MySims Kingdom (Wii) Review
MySims Kingdom for the Nintendo Wii is a well-made, fun and inventive game that does a great job of providing an accessible adventure for younger players. It borrows elements from other communication games such as Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon and The Sims, but simplifies the experience to a point where player error is almost entirely eliminated. This simplification allows younger players to fully experience the adventure, but reduces the chance of adult players finding much to enjoy. Overall, it is a solid, technically excellent package featuring well-crafted, stylised graphics, quirky audio, a reasonable amount of replay value, and a cute and sometimes funny setting and story. Unfortunately, because of its simplicity, it will struggle to find an audience outside of the younger demographic.
The game is set in a fantasy kingdom ruled by King Roland. To help keep his subjects happy, the King had his wizard make special wands with magical powers. These wands were given to certain Sims so they could help the King keep his subjects happy. These Sims were known as Wandoliers and it was their job to go around the kingdom and build structures for the other Sims and keep everyone happy. For some reason, all of the Wandoliers have now retired or moved away and no one is left to keep the King’s subjects happy, or to even keep the buildings in good repair. To remedy this situation, King Roland decides to appoint a new Wandolier and have them move around the kingdom and fix everything up. The game starts with the player being entered into the competition to become the new Wandolier. This competition also doubles as a tutorial and is a very simple introduction to using the magical wand.
The story is pretty standard kids fantasy stuff with mainly generic characters. Young kids will enjoy the more light-hearted moments, but adults will find it hard to keep interested. There are some genuinely funny moments in the script though, especially from the bumbling Buddy, and most of the characters are at least likeable.
The controls are handled with the Wii-remote and nunchuk combination, with the analogue stick used for moving around and the Wii-remote’s IR-pointer used to interact with objects. It is all very intuitive and well implemented. The building interface is also quite well done, allowing the player to easily move objects around, but occasionally the camera will cause a few problems by zooming in too close.
Most of the tasks require the player to use the wand to build or decorate things for the various Sims that populate the kingdom. The wand is fuelled by mana, of which there is a plentiful supply throughout the kingdom. Extra building blocks and features are added to the wand’s repertoire by collecting magic scrolls. These scrolls require certain essences, which can be anything from wood, stone or iron, to jellyfish, fruit or even happiness. These essences are gathered by a variety of means including mining, prospecting, fishing, interacting with Sims or simply pulling out grass or shaking trees. Once the required essences have been collected, the scroll will allow the wand to create new building blocks or decorations.
The building mode itself is well done, with tasks ranging from building simple houses to constructing irrigation or electrical systems. The building process is reasonably simple with markers in place to help guide the player. There is never anything too complicated to build, but there is plenty of freedom for those players who enjoy designing and decorating buildings to really express themselves. Other tasks include socialising with the other Sims, item hunts and herding animals. Surprisingly for a Sims game, the socialising aspect is very limited and could really have been fleshed out into something more like Animal Crossing or Harvest Moon. Building relationships is core to The Sims and even though the MySims games are a simplified version, it is disappointing that there was not more effort put into creating a more rewarding social system.
The core game can be finished in around 10 hours, but there are lots of extra tasks to keep the player busy for twice that time. There are plenty of places to explore and heaps of different Sims to help, and players with an interest in building and refining their designs can spend hours just building and modifying their structures. There is no multiplayer mode, but it is not really necessary.
Technically the game is very good. Loading times are minimal, the frame-rate is excellent and there are no glitches or bugs that interrupt the experience. The graphics are excellent with a really stylised look and feel to the worlds and a nicely rounded cartoon look to everything. The audio is unfortunately quite average though, with a forgettable soundtrack and silly Sim-like voices for the Sims. It is not bad by any means and everything is of a decent sound quality, but there is just nothing that makes it stand out from the crowd.
MySims Kingdom is a well-made game that offers plenty of fun and adventure for younger players. It has excellent features, good graphics and audio, and has a fair amount of replay value. The game controls well and there are loads of things to keep most players entertained for a lengthy period of time. The storyline is simple, yet provides some genuinely amusing moments and the fantasy setting really suits the game well. There is some room for improvement, but for a game aimed at the younger crowd, MySims Kingdom succeeds in providing an entertaining adventure with plenty of opportunity for creativity and puzzle-solving.
Personal Thoughts
As an older player, MySims was a little too childish for my tastes. Younger gamers will probably find more to enjoy about the game, but for anyone older than 12, the game will be just a little too simple. Anyone looking for a gift for a younger gamer could do worse than MySims Kingdom and I think girls will find the building and decorating experience very engaging.
It is certainly a well put together game though, and it is interesting to see that better budgets and better development teams are being given to Wii projects these days. This was certainly not the case when the Wii launched, but with its dominance at retail, we are now seeing publishers taking far more interest in the quality of their Wii titles. The graphics especially are excellent for a Wii game aimed at the younger crowd. Generally, kids games get the short end of the stick in the looks department, but there has obviously been some real effort put into creating a unique visual style.
I do think there is potential for the core game to be adapted into something that could appeal to an older demographic. If there was a little more emphasis put on relationship building, a more engaging storyline, some real-time strategy elements and some consequences for failure added to the mix, there is no reason why the MySims experience couldn’t be turned into a game more suited to adults. Something along the lines of the Nintendo DS game Lock’s Quest would work great with the MySims construction mechanic.
As it stands, MySims is an excellent choice for children, or for anyone looking for a simple adventure game.
