"Wait, I thought this was the Sims."

Let me say outright that this game is dull. It contains almost nothing to keep me amused. First, a little background info on the previous Sim games for the Game Boy Advance is needed.

The first Sims game on the gameboy advance was a sudden change from the usual Sims formula. Instead of having free reign over your Sim, your Sim was given general objectives to complete. In the Urbz, they improved upon this different formula greatly. They added more items, a better storyline, and a more interesting city.

However, this game only takes a step down from its previous stature. I won't bother giving out individual scores for graphics, gameplay and such because quite frankly, no one is ever swayed to play a game because the game does well in one category. For this game, this good category would have to be the graphics department.

The graphics are vastly improved over the previous games and looks quite well on a gameboy advance screen. People are bigger and smoother. And that's about it.

Everything else in this game ranges from horrible to bearable. Now, the story goes that you are an actor that has to complete specific plot points in order to earn points. Besides the total departure from a successful formula, this new storyline is dull, period. These plot points have basically taken over for objectives, but with one major difference. Instead of being given a general outline of what you should do while going on with your life, its turned into a dictator telling you to do this and that. You have no freedom of what you want to do.

But quite frankly, it's not like you would want to do anything anyways. In this whole game, there is one pawn shop that stocks 4 items a day. The game is beatable by having just about no furniture. It's useless. You don't even have to buy a bed because there is one in the local casino. Yep, they're promoting gambling in this game.

Another major overhaul is the talking system. Now, instead of choosing certain phrases to gain relationship points, you choose generic actions such as talk and entertain. This just degrades into random button pressing.

The highlight of this game is the part where you get a water gun and you fight ladybugs. Yes, you heard me. This game has branched off so much from the original Sims game that now you are a gun wielding mercenary.

I rated this game based on how much entertainment it gave me. With a lot of better games out there, this one is a waste of time. I got no sense of accomplishment when I did anything. I'm sure that even if I was stuck on an island, I would end up throwing this game away.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 12/20/05