If you are a sucker for those home improvement shows that clog up television schedules so much these days, then perhaps this game is the one for you. Home Sweet Home started out life as a downloadable PC game but now it's seeking to expand its audience by making its way to WiiWare.
The gameplay concept is fairly simple: you assume the role of an interior decorator, and as you might expect, various people will ask you for assistance in designing their homes' interiors. After you have planned the decorations correctly you have to command a squad of three builders to actually place the items. Everybody wants different things in their house, so it's vital that you pick the correct objects. If this is done within the time limit then you succeed in completing the level and can move to the next. There are 50 levels in all.
The first step of decorating is fairly straightforward; you will get a request from the house’s owner which contains a hint at which items they want to have. For example, one of the clients recently went on a trip to Asia, and liked it so much that they want to give their own house an Asian style as well. So naturally, you have to decorate the house with Asian objects.
There’s quite a variety of objects to pick from - you can select sofas, fireplaces, windows, curtains, wallpaper, flooring, TVs, plants, lamps, tables, chairs, rugs, billiard tables and much more, with more and more objects becoming available on each level. Because the range of available objects only keeps increasing, you’ll find it harder and harder to find out exactly what clients want, not just because there’ll be multiple objects that suit the descriptions, but also because the descriptions become more and more vague on later levels.
Once you’ve placed enough objects (You have a budget, be careful not to spend too much!) you can start the building phase. This is a bit more straightforward: you get a squad of three workers, whom you can assign to “build” the objects you’ve chosen to place in the house. As they hammer away at the blueprint-like picture of the object it will slowly begin to fill in with colour - once it’s full, your work is complete.
While building, some objects may suddenly get a blue, green or pink outline. These correspond to the three workers. If you assign a worker to build the object with the matching colour, it will be built much faster. It also causes that worker to tire less quickly - and this is a key consideration on some of the harder levels, because such strenuous work makes your staff progressively lethargic. Thankfully, there's a pot of coffee available at all times which you can grab and drag onto a worker to replenish their energy. The coffee pot has to fill up though so you will need to use this sparingly. If the energy of workers runs out completely, they will run to the coffee machine themselves and take an exceptionally long break, so this is to be avoided.
During the building phase, the workers will also occasionally request some help from you. When this happens, you will have to perform some motions with the Wii remote such as rolling a paint roller, or smacking with a hammer to help them out, causing the object to be built much faster.
In later stages you’ll also have to deal with other factors; for example, once the workers finish building something, they’ll be left with some trash they need to dump in a bin before they can continue. There is lots of variety from level to level in this way and you’ll always be kept on your toes.
Conclusion
It is likely that you will instinctively know if Home Sweet Home is the right game for you before reading this review. This is certainly not a game aimed at the hardcore demographic who enjoyed Mega Man 9, but it is far from a bad game by all means. With 50 levels and the additional ability to design your own dream home, if the game concept grabs you then this could be a solid purchase. The graphics and sound are fairly basic, which may be a turn off to some, but they do the job well enough. If you enjoyed the designing aspects of games such as The Sims then you will be at home here. Otherwise it is probably best to give this one a miss.
Comments (37)
Wow, nice review. Wonder when this is coming out in the states. I'm not gonna get it though.
This game looks pretty cool, I'm actually interested in this.
Hmm, I like the Sims and stuff like that, but I don't want to pay 1000 points for it right now. I'll probably purchase it after a few months or so.
meh...I suppose this would make a good mother's day present for my mom.
Sounds like there's a fair amount of depth to it and could be quite good, for some people. However, i am not a fan of these sorts of games and i actually don't like The Sims. They're good games but just not my cup of tea. I'm sure the same will apply to this game and because of that, i won't be buying it.
Hmm... I like houses. Maybe I should get it.
Well so i might download this game then as it took a while for this review to be up .
1900 points left in the account minus 1000 = 900 points for GHWT track packs for when the games released here in novenber 12 .
You can play the free online version of the game at the following link. It will give you a good idea if you will like the WiiWare one:
http://www.bigfishgames.com/online-games/3416/home-sweet-home/index.html?afcode=af7f87502da6
@Otty Ott-thanks 4 the link. I may try the free version but I know I won't buy it.
yay more shovelware
yay more shovelware
A 6 is shovelware?
Wow, you must only play the very best of games!
