The Sims: Makin' Magic

"It's all magical!"

The Sims: Makin' Magic is promised to be one of the greatest expansions yet,
but not the greatest on my list (Sims: Superstar would be my favorite) but this expansion pack is my second favorite expansion pack, This adds a new twist to the Simulated world because magic has magically appeared! When the sim first came out, everything was almost like reality, no mystical creatures, no voodoo or that stuff but then the first expansion came along, The Sims: Livin' Large. After expansion by expansion, The Sims seemed to get more out of reality, but it makes it fun! This expansion (Makin' magic ofcourse) seems to be way unrealistic, it adds some new characters like Vampires, Fairies and witches and of course, a big touch of magic. You can also visit a new location called "Magic town" with some nice theme parks and shops.

When you pop in the disc, you'll notice that the loading times are quite slow. You have some time draw a picture or clean your room, which might be annoying to you (Though the loading music is quite nice, so you might like to listen to that to kill time...). Then it will send you to the neighborhood screen, but still you must not be happy that loading is done since you'll have to wait for more loading! Going to another neighborhood will bring back that annoying little loading screen, so you have to have some patience.

GAME PLAY: 8
The game play is bit different than the other Sim games. This game has some goals you have to accomplish to recieve special recipe's for spells. You'll notice at your house, an old man in a pink suit with a box is at your door, you can't interact with him unless your at magic town. Open the box and you'll see something sort of like a Magic starter pack, and it has a wand. You'll need to add that wand to your inventory to start off. And you'll need to go to Magic town, but luckily you don't need the phone, the starter pack came with a black hole that you can jump in to go to Magic town. you can talk to the vendors (The Fairie or Vicki Vampiress) and they'll ask you to do them a favor. They are actually some nice mini games that can win you awards, The cloud mini game may be frustrating for you if you don't have a good strategy... There is also a new duel arena, where magical sims can duel another sim. It is pretty fun, But if you didn't know much like me you wouldn't know who's turn it was. Some of them are pretty frustrating, But remember if you have the patience then you'll get use to them. The mini games are less difficult than superstar though, but in my opinion i think Superstar had one of the best game play in a sims game, But Makin' Magic comes close to a tie with Superstar. But making RollerCoasters are pretty fun to do, and its pretty fun to watch your sims ride them!

GRAPHICS+ANIMATION: 7
The graphics would be good back in 2000, when it first was released. But now, they seem a bit blocky and dated compared to the rest of the games. These graphics are made from part 2D/3D models that are just colored on... The graphics are okay in my opinion, but they seem a bit bad compared to the newer games. And there mouth's do not move, and they don't have moving fingers! They're just drawn and colored, some may know this if you have The Sims Creator included in "The Sims Deluxe Edition". The animation may have a few mistakes though, if your listening to some jazz or classical music, your sim will still wave there arms in there air and dance like a animal which may be annoying to you. And there walks are pretty odd, and some of the heads make the sims look like when they are walking, They are staring at the ceiling. There walks kindof annoy me, there little robot walk is quite odd... It's pretty funny to watch there animations when they insult or attack,slap or ride the roller coasters! They'll be raving there hands in the air and spin there heads, but one little glitch may happen, Your sims head may be spinning all the way around and sometimes they may lose there head or body! So the animation has some problems to...

Sound: 8
This sound may take you a trip to a Halloween carnival, Only you can only hear it, not see it. You might be expecting some creepy music considering this is like witchcraft and ghosts, but they sound pretty "Carnival" like. They are pretty good to listen to, you might even hum the tunes if your a strange,crazed fan like i am. And of couse, The Sims are speaking there little "Simlish" talk, and even yelling in simlish when they're on roller coasters. It's pretty funny to hear them insult, and there jokes sound like Simlish rhymes which are pretty hilarious to hear! In fact, they mostly rhyme in simlish, even when they are insulting each other. Like i said, it's pretty funny! But they whine like babies, when they whine, it will make you hold your ears, it will get pretty annoying for you.... But overall, it is pretty good. The music is great, but there cries may just seem annoying but yet...funny.

Controls: 9
The controls are pretty easy, You'll mostly use the mouse since its all point and click. But you'll may need to get use to some of the tools like Deleting walls,wallpaper or floors. And sometimes they might not work if your rushing, so you need some patience for this game. But overall, the controls are easy.

I got those 4 covered, you may think i've been griping a few things to much, but it's still a good game! But somethings may seem annoying for you...
Like when you tell them what to do, but they'll just ignore it and do something else. And if your in a middle of a mission/mini game, you may get disturbed by someone wanting to talk to you. And the relationships go down way to fast, unlike the console version. And sometimes when theres a big table, and 10 chairs and you tell a sim to sit in a chair but then someone else gets tot hat chair first, and your sim has no clue that theres 9 other chairs open, so your sim will just stand up eating...

OVERALL: 8
The Sims: Makin magic is a decent expansion pack, and i'd suggest it to everyone, although some religions may reject this game for having some witchcraft in it... It's a great game, it has its flaws and hasn't been fixed yet but you'll be playing Makin' Magic for a long time...

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/07/04