start, you customize your character including, for the first time I have seen,
the pitch of your Simlish voice.
Filled with environmentally green construction options,
you are tasked with building structures - labs, restaurants, repairing bridges,
powering up computers and you still have to talk to everybody.
You sail from island to island, and do a bit of mining and fishing.
I noticed that the mushrooms - red with white spots - are colorful but I know them as fly agaric - a very
toxic (and hallucinogenic) species.
I guess the designers don't do mushrooming.
With the addition of mechanical and electrical, children my need some help completing
the tasks but when over those hurdles, remember to return control to the child.
And surprise, surprise, Wii controls work well.
Reviewed by: Editor - 12/08
Ages: Everyone
Fun Factor: Plenty
Female Factor: Why does Princess Butter have to be such a spoiled brat?
Player Friendly: Hooray - Saving and Loading is right up front in the manual,
but the informative image of the Wii controls is neglected.