MySims Agents (Wii)
All right so before I dive into this review, I want to ammend something in one of my recent posts about taking time off. I won't be completely silent on this blog, but the reviews won't be as scheduled as they have been until after the wedding. And since they'll be a little irregular, I wanted to experiment with how I write a few of the sections and try to change them up, more specifically the Controls section to make it flow a little better. So if you spot any of the changes and like them or hate them, let me know how you feel about it! I'll also begin including an Honest Recommendation after my Final Verdict so I have a specific place to mention who might enjoy a game and who might not.
Anywho, onto MySims Agents. Last year, when I started the blog my goal was to get a review out of one game from each console I owned. When I got down to the Wii, I held a vote and this was one of the options, which I completely ended up forgetting about until a few weeks ago when I was reorganizing my game room. So as the Wii games got relocated, this one got set aside for some play time. It's part of a series of toon-styled games based of EA's big series The Sims, but is it worth it?
MySims Agents is a bit of a puzzle platformer, all from a slightly skewed, overhead angle. The game mostly takes place in this "overworld" style, but there are some mini-games and customization as well. The first time you start up this game, you're brough to a Sims-styled character creation menu. You can change your characters appearance, hair, clothing, even the pitch and style of their voice (although you never speak any language other than Simish).
Once you're in the game itself, the majority of your controls are used with the WiiMote, and very few options actually require you to point it at the screen. You can interact with items (A) or change between your different tools (D-Pad) to examine, open, and inspect just about everything you come across. After you're recruited to the Agency, you have the ability to hire interns and send them out on short missions, and while you continue to play you'll get updates on their progress through your cellphone. This is where you'll need to actually point at the screen to select the phone icon, otherwise you're set to just cruise around (Nunchuk Joystick) running (B) and jumping (Z) to do your investigating.
Mini Games offer more interaction with aiming the WiiMote at your TV. You'll either be guiding a reticle through a maze to hack into computers, or arranging various gears, pipes, and belts to solve puzzles and successfully repair machinery.
The MySims controls are a lot of fun, and very easy to use. While it doesn't offer much tradition Wii-aiming styled controls, this one is easy to pick up and jump into.
The tools you have at your disposal are a magnifying glass, a crowbar, and a wrench. The magnifying glass allows you to pick up trails of footprints if a suspect has walked through something that would leave one. With your crowbar, you can open different crates/containers which is where you can discover clues, or character customization components like articles of clothing or pattern designs. Your wrench is used only for the salvage/repair section of the game, where you can salvage pieces of equipment and use them to fix other things. Fixing them is what triggers one of the mini-games that are offered in this title. You'll generally be placing gears, belts, and/or pipes to complete a machinery set-up to get whatever it is you're repairing to actually run.
For the story itself, your main goal is discovering Morcucorp's true intentions. Each case you tackle, in some shape or form, ties into Morcucorp and their big plan, so while you think you might be going after some small guns, in the end it'll look a lot different. The cases all spawn one at a time, so the way they play out is extremely linear. However, there are moments in each case where you have a few different leads to follow, and you can tackle these in any order you choose. It doesn't offer a very in depth "open" experience, but you do get some freedom in how you crack the case.
Some of your cases might bring you to platforming sections. Mostly you'll be jumping across rocks/boxes/rooftops, but occasionally you'll have to balance across some sort of beam or log. To keep your balance, you just have to counter Sam's weight with the joystick, so if he starts falling to the left, push to the right until he's squared up again.
With this game focusing on puzzles and platforming, you won't be dealing with any enemies, and it's actually quite enjoyable. But let's see how difficult this one can be.
Since the mini-games actually utilize aiming the WiiMote at the TV, it's hard to gauge for other people how difficult it will be. If you've got a quick and steady aim then this will be a lot easier for you, or if you've played other Wii titles and have had issues with the aiming, then this will be tougher. Either way, at worst these would probably be placed at moderate difficulty, but that's only for those with most unsteady of aims.
Platforming is pretty easy in this one, but there will be some random spikes of an almost moderate challenge. With the way the game is presented, by a locked camera angle that you can't change, sometimes in the game you must climb up onto rooftops, but your starting point will be hidden down an alley and around a corner, completely hidden unless you happen to walk into a spot that triggers the view to shift. Otherwise, it's smooth sailing with simple short jumps and balancing acts to get where you need to.
Lastly, you would expect the investigations to be extremely simple with the cartoony style this game presents itself in. While they are easy, they're closer to the moderate side on that scale. You do have a notebook available that will jot down what leads you have, and if you select them it will give you slight hint about what you should do to investigate that particular lead. However, the emphasis is on the word slight hint. If there's a person you need to question, the notebook will give you a hint about what they do like "Who could you talk to that would know about dandelions" type of hints.
