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SIM ANIMALS DS Posted by Dan Pearson on Feb 8, 2009 18:06 (Feb 8, 2009 18:06) |
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With the popular My Kingdom and Sim Pets already on the Wii, EA have launched their new Sim Animals for both DS and Wii, but are they worth your time?
This review is for the pocket sized DS version. Sim Animals is what I would call a plant and animal management game, very similar in idea to Viva Piñata. In the game you control a white hand that can collect and guide woodland critters, helping to eat, build homes and even play with them. There is a great variance of animals available, from the start you have the cute squirrels and birds through to the later levels with deer and bears.  Each animal has their own tastes and requirements to keep them happy, be it to move into your garden, protect them From predators or find a mate, you need to be there for them 247. Tap on an animal and the top screen will show their name, sex, favourite food and also what is troubling them. The first few animals are easy to tend to, you just need to grow a few trees to make them visit. You can then bring them food and gain their trust, once they have gotten used to your hand they will ask to play with you, gently rubbing over the animal will have them rolling around the grass. They will then look for a house, some they make on their own like burrows and holes in trees whilst others require a little more help, for instance you can over shake a tree and cause it to fall, the remaining trunk makes an ideal living space. Once happy they will look for a mate and once they trust each other they start to make babies. Through the game you are given tasks to complete like feeding an animal or growing a plant, as you complete these your happy meter at the top of the screen will increase, fill it enough to earn special powers, wind allows you to blow on the mic and a breeze will shake trees of their seeds. The lightning power allows you to completely destroy a tree, however this causes fires and scares most of the animals. As you complete each of the tasks a new area will become available with even more animals and plants to look after. The game is viewed from a top down perspective, making it very easy to see everything, the areas are quite small but this is ideal for the DS screen, to move you can either tap the screen edges or use the d-pad. To grab items just hold the L button and tap with the stylus, the dual screen really helps this sort of game as it keeps the bottom screen free for all of the action and the top screen will show a map, helping you get your bearings, plus hot spots like urgent watering and upset animals will flash, making it easier for you to manage time. Whilst playing Sim Animals I could not help thinking how close this is to Viva Piñata, ok so it is missing the Xbox games charm and graphical power but the cuteness of the animals and sheer playability make this a great game and even though more focused on the female market I really enjoyed it.
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