It’s finally happened everyone. EA has remembered about its other sims franchise MySims, life is good again.
If you weren’t obsessed with MySims on the DS and Wii you might be thinking some of us are losing our minds. MySims is a spin-off from The Sims that began in the mid-2000s. Across the DS and then the Wii EA made a collection of games that were intended to be more ‘kid-friendly’. MySims however isn’t a sanitized version of the classic Sims games but they’re games focused on narrative and building gameplay. Your sims don’t need to eat or shower but you explore a world helping sims. I can see why they’ve revived the MySims spin-offs now in the wake of ‘cozy gaming’, it very much fits into the Animal Crossing vibe of gaming. If you have never played MySims you may have seen some of the characters in The Sims as they appear in The Sims 4 as a set of collectibles.
This Cozy Bundle is two games. I keep seeing this get forgotten about on TikTok and cozy gaming social media. In the Cozy Bundle you get MySims and MySims Kingdom. I want to be very clear here – it is the Wii games MySims and MySims Kingdom. EA made entirely different games between the Wii and DS versions. It is only the Wii games that have been ported. As someone who grew up playing both and has nostalgia for both Wii and DS MySims, I do think we got the better games ported but I understand DS fans who loaded it up and were disappointed when they realized it wasn’t the DS games.
MySims is a town-building life sim. You go to a town that’s become run down, you however are special and have control over ‘Essences’ and can use them to build houses, restaurants, furniture and decorate through magic. Essences are collected around the environments through interacting with Sims, shaking trees, prospecting, fishing, and mining. Very much fits into what we now think as ‘Cozy’ gaming. You are working to get the town’s star rating up, get sims moving back, and revitalize your town. I love the decorating in this game. I wasn’t sure how it was going to move from being on Wii to being on Switch, the controls take a moment to get used to but once you get the hang of them they’re smoother than I expect and the addition of being able to use the touch screen if I want was very nice to discover. I don’t use it much so if you play your Switch exclusively docked its all good. Returning MySims Wii fans will be happy to find some new outfits and new Sims in the higher star ratings that you can invite in. These are not entirely new. MySims had a PC release as well that had some exclusive content that us Wii players never saw.
MySims Kingdom is the treasured game from my childhood. I do not want to think how many times I completed it and loved it to pieces. MySims Kingdom is more narratively strucctured. Where MySims has a vague story premise, MySims Kingdom is taking you on an adventure across the Kingdom. King Roland is in search of a new Wanderlier, a type of wizard who can build incredible things from Mana and Essences. Since the last Wanderlier died the kingdom has slowly fallen into ruins. The people of the Kingdom need help. As the King’s new Wanderlier you adventure across the seas to islands in the Kingdom with your two best friends Buddy and Lindsay and help them rebuild. Each island has a theme that matches with the Sims that live there’s traits. Cowboy Junction is the Wild West and Candypalooza is a music festival venue island – you get the vibe. Each island and its inhabitants have their own stories, relationships and general weirdness going on. MySims Kingdom is a playground, it has direction and structure to the quests but it is a playground in how you explore and meet with Sims. Similar to MySims you collect Essences and help the people of the Kingdom through helping them rebuild or improve their lives. There are more building puzzle elements to Kingdom than the original MySims, you’re asked to build water systems, electronics and mechanical structures to solve different problems, without it getting in the way of other things they’re doing. I always considered these environmental puzzles, while there isn’t a single right answer as long as it gets the job done, the Sims will be overjoyed with your work.
Improvements have been made to the MySims ports, such as the load times have improved by miles, animations are so much smoother, and the game looks like it’s had a visual update for blocky-chibi characters they’re looking very smooth. You’d hope for almost 20 years after their original release but you never know when games are ported. I wouldn’t quite call it a remaster but it certainly has had a polish and some care put in place. People who are debating buying the MySims Cozy Bundle – for the price you are getting two full games, without the price being inflated compared to their release prices back in 2007. MySims shows more of its age than MySims Kingdom but they are both great games for people who enjoy a life simulation game and are here for cute characters that are full of personality. They are both roughly 10-12 hours in story alone but if you like to spend time collecting everything and putting care into your building creations then the playtime can double easily.
As a MySims fan who never thought she would see the day these games returned, I am praying that this is EA’s way of testing the waters. In a recent event, the whole MySims franchise was also mentioned as having a future. A FUTURE! I am hoping that in the next Nintendo console era, we see the return of MySims Agents – a great puzzle, mystery game – ports and sequels to all of the Wii and DS variations with the Chibi, cube characters. I want everyone to buy and love these games so we can see what else EA has planned but that’s a selfish reason. If you’re a fan of cozy life sim and builder games – you’ll enjoy both of these Wii-era darlings.