In the end, it's not too easy of a game, but it's not too difficult either. Now, before we label this one, like always let's look at the good and bad aspects of this game.
Ridiculous Connections. The story itself, and in it's entirety, is downright hysterical and so enjoyable. The earlier cases you get are really small stuff (a mysterious secret admirer left a bouquet of flowers on someones doorstep, the pizza restaraunt owner had the locations for his secret ingredients stolen from him), but they all end up drawing strange, out of left field connections to Morcubus. And it's so extravagant that after the second or third instance of this, you begin expecting it.
Honest Recommendation : If you like games with puzzles and platforming in a 3D environment, then you'll enjoy this one. If you require more depth and involvement from your gaming experience, I'd stay away.
I have yet to complete this one, but I'm roughly halfway into it. When I picked this one up initially, I expected to play it, hate it, and not have many nice things to say about it. Ironically enough, just the opposite was true. The only reason I haven't finished this one is because I've had a busy schedule in my personal life. It's approaching tax season, the day this goes live on my blog I'll be going to a gaming convention, and I'm getting married in 4 months...either way it adds up to not as much game time as usual. But I will definitely be finishing this one very soon. I grew up with the first Sims game on PC (way back in the Windows 95 days) so even though much has changed with these games, like I mentioned in the review it still feels the same. Short and sweet, this one definitely gets my biased approval.
Anywho, onto MySims Agents. Last year, when I started the blog my goal was to get a review out of one game from each console I owned. When I got down to the Wii, I held a vote and this was one of the options, which I completely ended up forgetting about until a few weeks ago when I was reorganizing my game room. So as the Wii games got relocated, this one got set aside for some play time. It's part of a series of toon-styled games based of EA's big series The Sims, but is it worth it?
The Story
MySims Agents pits you in the role of Sam (that's just the default name, you can name your character whatever you want), a small town detective who wants to become a full fledged Special Agent. He continues to work in his town hoping that one day, a case he works will be connected to something bigger and it'll be his time to shine. And wouldn't you know it, it's his lucky day! Sam decides to head out for a walk through the city square when he comes across a dispute in the park between two people each claiming ownership to a dog. Poppy and Morcubus each say that the dog in question belongs to them, so Sam hops in and cracks the case. Afterwards, while eating in his local pizza shop, Sam is greeted by Special Agent Walker who praises Sam for his work on the dog owner case, and informs him that there's room for a special agent in the local agency, and Walker wants Sam on board! Excited for his dream to come true, Sam instantly jumps on board. His first big case? Morcubus is the head of an evil corporation, Morcucorp, and it's up to Sam to find out exactly what he's up to in the area.The Controls
All right time to experiment with writing this section a bit differently. I'm going to try and start focusing on overviewing the controls and how well they work instead of breaking it down into what each button does.MySims Agents is a bit of a puzzle platformer, all from a slightly skewed, overhead angle. The game mostly takes place in this "overworld" style, but there are some mini-games and customization as well. The first time you start up this game, you're brough to a Sims-styled character creation menu. You can change your characters appearance, hair, clothing, even the pitch and style of their voice (although you never speak any language other than Simish).
Once you're in the game itself, the majority of your controls are used with the WiiMote, and very few options actually require you to point it at the screen. You can interact with items (A) or change between your different tools (D-Pad) to examine, open, and inspect just about everything you come across. After you're recruited to the Agency, you have the ability to hire interns and send them out on short missions, and while you continue to play you'll get updates on their progress through your cellphone. This is where you'll need to actually point at the screen to select the phone icon, otherwise you're set to just cruise around (Nunchuk Joystick) running (B) and jumping (Z) to do your investigating.
Mini Games offer more interaction with aiming the WiiMote at your TV. You'll either be guiding a reticle through a maze to hack into computers, or arranging various gears, pipes, and belts to solve puzzles and successfully repair machinery.
The MySims controls are a lot of fun, and very easy to use. While it doesn't offer much tradition Wii-aiming styled controls, this one is easy to pick up and jump into.
The Gameplay
In the beginning, you're confined to a single area to crack your first couple of cases. The game is open-ish, meaning that the areas you do get to go to, while they're limited in number you have free roam within. You can go anywhere, talk to anyone, and do whatever it takes to find the clues for your investigation. There are buildings you can enter, and usually one or two offshoot areas that offer additional space for exploring and investigating.The tools you have at your disposal are a magnifying glass, a crowbar, and a wrench. The magnifying glass allows you to pick up trails of footprints if a suspect has walked through something that would leave one. With your crowbar, you can open different crates/containers which is where you can discover clues, or character customization components like articles of clothing or pattern designs. Your wrench is used only for the salvage/repair section of the game, where you can salvage pieces of equipment and use them to fix other things. Fixing them is what triggers one of the mini-games that are offered in this title. You'll generally be placing gears, belts, and/or pipes to complete a machinery set-up to get whatever it is you're repairing to actually run.
