The Urbz: Sims in the City

"Best DS Launch game, highly recommended."

I will be the first to admit that all the previews for this game looked awful, but Gamestop made me buy a game with my DS, and this title was picked for me. Despite how bad the previews looked, this game is actually the best DS launch title, and incorporates touch controls amazingly well.

Graphics: 9/10
This game was a port of the GBA version (minus a few additions towards the end of the game), so it looks like you would expect a GBA game to look. They did add "DS capable" graphics to the bottom screen, and nice graphics for the touch screen.

Audio:9/10
The audio is pretty good. The characters still talk their language of "Simlish." The sounds are as good, if not better as what your PC speakers can produce. I think EA picked really good music to go with the game... at first its kinda odd, but as you play the game you will like it more and more.

Story:10/10
This is where the game really shines. The story on the DS version is 7 missions long (console, and GBA version only has 5). Each mission takes a very long time, and I think this game will take 30-50 hours to complete, maybe more if you work on getting promotions at every job. The missions are extremely fun, and even fairly realistic. Something I find especially cool is that EA really took a lot of time developing the characteristics of each character. If you talk about exercise with a fat person, they get mad. If you talk about art with the "right wing guy" he will get mad, if you talk about cars to the "left wing guy," he will get mad. If you really think about the character you are talking to, you can choose correct option of what to say.

Controls:8/10
This is one of the few games that doesn't allow you to use the DS's thumbstrap as an analog stick. Nevertheless, using the D-pad, the controls are pretty easy to use. You can always view a map, or your goals by touching an icon on the touch screen.

Other:9/10
My only real complaint about the game is that EA did not use the touch pad as well as they could have. The majority of the mini games make you use the D-pad, which is still fun, but the touch screen would be much funner. Once you play this game once, it pretty much as no replay value, because you will have to go through the same goals again.

This game is awesome. Even though its 10 bucks more than Nintendo made games on the DS, I highly recommend it. I guarantee that you will really love this game.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/28/04, Updated 03/17/08

Game Release: The Urbz: Sims in the City (US, 11/17/04)