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The Urbz: Sims In The City
The Urbz: Sims In The City is the third game in the franchise exclusive to consoles/handhelds. It’s actually a cross platform part between the Gameboy Advance and DS so don’t expect anything drastically different for the system. You start the game as a lowly window cleaner who gets fired and then goes on a quest to stop the plans of “Daddy Big Bucks” his ex boss, who wants control over the whole city. As for as stories go it’s not the best but this is a Sims title after all.
True to the franchise you will need to baby-sit your Sim and make sure all needs are met. If their needs drop too low they’ll refuse to communicate with other characters. If you ignore their needs completely they’ll eventually faint. Although this is all the Sims franchise requires from you, this time there is some added adventure elements. Missions have to be completed in order to advance and along the way you’ll unlock more of Miniopolis to explore. It’s a pretty big game with lots of characters and missions so if you enjoy the game play this title will keep you occupied for hours. At the start of the game you can create your own character and also determine what social group he/she will belong to. You’ve got your “richies”, “artsies”, “streeties” & “nerdies” and no matter what group you fall into you’ll have to interact with other Urbz in order to gain reputation points. You’ll also be awarded beads that can be exchanged for “xizzles” which is permanent bonuses. The interaction with other characters are quite shallow and you basically just have to select the correct response from a random list. If the other person likes the topic your reputation with them will increase, if not it will decrease. Occasionally characters will have a mission for you or say something new but for the most part everyone just has a set of stock responses to all conversation topics. While doing the mission and taking care of your Sim you’ll still have to make a living as well which involves playing mini-games in order to earn cash. The money can be spent on paying bills and furnishing your living space. Stuff can break and get stolen which sucks if you’ve spent ages saving up for it. The mini-games are quite cool as you’ll be shooting hoops, racing bikes, performing stand-up comedy and even doing surgery on a garden gnome. Upgrading your Sims stats can also lead to promotions which will ramp up the difficulty of the mini-games, but get you more cash. You can even buy gifts to help you be more liked by others. You have a very limited inventory and it’s a good idea to carry some food with you at all times. The game has seven ‘levels’ which might not sound like much, but it will definitely keep you busy. For a Nintendo DS game the game definitely seem to be held back by it’s Gameboy Advance roots. The game is played on the top screen with the touch screen relegated to maps and menus. The visuals aren’t terrible but it’s clear to see this isn’s the best the DS is capable of. Everything is nice and cartoony and the animations are pretty cool. There are some nice touches like pigeons fluttering away as you approach them and people waving at you as you pass them in the street. You’ll see a big close-up of other characters when you talk to them but these are just static images and all the characters are stereotypes. The audio is your typical Sims style music but with more of a “street” sound if that makes any sense. Some of the tunes are catchy and will stick in your head but overall there’s nothing that truly stands out. The voice samples are very repetitive & characters will simply spout the same gibberish ‘simplish’ phrases over and over as you click through the conversations topic. Sound effects are pretty minimal. Controlling the menus via the touch screen is very handy and means you never lose track of what’s going on, on the main screen. Being able to scroll through your inventory or check your position on the map while your character is performing actions definitely makes for a smoother playing experience. Apart from one of two mini’games that feature touch screen support not much else has been done to set the DS version apart from the Gameboy Advance game. In fact the game doesn’t even have multi-player support like the Gamboy Advance version has. Once you get hooked on the world of The Urbz this becomes a very fun and addictive title. Those that expect a similar game play experience to the computer or even console versions might be disappointed and if you already own or played the Gameboy Advance version you can safely skip this one. The game isn’t perfect and it can become very repetitive but it does a good job of breaking the Sims style game play into nice bite size chunks. It’s not something flashy that will demonstrate what your DS is capable of but for the rest it’s a nice solid addition to your library. |
TAGS: The Urbz: Sims In The City, The Sims, Life Simulator, Adventure, Mini-Games,
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