Ever had the urge to restore a defeated kingdom to its former glory? Probably not, but if you are one of the few that have had this unlikely desire then maybe you should take a look at MySims Kingdom, as it is a game that gives you the opportunity to rebuild an empire.

Just like the original title in the series, MySims Kingdom involves players navigating a custom-made sim around a virtual world, assisting fellow Sims and restoring various town landmarks.

These escapades are the result of a night of unwatchfulness in the Kingdom, when unbeknownst to its sleeping residents, an evil Sim arrives in town and starts wrecking havoc. Naturally, the king gets pissed off, demands justice and from there onwards the issue is left up to you (an unfortunate Sim who just returned from his vacation).

Watching Grass Grow: The Game

After this brief introduction, the protagonist of the game is given a couple of vital items and then shoved out the door into the empty world of MySims Kingdom, with no directions of where to go or what must be done in order to restore the kingdom to its original state. Eventually after walking around aimlessly for quite some time it will become clear that the items previously received need to be used in order to progress through the game.

Once the ridiculously named Synth-O-Tron has been equipped, players will finally discover what this game is all about. Yes, that’s right, the Synth-O-Tron is the solution to all of life’s problems in MySims Kingdom. This item absorbs scents from the landscape and converts them into useful and not so useful objects to refurnish the kingdom. The conversion of a scent into an item can be done automatically, or it can be achieved manually by moving the stylus frantically around on the touch screen.

After the Synth-O-Tron has been mastered players are able to place items all over their house and the kingdom via the touch screen control. From there onwards the game mainly consists of collecting scents, converting them to items and taking on the odd mini-game or quest in order to obtain much needed cash. Similar to Animal Crossing, the local currency in MySims Kingdom allows players to purchase items and furnish their homes, making them feel as if they’ve achieved something worthwhile in this questionable game.

Forget Cooking Mama, I'M the top virtual chef around here!

The mini-games vary in quality and the majority of them make use of the touch screen. A few of the more memorable mini-games for both good and bad reasons are tennis, kayaking and vegetable vendor, however the first two aren’t exactly a pleasant experience. The tennis game features sluggish controls and disregards the touch screen. However, this may have been a wise decision, because the kayaking game that does utilise the touch screen is a painful experience due to the unresponsive touch screen movement. A mini-game far better than the previous two is vegetable vendor which is a much simpler game that requires players to hand out vegies to the townsfolk. This game manipulates the touch-screen in a convenient way and will leave many players wishing the title had more mini-games like this one. The mini-games were a nice idea, but due to the lack of effort put into them they have turned out poorly.

The game play in MySims Kingdom isn’t the only aspect that remains similar to the original game, as the sound and visuals do as well. The soundtrack at first has a rather relaxing vibe to it, but then the reality kicks in that there are only a total of five tracks on offer. The sound effects of the game are far superior, but there are still many questionable sounds that are heard throughout, particularly from animals.

Moving to the visual department, the environments look wonderful and so do the character models, but the game deteriorates graphically due to the camera. The camera has been zoomed in and unfortunately this distorts characters and objects, which may have looked good otherwise.

Overall, MySims Kingdom is a bearable adventure, but ultimately fails to live up to the standards of the previous title in the series. For the original and superior “lifestyle” game, DS owners are better off with Animal Crossing: Wild World.

By Liam Doolan

Graphics: B

A nice looking game if you can overlook the fact EA has completely ripped off Animal Crossing’s visual style.

Sound: C

If you enjoy listening to five tracks repeatedly then this title is sure to please.

Gameplay: C

About as enjoyable as a punch in the face.

Overall: C-

I wanted to stab my eyes out whilst playing this game. Is that convincing enough?