The Sims 2 (Nintendo DS)

A great game- but be warned! this may take over several weeks of your life!

Setting up your sim is your first task- you can choose their clothes, hairstyle, hair color and face features, its possible to name your sim too.

You start off the game when your car brakes down- you end up abandoned in a small town aptly named, 'Strangetown'
There's a guy that offers to mend your car and tells you to go in the local hotel while he does so.

Once in the hotel, you find the receptionist falling to sleep- the hotel owner has gone awol and disappeared- theres a note for you from the owner- and you quickly realise that its fate you have broke down in Strangetown- and you're the new hotel owner! The mayor of the town talks you into staying and helping them out- without the hotel, no tourists will visit and Strangetown will go to ruins.

You get a room at the hotel which will be your living quarters- the furniture is basic, but you can always upgrade to better furnishings from the local store as you start earning money.

You have a 'sanity bar' to maintain- you need to shower, use the toilet, eat, sleep and drink regular to keep the bar full, otherwise your bar will start to drain and eventually you'll faint. When this happens you will be put back into your bedroom at the hotel where you will have to sleep to get your sanity back to full.
When your sim wants something they usually get a thought bubble above their head with a picture of what they want- for example a picture of a bed means they need sleep- you then have a few minutes to follow the sims request.

The Sims plays in real-time, so whatever time you are playing thats the time in strangetown- This was quite annoying though as the only time I got to play was on a night- so Strangetown was always in darkness!

There's about 25 other sims for you to interact with. Most of the time they walk about the hotel and town happily, sometimes they require you to calm or restrain them. You have to work out from their actions which button to press- for example when they hold their arms out, they want a hug- so you'd press the hug button. Once you have calmed them down they usually give you a small present to say thank you.

You have a mobile phone which you will have to keep an eye out for it ringing- if you have the sound off. Fellow sims will contact you, guests at your hotel will contact you if they need any help and some sims will contact you for tasks.

You also get a water pistol which you will need to use if aliens invade your town (they invaded about 4 times while I was playing) - They can shoot you with their laser which will make you lose all your energy- but if you shoot them with water first it will send them instantly back to their planet.

You have to earn money to buy rooms for your hotel. You get a basic guest room to start you off- plus a penthouse. The penthouse is where the action is. Firstly it gets booked by a local gangster who won't pay you a penny- If you demand he does pay- he threatens to have things mysteriously damaged in your hotel.

Next you get a gothic looking lady in the penthouse- she does pay, but she demands you build her an underground room where she can pray to her gods and take over your guests minds- it soon becomes clear that she's a cult leader.

Lastly a large robot comes to stay- he wants to take over strangetown and its your mission to stop him.

Thats all i'm going to say about these three characters, as I don't want to completely give the game away!

All the game is based around 'simoleons' which is the sim's version of money. You get 2000 to start you off, but this soon runs out! To achieve your simoleons, theres many ways to earn them.

Vacuming- whenever you see dust piles, vacum them and stop valuables going into the vac with the stylus- for example a gold ring is worth 75 simoleons.

Nuclear fuel rods & Gourds, license plates and alien ship parts- Nuclear fuel rods & Gourds can be found laying around everywhere. The Gourds are fruit which you can sell at the local bar/restaurant. The fuel rods can be sold at the town hall or used to fill the hotels furnace- if you don't keep the furnace stocked the hotels electricity will go out.
License plates and alien ship parts are found in the desert and can be sold at the local store.

Lottery- You can buy scratchcards at either 1,5 or 10 simoleons- the more you spend the bigger prize you could get.

Casino- play a simple card game to win a good amount of simoleons- watch out for special days where all casino wins are doubled! This is the best way to earn lots of simoleons- which you'll need in order to spend on and improve your hotel.

Metal Detector- In the middle of the game you are prompted to buy a metal detector from the local store- You can then venture into the desert and find things like, gold, copper and silver bars and lead rock- all can be sold for simoleons.

Alien autopsy- In the desert you can find mummified aliens. If you take them back to your lab in the hotel, you can use a laser beam to cut out their insides- the more presise that you laser them, the more simoleons you can earn.

Painting- Once you earn enough simoleons, you can buy the art gallery. In here you can paint a picture using a program similar to paintshop on the pc- if you are happy with the picture- save it and showcase it in the art gallery, eventually you'll get a call from a fellow sim who will have bought your painting for several hundreds of simoleons.

And lastly everytime your guests check out of your hotel, they will pay their fee's and that earns you simoleons as well.

There's lots of fantastic things in this game and I really would recommend you buying it. I don't want to completely ruin your gaming experience by telling you every last detail, so i've tried to just tell you enough to show what a great game this is.

The graphics are well animated and the music is varied depending on what room you are in or whereabouts you are in strangetown. The sound effects are good, and compliment the scene perfectly.

Once you have completed the game the credits will go up, and them free play is activated- this means the game has ended but you can keep on earning money and roaming around Strangetown.