G4TV

And so the deluge of refurbished games for the Nintendo Wii continues.  This time it’s a straight up port of The Sims 2: Pets.  This is ported from the Xbox, PS2 and Gamecube versions of the game and should not be confused with the robust and excellent PC version.

If you didn’t bother with Pets when it came out last year, then you’re almost in for a treat.  Instead of going for the more linear, goal-driven design of previous console versions of The Sims; Pets tries very hard to mimic the open-endedness of the PC game.  Players create their Sims, build a home, and then pretty much go about helping them live their little lives in any way they see fit.

Hello Kitty

The “pets” aspect of the game adds a nice bit of depth and focus.  It’s obvious that despite the openness of the game, what you’re really supposed to do is dote on these virtual pets.  And that’s probably a good idea given the fact that so much stuff that was in the PC version of The Sims 2 has been removed.  Your Sims can’t have kids, your building and shopping options are rather limited, and there’s only one public lot to visit.

Animal House

There are a whole bunch of other small things that have been or changed as well, and putting an emphasis on pet interaction might have worked even better had the AI been up to snuff.  Veterans of the PC version are certainly used to seeing their Sims do silly things, but nothing will prepare you for the experience of playing this on a console.  It’s almost as if EA removed what little artificial intelligence The Sims had to begin with.

Your Sims will constantly get stuck trying to walk around objects and people.  They won’t be able to interact with things because they aren’t positioned correctly.  My poor doggy simply couldn’t use his dog bed despite the fact that he had a completely clear path to it.  Eventually he gave up and in frustration peed on the floor.  To add insult to injury, when I instructed my Sim to clean up the mess, he couldn’t because the dog bed was in the way.

Toilet Humor

The AI issues continue on into tasks that your Sims should have no problem accomplishing; like cooking dinner.   My attempts at getting my Sim to prepare a meal were continually thwarted by his apparent need to visit the bathroom over and over again.  Hey, when you gotta go, you gotta go.  I understand that.  In this case, his needs meter didn’t reflect any strong desire to use the toilet.  However, he was clearly famished and yet I couldn’t get him to finish making dinner until I disabled “free will” in the options menu and took direct control over his actions.

Of course the only reason to consider the Wii version of Pets is to experience the new control scheme.  Yeah, it works.  The Wii Remote makes an excellent pointing device.  But then, you’ve probably already figured that out by now.  It’s a fairly elegant control design that doesn’t exactly mimic the mouse control on the PC, but uses the pointer in conjunction with the buttons on the remote and the nunchuk quite well.

Back to the Pet Store

But you know what?  Big deal.  We already know the Wii can do this.  This console has been out long enough to warrant something that takes better advantage of its strengths. Frankly, these “Wii-makes” are really starting to wear thin.  EA has an original Sims title in the works for the Wii.  If you’re dying for a Sims experience on your console, I suggest you wait it out.  The Sims 2: Pets isn’t bad, but it doesn’t offer a terribly interesting “Wii” experience either.

Article by: Greg Bemis