@Blockhead
Think of Pong Toss, MLE, Midnight Bowling, The Incredible Maze, any retail games by DDI, SPOGS and Critter Round Up before you start calling stuff shovelware
Great review Drake! This game looks aright. I might try this one out later on if I get the chance.
I thought a 6 was low when i finished reading the review ...
I think that given the public they're aiming at this is probably the best game on the WiiWare service for those people, so a 6 is too low ...
Having said this i must admit that i haven't played the game so Marcel could be right
Anyway, nice review
I think it's tough to review a game like this really. Let's face it the game concept is automatically going to repel many gamers, perhaps in much the same way My Aquarium does. I can however see the appeal for the causal Wii market.
At least we can say without a shadow of a doubt that this is not shovelware, even if it doesn't reach the glorious depths of The Sims. It's a cheap and cheerful little game it seems that does nothing to offend, but little to excite.
Not as bad a score as some people were predicting...
I remember getting TV Show King despite your 6/10. I still play and enjoy it to this day, and am looking forward to the Wii retail sequel (TV Show King Party) next month, though I am fairly wary of games with the word "party" in their title. I'll probably get HSH aswell, cos it looks pretty funky.
I blame Mario Party for your wariness.
@WiiLoveItOnline
Even Tetris Party?
@WiiloveitOnline = Great to hear! TV Show King Party, much to my surprise, is going to be a Wii release. I thought it was another WiiWare iteration. But anyway, who knows, HSH might be a hidden gem.
Very good review. 6 is good score, its ok but not for everyone.
A 6? You gave so much positives, I expected a 7 or 8.
I expected this to be a bad game, getting a 3 or 4, Fortunately, such game is the opposite of Plätchen.
It might be a good idea to start making a casual score and the normal score for these kinds of games.
It might be a good idea to start making a casual score and the normal score for these kinds of games.
That's a terrible idea.
Actually, that's a horrendous idea.
I'd even go as far to say that's one of those ideas you should have kept to yourself.
Now I could explain how that idea makes my head hurt just thinking about it...
But I think I can sum everything up without furthering my suffering.
If that idea was at ALL, remotely close, to being good, at least ONE of those hundreds of gaming sites would have picked it up by now.
I'm sure its been thrown around a lot, but it would be cool to have user ratings. Those give a pretty good sense of a game's value.
this game just didnt really intersest me great review though
Great review Drake, as usual. I may consider getting this game when they release it here, it's a lot better than I thought.
@ZBomber
I like the user ratings idea.
@Terranigma: Well... it wasn't quite as good as I hoped. But there's always an exception for everything (more or less).
@Alex Says = *Monkey Ball Announcer from SMB2: "Shot DOWN!" XD
Talk about critical.
But I would like to see Reader Ratings. It's been mentioned many times already.
I was hoping this would turn out good, the decorating part was the only thing I liked about SIMs, so this would certainly appeal to me. I'll make sure to put it on my list.
Edit: Oh no wait, there's a free version. Never mind.
I was expecting this game to be mediocre.
@Blockhead. According to this site's score policy, a 6 means "not bad". You must be a real game snob to call that shovelware.
And about the reader score thing, I think this site should have a 1-5 scale like VC-Rs. That way the average wouldn't be screwed up as easily as it would if it went by 1-10 scores.
@KS8/Mr Cheez: I recall that they weren't adding reader reviews partly because of the fact that they can be biased. For example: Wiiboy (remember him) and everyone else at BPlus could rate Plattchen 10/10. Same for "Jacob from Riverman Media" or LucBernard and their games. Also: the /10 ratings in use here are fine in my opinion. Five star ratings aren't specific enough.
And anyway: it's the review, not the number, that's more reliable anyway.
[/rant]
Oh, and I bought this game. I agree with the six, but think that it could have squeezed a seven. My opinions are on the HSH page.
Wiiloveit = I guess that's true. It's just VCR has it, that's all.
Yeah, I thought the way the erview was composed, it would've been a 7 too.
Anyone think this worth a thousand points? Particularly guys? Seems like it might be repetitive. Is it interesting enough?
Home sweet home is a great game. and its enjoyable for people who like the sims. but for those people who dont like the sims dont buy this game. you will find it boring if you dont like simulation games.
AMAZING GAME!!! This is my favorite WiiWare game by far! The designing aspects are greatly entertaining and the music is very relaxing. And this is coming from a guy who loved Mega Man 9. In fact, I loved this game even more, and I love hardcore games. This is definitely not hardcore, but if you like designing, this is AWESOME!!
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