For the story itself, your main goal is discovering Morcucorp's true intentions. Each case you tackle, in some shape or form, ties into Morcucorp and their big plan, so while you think you might be going after some small guns, in the end it'll look a lot different. The cases all spawn one at a time, so the way they play out is extremely linear. However, there are moments in each case where you have a few different leads to follow, and you can tackle these in any order you choose. It doesn't offer a very in depth "open" experience, but you do get some freedom in how you crack the case.
Some of your cases might bring you to platforming sections. Mostly you'll be jumping across rocks/boxes/rooftops, but occasionally you'll have to balance across some sort of beam or log. To keep your balance, you just have to counter Sam's weight with the joystick, so if he starts falling to the left, push to the right until he's squared up again.
With this game focusing on puzzles and platforming, you won't be dealing with any enemies, and it's actually quite enjoyable. But let's see how difficult this one can be.
The Challenge (or lack thereof?)
Obviously you won't be dealing with any difficult enemies in this one. However you've still got the mini-games, the platforming, and your investigations.Since the mini-games actually utilize aiming the WiiMote at the TV, it's hard to gauge for other people how difficult it will be. If you've got a quick and steady aim then this will be a lot easier for you, or if you've played other Wii titles and have had issues with the aiming, then this will be tougher. Either way, at worst these would probably be placed at moderate difficulty, but that's only for those with most unsteady of aims.
Platforming is pretty easy in this one, but there will be some random spikes of an almost moderate challenge. With the way the game is presented, by a locked camera angle that you can't change, sometimes in the game you must climb up onto rooftops, but your starting point will be hidden down an alley and around a corner, completely hidden unless you happen to walk into a spot that triggers the view to shift. Otherwise, it's smooth sailing with simple short jumps and balancing acts to get where you need to.
Lastly, you would expect the investigations to be extremely simple with the cartoony style this game presents itself in. While they are easy, they're closer to the moderate side on that scale. You do have a notebook available that will jot down what leads you have, and if you select them it will give you slight hint about what you should do to investigate that particular lead. However, the emphasis is on the word slight hint. If there's a person you need to question, the notebook will give you a hint about what they do like "Who could you talk to that would know about dandelions" type of hints.
In the end, it's not too easy of a game, but it's not too difficult either. Now, before we label this one, like always let's look at the good and bad aspects of this game.
PROS
Sim Style. In some way, shape or form, everyone's played a Sims game. And this one brings all the familiarity from the PC games right into it. The character customizations, even the "language". It's all there, and while it's not as in depth as it's PC counterparts, it's a strong enough presence that you'll wish there more elements brought over.Ridiculous Connections. The story itself, and in it's entirety, is downright hysterical and so enjoyable. The earlier cases you get are really small stuff (a mysterious secret admirer left a bouquet of flowers on someones doorstep, the pizza restaraunt owner had the locations for his secret ingredients stolen from him), but they all end up drawing strange, out of left field connections to Morcubus. And it's so extravagant that after the second or third instance of this, you begin expecting it.
CONS
The only bad thing to say this one is that it doesn't offer a lot. There's a very narrow scope of variety in this title, and as fun as it can be, it leaves you wanting more. Especially with the mini-games. they're fun but there's not a ton of different ones so they become repetitve very soon, and soon after that they become boring.Final Verdict
While you wouldn't expect much depth from a Sims-related game, this one is a lot of fun and it's going to leave you wishing that depth was there. It's cartoony, it's silly, but because it maintains that Sims vibe it works so well. Best part, is this game is only $3 bucks (pre-owned from Game Stop) and you most certainly get your value out of this, and then some. Even if you're a more serious gamer, this would be a fun title to toss in just for a few laid back gaming sessions. Got kids that like to play games? That makes this one even better. There's nothing violent, and with the gibberish language you don't have to worry about anything bad being said. MySims Agents isn't top-tier material, but all things considered it is quite enjoyable.Honest Recommendation : If you like games with puzzles and platforming in a 3D environment, then you'll enjoy this one. If you require more depth and involvement from your gaming experience, I'd stay away.
I have yet to complete this one, but I'm roughly halfway into it. When I picked this one up initially, I expected to play it, hate it, and not have many nice things to say about it. Ironically enough, just the opposite was true. The only reason I haven't finished this one is because I've had a busy schedule in my personal life. It's approaching tax season, the day this goes live on my blog I'll be going to a gaming convention, and I'm getting married in 4 months...either way it adds up to not as much game time as usual. But I will definitely be finishing this one very soon. I grew up with the first Sims game on PC (way back in the Windows 95 days) so even though much has changed with these games, like I mentioned in the review it still feels the same. Short and sweet, this one definitely gets my biased approval.
