Okay, I thought I would write a review about MySims (Wii) first. I plan on writing one for Guitar Hero 3 soon, but I feel like I need more time with the game before I can review it adequately.

Anyway, I think of MySims as a strange cross between The Sims computer games and the Animal Crossing DS games. It uses a similar basic story from the AC games: You move in to a town, and must help it gain inhabitants by caring for it and doing nice things for the people there. This time, however, instead of running many pointless tasks for a bunch of talking animals, you get to build houses, furniture, and decorations for the citizens of your town, who are either "Townie" sims, meaning that they just live there, or "Commercial" sims, meaning that they run some sort of business. Also, hours of working for bells to pay of your mortgage has been replaced by hours of finding various "essences" that you can use to add color and style to your creations.

I always loved the Sims games, even though I spent far more time making the people, building, and then decorating the house than actually playing the family. Because of this, I really like how in MySims you can move in a new person, build them a nice house, build them some good furniture, and then forget about them. Money is no longer a constraint; you can build furniture or houses as large and extravagant as you want.  MySims basically takes the part of The Sims that I love and leaves the rest behind!

One thing the Wii, and Nintendo in general, has come under fire for is the "kiddie" games with brightly-colored, unrealistic characters and environments. MySims continues this trend, with vibrant colors and cartoonish graphics... and I don't care. That's right, I don't need giant monsters covered in razor sharp talons or bloody corpses scattered all over the place... I only care about whether the game is FUN or not. Too many "hardcore" gamers scoff at the Wii, pointing out how almost all of its games are E rated. Since when is that a problem? Some of the most entertaining games I have ever played have been rated E. Something that publishers tend to forget today is that adding more blood, gore, and strong language to a game does NOT always make it more fun... gameplay itself can be enough. And MySims has fresh, unique gameplay that is surprisingly addicting.

I love the building aspects of this game. Every time I make a house of a new sim, I try to make it bigger and more extravagant than before. When building furniture, there is usually a minimum requirement - chairs, for instance, need to have a solid surface in the center for the person to sit on - but once you have that, you can add on whatever you want. You can paint any surface in a house or on a piece of furniture two ways: either with a normal primary color/pattern, or using a special "essence". Red Apple essences, for example, could give your chair a bright apple print.

One thing from the Sims series that MySims is obviously lacking is the detailed interactions and relationships. While you can slowly advance your relationship with another character by talking to them, being nice to them, and building them stuff that they like, there isn't the complex set of interests, memories, turn ons and offs, personalities, etc. that add so much depth to the other games. Each sim falls into one of six basic interest types: Geeky, Tasty, Studious, Spooky, Cute, and Fun. While like-minded sims are seen together more often, no complicated character relationships will ever develop. However, the personality types do add an interesting twist to the building and designing... a Studious sim would like columns around their house, while a Spooky sim would enjoy ghost-print wallpaper or paint.

Although the game starts out with a fairly linear set of tasks and goals, there is no time limit or deadline to complete them, so you can spend as much time as you want building extra things for your own house, redecorating another sim's house, or collecting essences. After your town rating climbs to two or three stars, new guests begin to show up more rapidly, meaning that you may have five different tasks to complete at once. You can do them in any order you like, and you don't even have to do all of them.  If you wanted to, you could completely ignore all of them, and just build furniture for yourself.

Even though it is more shallow than other games in The Sims series, MySims provides a fun and addicting gameplay experience. Anyone who likes building and designing things, Animal Crossing games, or The Sims games should check this game out!