Product Description

When your Sims find themselves stranded on an unexplored island paradise, you must help them to build a new life in this member of The Sim Stories...

Help your Sims build a life from scratch after washing ashore on a deserted tropical island. Overcome the forces of nature to help them become the ultimate survivors and thrive in this undiscovered paradise while unearthing clues that will lead them back to civilization. Build shelters, craft unique items, and discover many useful treasures and ancient mysteries hidden deep within a diverse jungle environment filled with plants, fruits, and even wildlife.

Your Sims change as they take on the challenges of island life and learn to survive in style. Create a new life for your Sims on an uncharted island in The Sims 2 Castaway.

• Stay Alive! ? Help your Sim meet basic needs to survive.
• Discover Diverse Islands ? Explore a variety of new environments: beaches, caves, lagoons, jungle, plains, and volcanic mountains.
• Craft Everything ? Create a new life from scratch. Develop tools, build shelter, craft furniture, create clothing, and make art & entertainment.
• Gather and Collect ? Gather fish, trap animals, raise plants, collect shells, scavenge and decode treasure maps.
• Flourish or Escape ? Build a life comfort on the island or find a way to escape back to civilization.
• Create a Crew ? Choose from a wide range of Sims: Auto Mechanic, Chef, Doctor, Musician, Teacher, Executive, or Park Ranger. Each one brings a unique Sim humor and quirkiness to your crew. Reunite members of your crew and build a thriving community.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1745 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Electronic Arts
• Released on: 2007-10-26
• Platform: Nintendo Wii

Amazon.co.uk Review

With still not a peep out of The Sims 3 on PC, Electronic Arts are certainly keen to keep reinventing the franchise on consoles. This all new game is not for the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 and, as you might guess from the name, involves you being shipwrecked on a desert island. The concept is basically the same as Konami’s Stranded Kids/Lost in Blue series although you start off completely alone with each of the different sims you create washed up on a different part of the island. Obviously your first task is to find something to eat and drink and a place to sleep, with the initial parts of the game recalling the early episodes of Lost (except without the smoke monster).

Soon enough you’re fashioning fish harpooning spears out of bits of bamboo, planting edible plants, weaving your own clothes and making giant tree houses and huts that would shame the average holiday camp. Most importantly you can train your very own monkey butlers to perform your every menial task for you (up to a point). Soon enough your fellow strandees turn up and the game’s more traditional social elements come into play as it becomes less Lost and more Survivor. Once you’re living in some degree of comfort you can then venture out and explore the island and try and find a way back to civilisation (or stay where you are – the game leaves it up to you). In fact it’s probably the most interesting thing to happen to The Sims in years.

Customer Reviews

Really good game, especially if you are not a Sims fan!
I should start by saying that I hate the traditional Sims 2. My wife loves it, but I find it boring. I also didn't like any of the Sims games I've played on console so far.

But, Castaway is grabbing me, and pulling me in.

You are in direct control of your Sim, and use objects by walking up to them. You are shipwrecked on a desert island (actually a group of 3 islands) and the ultimate aim of the game is to find your crew, carve out a life for yourselves on the island, and eventually, find a way off the island.

There are lots and lots of areas to explore, and the variety is nice. Beaches, Jungles, Plains, Caves and more. The graphics are good for the Wii.

The best thing about the game is the way that you have to collect resources and invent / build pretty much everything, from Shacks to Beds, from clothes to a stove, you make it all yourself. This includes food, where you start by eating coconuts and bananas, and progress to dishes with 4 separate ingredients, all of your choosing.

I don't want to give too much away as half of the pleasure of Castaway is discovering things yourself. All I will say is that it's a very enjoyable game, even if you don't like the traditional 'dolls house' style gameplay of the Sims 2.

My only real gripes are:

1. You can only have 1 savegame. So if my wife wants to play it, we'd need another Wii!

2. When there are lots of objects close to you, it can be a pain targeting the one you want.

3. No multiplayer elements of any kind.



I'd give this an 8.5 / 10 , with survival fun for all ages. It's even semi educational due to the logic needed (I'm hungry so I have to find food for example) to survive. I think 5-8 year olds, as well as 40+ year olds, will find something in this that they will enjoy.

Multiple Save Games is Possible!!!
As far as the gameplay goes; most of the foibles and niggles have been covered in the other reviews, apart from the two stupidest things - swimming with an open umbrella because it's raining, duh! and climbing trees in a thunderstorm, madness!

There is a more serious issue people are finding with this game; It only allows you to have one set of save data, therefore it seems impossible for more than one person to play with different profiles. However, I have invented a system that allows you to do this!

You need a seperate SD card for every player, so it might mean you have to go shopping, but they are very cheap now and you might have some old 32MB ones lying around that came "free" with a camera or phone. Anyway once you have your own SD card, and you have played and saved the game, go into the Wii menu, click Data Management, click Save Data, click Wii. In the top right, there are two tabs, one says Wii memory and the other says SD card. Make sure you are on Wii Memory and find the icon for the Sims Castaway Save Data, click it and click Copy. This will copy the save data to the SD card. Note: If there is already save data on the SD card you have to delete it first - MAKE SURE YOU HAVE YOUR SD CARD IN THE WII, switch to the SD Card tab, click the save data icon and click Delete. You can then copy the data from the Wii Memory tab.

To switch players you need to delete the save data from the Wii system menu and copy your own save data back from the SD card - it's the same process as above but delete the Wii Memory version and copy the data from the SD Card tab back to the Wii. Make sure the other player has copied their save data from the Wii to their own SD card first.

Obviously this procedure is a bit complicated and there is a risk of losing your save data (or worse, someone else's) if you delete the wrong file or use the wrong SD card, but it does solve the biggest issue people are most dischuffed about. Good Luck!

Another good Sims game
I'm a fan of The Sims 2 games on the PC, but never really enjoyed all the console versions they've brought out, however this time they've hit the nail on the head.

It's like pretending to be in the cast of Lost... except you can befriend the local chimps...

You start off shipwrecked and eating coconuts, then you're building huts, clothes, rafts, rope bridges and laughing as your sim attempts to fish with a spear. You have to find your other crew members and you can visit the other islands.
You find 'books' on various parts of the island with goals in them to keep you going, but this game is fun enough without the goals.

Only annoying thing is you can only have one saved game, so if more than one person wants to play this... well, you can't basically unless you play the same game together.

Recommended for fans of the Sims 2, even if you don't like all the other console Sims 2 games they brought out.