Last night, I headed down to San Francisco's Japantown to check out MySims, the cutesy Wii-exclusive version of EA's popular franchise. EA seems intent on making us believe, for some reason, that MySims is a Japanese product. Remember how it was initially unveiled in Japanese-language form in Famitsu magazine. The event was in Japantown, where we dined on tempura and sake as J-pop blared through the PA system. When they turned it off, it was time for karaoke.
This is not to say that I didn't enjoy the tempura. Or the sake. Or the karaoke. Or the game. You'd think they'd be shouting from the rafters that this was made by Americans at EA's Redwood City headquarters, because it looks like it would fit right in with Nintendo's first-party lineup. I played around with the game's creation features, then got a guided tour through some of the gameplay that follows. First impressions inside.
The first thing you're going to want to do is create a Sim. It's easier than most other create-a-character things I've used before -- all you have to do is point to a spot on your character's body or face and start clicking A, and you'll start cycling through all the available parts. This is a little annoying when you want to choose one specific part, because there's no way to zap directly to it. But they reminded us over and over that this was pre-alpha software and that everything was still being designed.
In this same utility, you can change the character's voice, sliding a bar up and down to alter the pitch that he'll speak in. Mumble in, I mean. In Simlish.
Once you've got a character, he'll want somewhere to live. Building a house is, again, quite simple. Using the analog stick on the nunchuk to rotate and zoom, then using the directional pad on the Wiimote to rotate the pieces you're using, is as natural and simple an interface as I've ever gotten out of a 3D object builder. I wasn't fighting with it, I was just building my house. EA's going to send me screenshots of what I built, which I'll post next week. The only restrictions they're going to put on you are that you must put a door on your structure, so your Sims will be able to walk inside of it. Past that point, it's all you.
Once you've got a building, you'll want to put stuff inside it. There are plenty of prefab objects a la Animal Crossing, but you can build and paint your own crap using a very similar tool. In the illustration at left, our Sim is building a pizza oven. As in the Create-a-Building mode, you're given a few restrictions -- in the case of the oven, the Sim has to be able to walk up to it and put a pizza in -- but you can then go completely nuts. I made a bed last night, which I piled pillows all around like the best pillow fort ever. Again, you'll see pics eventually.
Once you're done satisfying your creative urges, it's time to go out and hit the town. The rest of the villagers will want things from you. Flowery decorations for their apartment, perhaps. Or they might need your help to launch a rocket in the town square. Or you might have to venture outside of town to retrieve some things for them from the forest. Or you could just be a total dick to everyone in town. Which probably doesn't help you very much in the long run, but it's hilarious to watch your character taunt other people in town, which will eventually lead to a fistfight. A very, very cute fistfight.
MySims is slated for a Fall 2007 release, with a Nintendo DS version to be released simultaneously. This is the kind of support I want to see for Wii. I think EA will end up being amply rewarded for their efforts.
