"Really Bustin' Out..."

Players who enjoyed the original version of The Sims and the add-on expansions will be rather disappointed with The Sims Bustin' Out for GBA. Simply because this game is almost entirely different from the classic theme of life.

There isn't much freedom in the game, as you are forced to do tasks or otherwise you can't continue the ''story''. The plot is very linear and its rather stale.

Graphics7/10
Rather surprising, but this game actually has nice graphics. Characters walk very smoothly and the colours are nice and bright on the GBA and GBA SP. Has a kinda cartoony look which is rather similar to the original game. Also, the game is set in an isometric pseudo-3d style, and when your character goes behind a building, the walls become partially invisible.

Control6/10
Basically the directional keys control your character, and buttons to talk/pick up items etc. You can also make your character RUN, which is very useful when you are supposed to meet someone but you're out of time. There are also chances to get faster modes of transport. Would be better if the buttons are more properly utilised.

Music/Sound8/10
Aah~ Nice MIDI-ish music that isn't too bad. Most of the music are from the original series, but they remixed them a little, so its like ''The Sims Buy Mode BGM ~GBA REMIX'' or something, get the idea? A very nice way to tell veteran players of The Sims that this is ''The Sims'', but didn't work out that great, thanks to the gameplay.

Gameplay4/10
This is where the good things end. The gameplay is simply, run, talk, run, find, talk etc... You simply get a ''mission'', find the items need to complete it, talk to the person who gave you the ''mission'', and viola! As the game goes, each mission becomes more and more difficult as you have to do complicated stuff such as betraying relationships or raise a huge sum of simeleons (the currency in-game) To gain relationship, you simply select a pre-set amount of messages and choose either a nice one or a bad one and the Non-playable character (NPC) will react. If they are happy, the relation meter will go up, if they are not, it goes down. Simply generic. I mean, you can make someone love you with a few compliments, this is totally insane. Even as a game. The game continues as you have like 5 ''levels'' and each level has about 6 missions where you must complete all 5 before unlocking the final mission of that level. The last mission is actually the Movin' Out mission where you relocate to a nicer place.

Final Comments
Buy if you're a die-hard ''The Sims'' fan
Buy if you like to play games which are mostly walking around.
Rent if you just want to try it out
Borrow if you don't want to be badly disappointed.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 12/09/03