The Urbz: Sims in the City Review - Screenshot 1 of 2

The Urbz: Sims in the City is a poorly made Sims experience. In fact, this is a completely different experience from the original Sims title. The Sims was a slow paced game where you could play God and control how people live their lives. Unfortunately, the Urbz doesn't give you the same freedom that the original Sims gave you.

The object of this game is to basically become as popular as you can by having social interaction with other characters. You gain "Rep," which is Urbz slang for reputation, over time by interacting with others. You'll also have to do many errands that other characters give you, to help you progress to other neighborhoods.

This is basically the entire game. You will have to go out and do errands for other characters that aren't really that fun to complete at all. As you complete more goals, more areas will become available to you, and you'll be able to buy bigger homes.

The joys you had of building a mansion home are pretty much dumbed down. You can't live with an entire family, or control another character throughout the entire game, which also makes this experience pretty dull. Because of the goals and objectives you have to complete in order to progress, you might not get to that dream home you've wanted to move into for a long while.

Earning money to buy items for your home also takes time. Jobs have been turned into mini-games, so you'll have to remember to play these mini-games once a day (in-game times). You can only play the same mini-game once a day. The more promotions you get by increasing your stats allow you to receive more money every time you play.

The Urbz: Sims in the City Review - Screenshot 2 of 2

Since every real life second is the equivalent of an in-game minute, you might have to rest every once in a while. This is a huge flaw in the game. Every 5 minutes, my Sim would whine about having to use the restroom. This was very annoying. Not only does using the toilet waste a large amount of time, but it also takes away precious time from completing your objectives.

The gameplay isn’t really a big hit here. All of the goals are repetitive and tedious. You can eventually have a pet, but it just doesn’t help out with the replay value. It’s all flat out boring.

I do think the dialogue is pretty increasing though. Out of the boring mediocre gameplay, the dialogue text with other characters is pretty humorous. It also gives you some thoughtful advice from time to time.

This might as well have been a GBA game after all. Graphics are nothing special for the DS. This game is exactly the same as the GBA version of the game. There was no effort to make the graphics a little bit tighter on the DS’ hardware. Everything seems to be made of clay. I’m not a fan of this type of design at all. The Urbz also doesn’t take advantage of the DS’ touch screen. You can only use it for menus, and occasionally mini-games. That’s really it. The music also sounds a lot like the GBA version. There’s nothing special here at all.

Conclusion

I’m pretty disappointed in this game. The Urbz: Sims in the City is a very boring experience. This game is filled with tedious and repetitive goals, bad visuals, annoying motives to make your Sim happy, and just too little to do. Even though the game takes maybe over than 20 hours to complete, I had no motivation. I wanted nothing to do with the game after playing the game for maybe 4 hours. It was just too boring to continue. The Urbz: Sims in the City is a poor excuse for a DS game. I’m sure this title will be ignored for years to come.