MySims Party for Wii Reviews by Gamers

The Sims is already a quintessential casual game, but Electronic Arts figured out how to make the series even more relaxed and kid friendly with MySims. Two letters were added to "Sims," but things like impressive AI and gameplay options were removed to create a more linear, focused experience. But if that is still too complex for you, maybe you should try MySims Party, a mini-game collection starring the cute, block-headed MySims.



You begin by picking an avatar but the interface isn't as intuitive as it should be. To pick a hair style, for instance, you click on your toupee over and over to scroll through the many options, and each takes a second to load. Being able to pick your hair from a menu that displayed all options at once, a la the Mii editor, would be more user-friendly. You are able to create some unique Sims, though, if you put in the time.



Throughout the game, navigating menus also isn't very smooth, as you have to point at and select the "back" icon to regress instead of merely hitting the B button. Not a huge deal, but it makes a difference in overall usability. There are also lots of text-heavy tutorial menus to shuffle through, which isn't the best way to deliver information to anyone, regardless of age.



MySims Party features a hub world where your Sim lives and trophies can be displayed, but the meat of the package resides in the mini-game festivals. From the fountain in the center of town, up to four players can participate in fests of increasing difficulty. There are 50 games in total, and over the 12 festivals you'll play them all several times. Outside of this progression, though, any of the 50 can be played on their own right from the start. MySims Party tracks local, national, and worldwide rankings on its leaderboards but doesn't offer any online gameplay.



The mini-games are as basic as it gets. You may have to catch documents that are being blown around an office, water flowers, or make a pizza. Few require more than a shake of the remote or the press of a button to control. By winning mini-games you earn parts to customize your house with and monuments that can be placed around town. Considering the target demographic, the simplicity isn't a problem. But a lot of the waggle motions don't work. There is a dancing rhythm game where you shake the remote in time with the music, but the game fails to read most of our movements. The same goes for any of the waggle controlled games. This isn't a problem during freeplay since you can exclude the waggle games, but it's annoying when you lose festivals in the regular game because of poorly implemented controls.



Unnecessary waggle controls (like requiring players to shake the remote to run) are a big no-no, anyway. We dream of the day when this input method is extinct and developers look back and say, "what were we thinking?"



The MySims each have their own stats for strength, speed, etc., so you'll want to pick the right character for each game. Periodically you'll get the chance to draw a random card and maybe improve the stats of one character. As you play games in a festival, your Sims will grow tired and their stats will temporarily diminish, creating a need to diversify your selections. The mechanic keeps the whole affair from being completely mindless.

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