Product Description

What better way could there be for youngsters to discover the world of the Sims than via an RPG-style adventure game? My Sims Agents on the DS offers the ideal introduction to the Sims universe – a place loved and frequented by millions of gamers. While primarily a game involving secret agent-style solving of mysteries, it also involves gamers in environmental, architectural and interior design, three of the elements which made The Sims games such a success.

One of the first things that strikes you about My Sims Agents is how customisable it is. It starts off with you being cast as an agent in the SPA (Sims Protection Agency), assigned to a town: although it’s called Autumn Bay, you can rename it, and you decide what your name is. Assigned an assistant, Joshua, you find the Mayor at the Town Hall, who gives you your first case – the mysterious Thief V is on the trail of a map leading to secret treasure, and it’s up to you to get to it first.

 As you seek Thief V and hone your investigate skills, you discover all manner of helpful objects. You are allocated a headquarters, which you can fill with furniture placed wherever you want, and which has a secret lift to your basement office hidden behind a bookcase. And you can also reshape Autumn Bay, thanks to a gadget called the Extractor, given to you by local inhabitant Ashley, which is able to extract the essence of outdoor objects. Those essences can then be put into another object given to you by Ashley, called F-Synthesis, which combines them to create completely new flowerbeds, benches and so on, which you can begin to place throughout Autumn Bay. And you can even add new buildings, by finding blueprints and taking them to Ashley, as well as your clothing. Thus, while you’re playing a game which feels like an action-RPG, you’re also learning the principles of The Sims.

 The bulk of the gameplay concerns exploring Autumn Bay and its surrounding areas (accessible by taxi) and conversing with the folk who live there, many of whom have shops at which you can buy various goods (there’s even a disco). Naturally, there’s much investigative work to be done: which involves talking to people, gathering clues, deciphering them, finding things and solving (often mechanical) puzzles. You can hone your investigative skills by playing a large number of fun mini-games, and SPA head office sends you handy secret agent-gadgets as you progress.

 It’s all great fun, and just the job for keeping young DS-owners occupied – indeed enthralled – for long periods, as they indulge their nascent secret-agent fantasies. But on top of that, there’s a great feeling of being immersed in an enchanting (and appropriately innocent) world. Add to that the ability to shape that world and your character – whetting the appetite for more of the same on a bigger scale with a game like The Sims – and the result is a game which defines what Nintendo’s DS is all about.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #129 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Electronic Arts
• Released on: 2009-09-25
• Platform: Nintendo Wii
• Format: Unknown format
• Dimensions: .25 pounds

Customer Reviews

Much better than I was expecting.
I used to love playing Sims on the PC years ago and so when MySims came out for the DS I was quite excited and, to be fair to it, I didn't think it was a bad little game and was hooked for first few days but I found the conversations with the characters v tedious, saying the same things over and over and the mini games too easy and boring.
I have only had My Sims Agents for the Wii for a couple of days but I am completley hooked and it has a very different feel. You start off as a detective solving quite easy cases which help you get to grips with the point and click style of the game and how to move around. You have various piece of equipment too like a magnifying glass which allows you to follow footprints and a crowbar to help you open boxes. Lots of talking to people to gain information and looking in dustbins for clues.
I was a bit worried at first that it was going to be too slow for me but when you are promoted to secret agent, it opens up a whole new avenue of things as you recruit Agents to help you and advise them on their cases my mobile phone so all gets a lot busier and the cases seem to be getting harder.
I think anyone over about 8 would enjoy this, a child would need to be a fairly confident reader as there is no speech in it at all and everything is written. My 5 year old was intrigued by this and could get on with all the pointing and clicking but would need me sat there reading it all to him. The game gives you lots of help to start with and so it's nearly impossible to get stuck, if you do then you go to your casebook and there will be clues there - like "reinvestigate the apartment" to help you get back on your way.
There's lots of opportunities for dressing your character up and changing her hair that pleased my 12 yr old stepdaughter and the game has a good sense of humour, lots of little jokes slipped in to keep things light.
Well worth the money for me just for what fun we've all with it this weekend. The kids like watching it as the graphics are good for a wii game and very appealing. Thumbs up - well done MySims.

Hooked
i got this game for my 15yr old daughter and she was hooked for three days straight. some of the mini games are quite difficult but are logical and enjoyable.

Much better then I expected.
I enjoyed the first My Sims game, but I didn't fancy My Sims Kingom, which was followed by My Sims Party, and My Sims racing. So when I heard about My Sims agents it just sounded like another way to milk the franchise....and it probably is, however, this has actually been done pretty well, and I found myself playing it to completion.

Essentially, this is more like a detective style game. You have a case to solve and must talk to other characters, use your gadgets to find footprints, analyze objects etc. This part of the game isn't too taxing unless you happen to overlook an item or incident that triggers the next lead. The ease of the game is worsened though by "hints", that pretty much hold your hand throughout the entire game -not that you'd need them mind. Still, its relaxed nature is strangely involving, and the cases and characters entertaining enough to keep you playing.

Various mini-games occur during gameplay, say when your hacking a computer or fixing a machine. Bizarrely though, these are much more difficult that the rest of the game. So if you buy this for a younger gamer, be prepared to lend a hand every now and again.

Thankfully it isn't all so straight forward. It's worth scouring the landscape as you can uncover extra colours and items for your HQ. These extras can be used to furnish the various floors and also add stats to your recruited Agents. You have other characters that join your team, and you assign them on various missions. You don't control them directly, they'll just text you back - a little too often - with either an update, or a question. These questions normally only have 2 answers, and the correct one is never obvious. So if you fail you have to send them out again, read the same messages, and then select the other answer. It's not the best part of the game this, but it's another way to gain more items, costumes and characters, so it's worth doing.

In a nutshell, I enjoyed this, and if they can up the difficulty i'd certainly buy a sequel. It's probably closer to a 3.5/5 though.