Reviewed: November 15, 2010
Reviewed by: Mahamari Tsukitaka

Publisher
Electronic Arts

Developer
The Sims Studio

Released: October 26, 2010
Genre: Simulation
Players: 1

7
7
7
8
7.5

Supported Features:

With The Sims 3, DS gamers are perhaps for the first time able to experience something at least somewhat akin to what PC gamers have been playing. Granted, it’s still significantly limited in comparison, and it would be unfair to expect otherwise for very practical reasons, but this iteration is leaps and bounds better than the last handheld Sims game and, finally, provides a life simulator on the DS with some amount of depth.

Like the original The Sims 3, the DS version gives players the ability to control the virtual life of a customizable Sim and to dictate that Sim’s career, personal development, and social activities. There are definitely some differences, if you’re familiar with the PC version. For instance, the game only allows three households total, you can only create one Sim per household to begin with, and the maximum household size is two Sims. This means your Sims can’t have families, but given that the DS Sims 3 has an Everyone (rather than Teen) rating, your Sims can’t WooHoo to reproduce, either. As far as I’ve seen, it’s also impossible for your Sims to die, and they don’t get fat or age.

The Create-A-Sim process is also fairly similar, providing a number of skin color, hairstyle and color, eye color, and clothing options. Facial features can also be further modified to some extent, and, as with the other ports of Sims 3, you can choose from a number of personality traits that influence your Sim’s behavior. DS Sims have the usual needs (Hunger, Energy, Bladder, Fun, Social, and Hygiene) and can choose to learn any of seven skills (Athletic, Charisma, Cooking, Fishing, Handiness, Logic, and Painting). There are also six classic Sims career paths to choose from (Science, Culinary, Criminal, Law Enforcement, Professional Sports, and Business).

The town of Beacon Bay fortunately includes a number of houses that you can move your Sim into, and your home can be later remodeled in basic ways: you can knock down and build walls, change the flooring and wallpaper, and buy new furniture and appliances. Unlike in the PC version, you won’t be able to change the color and pattern of the furniture (or your Sim’s clothing, for that matter), but the game comes with an adequate selection of pre-made items, given the scope of this handheld version.

Beacon Bay has most of the usual amenities from the original Sims 3, too, including a stadium, police station, city hall, school, bistro, diner, grocery store, lighthouse, military base, business building, science facility, and theater. Although the town isn’t completely seamless as it is on the PC—you can’t just zoom out from your house to see the entire town—you enter a town view once you leave your home lot, and some public open spaces (like the park) are seamlessly and immediately available in town mode. Overall, the implementation is a decent simulacrum of The Sims 3’s distinctive seamless town experience and provides a similar gameplay feel.

One perhaps easily overlooked feature that won points with me was the interface itself, which was intelligently designed to take advantage of the DS’ capabilities and format. The touch screen serves as the main point of interface, and the stylus can be generally used like a mouse to click on menu buttons, Sims, and game-world objects. Meanwhile, the designers were smart to assign the direction pad and four buttons to camera maneuvers, such as rotating, zooming, and panning, so that adjusting the camera is as smoothly and intuitively accomplished as possible. The top two trigger buttons are used to scroll through informational panels displayed on the top screen, which often explains selected icons, like your Sims’ moodlets and wishes. The result is a simple, easy-to-learn, and functional interface that uses icons and text that are easily readable on a small screen.

I have to admit that Sims 3 on the DS was a bit difficult for me to get used to, coming from the PC experience, but it plays decently well. Sims, as before, can befriend, woo, and marry Sims, as well as make enemies. Opportunity events pop up once in a while and are on a relatively short timer: they must usually be completed within 5-10 Sim hours, which is much less time than given in the PC game, and the deadlines can be difficult to meet.

The handheld game also introduces Karma Powers (similar to the Lifetime Rewards in the PC version) unlocked through play that give your Sims certain benefits or disadvantages. Each power must be found in a scavenger hunt-like mini-game involving tracking down a particular object in town, and tracking them down can be a challenging diversion.

At a suggested retail price of $29.99, The Sims 3 is priced like a typical DS game and will probably keep someone entertained for quite a few hours. The graphics and sound are, as to be expected, not nearly on the level of those you’d find on the consoles or computer, but they’re modestly sufficient, given the scale of the game. It also seems generally bug-free from my run-through of the game, except that it sometimes freezes when I try to return to the main menu to select another household after saving the active game.

All in all, The Sims 3 for the DS is probably the most worthwhile handheld port of the series yet, and gamers who want to play the Sims but don’t have a game-worthy computer or stationary console system can finally enjoy some of the proper Sims experience. If you’ve already got the heftier PC or console versions, though, I wouldn’t bother unless you’re really dying to Sim on the go.